President Donald Trump said the United States has Iran “down 100 percent” in agreeing to nuclear inspections by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, even though reports say Iran has denied this.
“They’re wrong, they know they’re wrong,” Trump told reporters Tuesday as he deplaned in Pennsylvania on his way to tour a Mack Trucks facility.
“If they were right, I’d cancel the meetings right now,” Trump said of the comments from Iranian officials.
“They’ve been decimated, and we’re making a deal with them, and we’ll see how that all goes,” he said.
Talks with Iran are occurring in Switzerland this week, although different factions have emerged in Iran over the path forward for the Middle Eastern nation.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance stated on Monday that Iran would allow nuclear inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) back into the country, but Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei denied this on Tuesday—even after threats from Trump if Iran didn’t live up to its agreement.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who signed the memorandum of understanding alongside Trump last week and is one of the Iranians overseeing the peace talks, said on X, “Statements outside the agreed text do not help advance the negotiations.”
“Progress on this path will be measured by practical adherence to accepted responsibilities,” he added.
Earlier Tuesday morning in a Truth Social post, Trump criticized the media for “doing everything possible to make the U.S. Victory as small and insignificant as possible.”
“Iran has fully and completely agreed to highest level Nuclear inspections long into the future (Infinity!!!),” he wrote.
He said that this agreement would ensure “nuclear honesty” from Iran.
“If they did not agree to this, there would be no further negotiations!” he added.
Trump told reporters that there is “no rush” for the IAEA inspectors to be on the ground in Iran.
“They’ll be on the ground at the appropriate time,” he said.
Despite the tentative nature of the agreement, Trump said he has agreed to keep the Hormuz Strait open because Iran has agreed to “major concessions,” like the nuclear inspections. However, the U.S. Navy will remain in place in case they are needed to resurrect the blockade, although he said that seems “highly unlikely.”
Trump said that 19 million barrels of oil flowed out of the Hormuz Strait on Monday—almost a return to the pre-war flows.
US to Use Iranian Funds to Buy US-Grown Aid
The U.S. Treasury on June 22 waived sanctions on Iranian oil for 60 days for the first time in more than four decades, marking the concessions made by both sides under a nascent peace deal.
Iran will be allowed to produce and sell its crude oil and refined products through Aug. 21, as per the memorandum of understanding.
The U.S. president said on June 23 that the U.S. Treasury would also be releasing some frozen Iranian funds into an escrow account—still under U.S. control—for the purchase of food and medical aid “from our great American Farmers.”
“These are things that are desperately needed by Iran,” he wrote, citing U.S. corn, wheat, and soybeans. “This is a humanitarian crisis, and I feel it is necessary to help.”
Tehran also contested this, rejecting suggestions that it agreed to the United States controlling how its money would be spent.
Baghaei said of Iran’s unfrozen assets, “It’s interesting to us that the stated philosophy and goal of the war—which they had previously announced was to destroy Iranian civilization and bring about Iran’s collapse—has been reduced to making American farmers richer.”
“The important thing is that Iran’s frozen assets are available for Iran’s free use, however it sees fit, to provide for the goods the country has in mind,” he added.
Trump also touted the price of oil and performance of the U.S. stock market to reporters, while noting the many problems the Iranian regime is facing.
“I think it’s going to break at $70 a barrel—that’s lower than we were when we started, and it’s been amazing,” he said.
WTI Crude Oil closed at $73.21 per barrel on June 23.
“We have Iran in a position where their military has been totally wiped out, their leadership has been wiped out, their radar has been wiped out, everything has been wiped out. They have not a good negotiating position,” Trump told reporters.
“Money that will be taken out of Iran is going to go to our farmers to get corn, soybeans, wheat to Iran, because they have a hunger problem, they have a food problem, they have a medicine problem—they got a lot of problems. And they have an inflation, their inflation are just at 300 percent, so they have a lot of problems.”
“And the big thing is Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” Trump reiterated of the budding deal.
Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.
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