Trump: We don't need an agreement with Iran
The US President announces his refusal to negotiate with Tehran and directs his deputy, JD Vance, to focus efforts on combating fraud domestically, despite reports of potential talks with Mohsen Rezaei.
Translated by Qiyas from النهار — Original source
Washington, Agencies: US President Donald Trump announced yesterday that he directed his vice president, JD Vance, to focus “exclusively” on efforts within the United States to combat “fraud,” rather than engaging in negotiations with Tehran. Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, “We do not need an agreement with Iran. Those days are long gone. We have taken their money, hundreds of billions of dollars, and we have controlled the Strait.” Trump’s remarks came after the Wall Street Journal reported that Vice President Vance was exploring direct, “face-to-face” talks with Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. US officials said Trump informed his senior aides that he was open to Vance resuming talks. They added that Iran’s demands remained entirely unrealistic. Meanwhile, informed sources said the Qatari capital, Doha, was being proposed as a venue for the next round of negotiations, should Vance and Iranian officials agree to meet. Officials warned that assigning Vance the role of US negotiator carried political risk, especially if talks failed and Iran refused to make concessions. The Wall Street Journal also noted that Trump had privately criticized in recent weeks a memorandum of understanding that Vance helped negotiate. Citing US officials, the newspaper said Trump raised questions about whether the memorandum represented a costly mistake that gave Iran valuable time to regroup and generate oil revenues before a naval blockade was imposed. Defending his policy of using military force outside the United States, Trump said his country sought a “complete victory” over Iran, not a 93% victory, as he put it, during a speech at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on Veterans Day, in which he accused Iran of starting a war against the United States in 1979. Speaking before a crowd of veterans and senior military leaders, Trump said the United States would not allow any party to harm or threaten it with “bad and reckless ideologies,” adding that what the country had achieved and aspired to achieve was based on the courage of those willing to sacrifice and endure. The Wall Street Journal quoted regional officials as saying mediators had proposed immediate confidence-building measures between Washington and Tehran. According to the newspaper, the proposals included moving US aircraft carriers to a distance that would reduce the risk of large-scale strikes and easing the blockade imposed on Iranian ports. In return for US measures, officials said Iran would allow 25 oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Despite these moves, the newspaper quoted sources as saying Iranian diplomats privately expressed doubts about the possibility of reaching an agreement and feared that Trump might launch a new attack to justify his previous decision to go to war. The Wall Street Journal added that some Middle Eastern mediators remained skeptical about reaching an agreement in the coming days, citing harder-line messages conveyed to them by officials from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
