President Donald Trump said Wednesday, before his meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi at the United Nations headquarters, that the emerging deal with Iran is "very strong." He told reporters that under the agreement, "99.99%" Iran will not have nuclear weapons and said, "Never will they have nuclear weapons." He also argued that "most people like the deal" and that "the markets like the deal," adding that the world could have entered a global recession if the situation had continued and noting that oil prices are plunging.
Trump then stressed that the arrangement is only a memorandum of understanding, not a final accord. "It is a memorandum of understanding, and if I do not like it, we will go back to shooting at each other," he said. He later repeated that if the deal does not suit him, "we will go back to bombing Iran." The remarks came amid sharp criticism from American political figures.
Former Vice President Mike Pence condemned the emerging deal, saying Iran would receive immediate benefits worth billions while committing to nothing substantial. He said the published language contains no mention of dismantling Iran's nuclear or ballistic missile programs, and no commitment to stop support for Hamas, Hezbollah, or other terrorist groups. Pence said sanctions relief could reach up to $3 billion a month, alongside release of $100 billion in frozen assets.
In Israel, Minister Miki Zohar responded by saying Israel held back out of respect for the U.S. alliance, not because it lacked military capability. "We could have struck Iran in a way that they would have had no electricity, water, or food, if we wanted," he said on Channel 14, adding, "We did not do it because we respected the United States." Separately, G7 leaders welcomed the announcement but said Iran's regional and ballistic threats still must be addressed, while NBC reported that Iran kept launching drones at U.S. ships in recent days despite the ceasefire, with U.S. forces intercepting and destroying several unmanned aircraft in the Strait of Hormuz.
