Donald Trump has signaled he is open to Iran keeping a civilian nuclear program, marking a notable concession as Washington and Tehran say they are closer than they have been to a peace agreement.
According to a senior White House official, the administration’s concern is not with civilian nuclear energy itself, but with the kind of infrastructure that could allow Iran to move from power generation to weapons development. The official said the U.S. is focused on preventing any setup that could be repurposed for building a nuclear bomb.
To illustrate that position, the official pointed to the United Arab Emirates, which operates a civilian nuclear energy program designed in a way that cannot easily be converted into a weapons-producing operation.
The comments suggest the Trump administration is prepared to let Iran maintain civilian nuclear power plants, provided those facilities are structured so they cannot be used to produce a nuclear weapon.
It remains unclear what specific safeguards would be required to ensure Iran could not expand or adapt its nuclear sites for bomb-making. Any move by the Islamic Republic toward developing a weapon, however, would almost certainly collapse the prospects for a deal.
Trump has repeatedly said that any lasting end to the conflict would depend on Iran surrendering nuclear capabilities that could support weapons production, especially uranium enrichment facilities that U.S. intelligence says are capable of producing weapons-grade material.
The MOU mandates that Iran’s current stockpile of nuclear material be destroyed on-site and then taken out of the country. Trump has said that only the US and China can dig up the deeply buried fissile material.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Friday that the ‘final text’ of a peace deal between the US and Iran ‘has been reached.’
The Trump administration will allow Iran to maintain its civilian nuclear power program should it abide by the stipulations outlined in a recently proposed memorandum of understanding, a senior White House official said on Friday
The official said that most of Iran’s government, including hardliners, are on board with the proposal
Once the MOU is signed, there would be a 60-day period without fighting so that Iran, the US, Israel and Lebanon can hash out specific details for a lasting peace deal
‘Peace has never been this close as it is now,’ he added.
The official also said the deal would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the current US blockade targeting Iranian vessels.
The US is 80 to 85 percent certain that the deal would be signed, the official said, with reports indicating a ceremony planned for Sunday in Geneva.
Many of the hardliners in the Iranian regime are on board with the proposed MOU, the senior White House official stated.
The Islamic regime will be rewarded economically after the deal, the US official said.
‘They do get reintegrated into the world economy, they’re going to be rewarded for acting like a normal country rather than the largest state sponsor of terrorism,’ the official said. ‘That said, those benefits only accrue if Iran delivers.’
The call to clarify exactly what is in the MOU came after the President fumed at Iranian officials for leaking the terms, saying what they put out is not the official stance of US negotiators.
‘The terms that Iran leaked out to the Fake News have nothing to do with the terms that were agreed to, in writing,’ Trump wrote on Friday morning. ‘What they said, including their weak and pathetic statement on having a deal, bears no relation to the truth.’
Vice President JD Vance is reportedly expected to attend a signing ceremony for the MOU in Geneva over the weekend
‘Very dishonorable people to deal with. With them, there is no such thing as dealing in good faith.’
The administration has said on countless occasions over the past months that a deal was close at hand.
But this time, there may be more traction as Vice President JD Vance is expected to sign a deal in Europe as soon as this weekend.
Four US Air Force C-17 transport planes flew to Europe on Thursday, carrying equipment for a possible VP trip to Geneva, where a signing ceremony is planned in the coming days, Axios reports.
The MOU between the US and Iran to halt the war could be signed as soon as Sunday, a source told Reuters, the same day as Trump’s birthday.
‘We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran,’ Trump told reporters on Thursday.
‘The documents are in pretty final shape, so we’ll see. It should be done over the next few days. We’ll probably have a signing, maybe in Europe, and it’s a great thing.’
