US President Donald Trump has conceded that he may support a “permanent” easing of sanctions against Iran, but on one condition, the US leader said in a statement in comments to Fox News.
“The sanctions are working. And if they do their job, if they’re peaceful, and if they can show us that they’re not going to do any more harm, I would lift the sanctions,” Trump said.
Earlier on June 27, Trump said he was considering easing sanctions against Iran after the ceasefire but would instead keep them in place, while criticising Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for claiming victory in the war with Israel.
It came after his comments last week in which he hinted at relief when he said he did not object to China continuing to buy Iranian oil. White House officials later noted that “this does not represent an easing of U.S. restrictions.”
In the Fox News interview, which was recorded on Friday, Trump repeated his argument that Iran will have nuclear weapons in a matter of weeks and that USA strikes have “destroyed” a key underground facility for Iran’s nuclear programme. He also expressed reservations, saying Iran’s nuclear ambitions had been delayed “at least for a period of time.”
Iranian television on 26 June showed a video message from Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has not appeared in public for the past week. He said Iran had defeated both Israel and the United States, forcing them to abandon their aggression against Iran. According to Khamenei, Washington only struck Iran because otherwise Israel would have been destroyed. The Ayatollah said the US had struck Iranian nuclear facilities but had failed to “achieve much”.
The US struck three Iranian nuclear sites on the night of 22 June. Israel also struck the sites during a campaign that began on 13 June and ended with a ceasefire on 24 June. President Trump has said it was the US strikes that contributed to an early ceasefire agreement.
The level of damage to Iran’s nuclear programme, which Tehran claims was never intended to produce atomic weapons (Israel and the US dispute this claim), remains a matter of dispute, but US intelligence chiefs have issued statements that the sites suffered significant damage.