According to ABC news, U.S. President Donald Trump said on the evening of June 8 that, after attending the NBA Finals in New York, he told reporters at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) that negotiations between the United States and Iran had “no sticking points” and that both sides were very close to reaching an agreement. Trump also said that, under his push, Israel and Iran had agreed to halt operations, and he did not blame Israel for retaliating after being attacked.
Speaking about the progress of U.S.–Iran talks, Trump said:
“We have ongoing negotiations in Iran and with Iran that hasn’t stopped. And we could have at least an idea by one or two days from now, but I think it’s going well. The blockade continues to hold 100 percent. Nothing is getting through our blockade. No oil, no income, no nothing. Nothing’s getting through the blockade.
Even oil and natural gas prices — during this whole thing, they’re lower than they were under the Biden administration. They didn’t achieve that because, in their view, it was okay for Iran to have nuclear weapons, which I think is unacceptable. That’s why the B-2 bombers played such a big role, they did a fantastic job. We’ve got the situation under control. They’re not going to have nuclear weapons.”
He then responded to questions about his call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
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“We had a very good conversation and he was hit and he hit back and I can’t blame him for that but he was hit. He hit back and now they’ve called it quits so they’re going to just leave each other alone for another week or something. It’s been going on for a long time.
You could say about 3000 years if you really will but certainly it’s been going on for 47 years. But no he hit back. They were going back and forth and now they both agreed through me to stop and we’re in the final throes of what will be a very very good deal that will not allow in any way, shape, or form nuclear weapons etcetera and the strait will open up right away.
It’ll open up immediately upon signing which could be in two or three days.”
When asked whether he had told Israel not to carry out retaliatory strikes, Trump said:
“No. I said do what’s right but I want you to stop as quickly as you can. Because they have to stop. It has to do with Lebanon. And it has to stop. We want to get it finished.”
When further pressed on whether his “two or three days” comment referred to the timing of the agreement, Trump replied:
“No, no — we have a good chance of doing it. We should be able to do it in one hour, if you want to know the truth.”
When asked what the biggest sticking point in the negotiations was, Trump said:
“Uh I don’t think there are any sticking points. I think we’re very… we’re very close to having a very very good strong powerful deal. If we go and bomb which we can do very easily if we want and we spend another two or three weeks bombing they’ll have nothing left whatsoever. But you won’t have the strait open for months if we do the bombing. You know a lot of people are going to be killed. Who wants to do that? I don’t. And we’ll get we’ll have a signed document that’s actually stronger than doing the bombing. What has proven to be a very powerful thing is the blockade. The blockade ought to be much stronger than bombing.”
Asked about oil and gasoline prices and whether more crude would be released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Trump said:
“We are already doing that. A lot of oil is flowing through the Strait of Hormuz right now, and it’s going into the market. Oil prices are not high — relatively speaking, they’re even lower than they were under Biden. And Biden couldn’t even stop a country from getting nuclear weapons. He didn’t even know what he was doing. That deal, the JCPOA, was a total disaster, a failed deal.”
“That was a road to nuclear weapons. We are doing the opposite. We are on the path to no nuclear weapons,” Trump said, adding, “And in that regard, we have made very, very significant progress.”
