WASHINGTON—President Trump expanded the scope of his diplomatic ambitions over the holiday weekend, seeking not only a war-ending deal with Iran, but also an agreement to normalize relations between Israel and the broader Middle East.
The normalization effort could give Trump a way to present any limited ceasefire and shipping agreement as a major regional success story rather than a fallout, as defense supporters in his own party warn that a bad deal could tarnish his legacy. Trump also threatened to resume major hostilities.
“Negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran are progressing well! It will only take one big deal for everyone or no deal at all – back on the battlefield and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever – and no one wants that!” Trump posted on social media on Monday.
Talks are going on with Iran The final deal is yet to be done Despite White House claims of major progress, Middle Eastern partners such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar are privately resisting Trump’s insistence that they rejoin the Abraham Accords and establish diplomatic ties with Israel.
Tensions escalated on Monday when the US sank two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ships that were trying to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran responded by firing surface-to-air missiles at American aircraft, a US official said, prompting US strikes on missile launchers near Bandar Abbas.
“U.S. Central Command is protecting its forces by exercising restraint during the current ceasefire,” said command spokesman Col. Tim Hawkins.
The Trump administration is working toward a potential deal with Iran that would fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the U.S. reducing or ending its blockade on Iranian shipping, potentially ending one of the most significant disruptions to global energy supplies in recent history. However, the talks leave thorny questions unresolved, including whether Iran would agree to significantly limit or eliminate its nuclear program — a longstanding demand of Trump — and whether Tehran would receive broad economic incentives as part of any cease-fire arrangement.
In a social-media post Monday afternoon, Trump wrote, “The enriched uranium (nuclear dust!) will either be immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed or, preferably, in conjunction and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, at some other acceptable location, with the Atomic Energy Commission or its equivalent, witnessing the process and event.”
Visiting in New Delhi, Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday described the emerging framework as a preliminary bargain to reopening Hormuz, which could lead to a separate nuclear talks. “There’s a very solid thing on the table in terms of their ability to negotiate (and) enter into a very real, significant, time-limited negotiation on the nuclear matter,” Rubio said, “and hopefully we can get it done.”
The Trump administration is working toward a potential agreement with Iran that would fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the US reducing or ending its blockade on Iranian shipping, potentially ending one of these. most significant disruption For global energy supply in recent history. However, the talks leave thorny questions unresolved, including whether Iran would agree to significantly limit or eliminate its nuclear program — a longstanding demand of Trump — and whether Tehran would receive broad economic incentives as part of any cease-fire arrangement.
In a social-media post Monday afternoon, Trump wrote, “The enriched uranium (nuclear dust!) will either be immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed or, preferably, in conjunction and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, at some other acceptable location, with the Atomic Energy Commission or its equivalent, witnessing the process and event.”
Visiting in New Delhi, Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday described the emerging framework as a preliminary bargain to reopening Hormuz, which could lead to a separate nuclear talks. “There’s a very solid thing on the table in terms of their ability to negotiate (and) enter into a very real, significant, time-limited negotiation on the nuclear matter,” Rubio said, “and hopefully we can get it done.”
A senior administration official on Sunday detailed a three-part framework in which Iran reopens the Strait of Hormuz and disposes of its enriched uranium, while the US ends its blockade of Iranian ports. Washington and Tehran would then define the terms of further negotiations to end the war before moving toward a permanent end to Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump is torn between diplomatically ending the unpopular nearly three-month-long war or attacking Iran — an option supported by the hawkish wing of the GOP — to further weaken the regime and pressure it to give up its highly enriched uranium reserves.
Some hawkish Republicans, including Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas), criticized the outline of the deal that emerged over the weekend as a potential mistake that would empower Tehran and is too similar to the nuclear deal negotiated by former President Barack Obama, which Trump ended during his first term.
There were signs that Trump might be taking some of the criticism to heart and looking for ways to improve the terms of any deal. On Truth Social he said he wants Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Türkiye, Egypt and Jordan to sign it abraham accordsEstablish or expand diplomatic relations with Israel. He suggested that Iran could also join after Tehran signs the peace deal.
“This will be the most important deal that any of these great, but always-struggling nations will sign,” Trump said on social media. “Nothing in the past or future will surpass it.”
Trump’s public call for Gulf allies to normalize ties with Israel is highly unlikely to be heeded, with some Republican lawmakers and officials serving in his first administration criticizing the emerging agreement over the past few days.
“The rumored 60-day ceasefire – with the assurance that Iran would ever rejoin in good faith – would be a disaster. Everything achieved by Operation Epic Fury would be for naught!” Sen. Roger Wicker (R., Miss.) said on Ex.
Wicker, who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, joined other Republican supporters including Cruz, Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), Trump’s former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former national security adviser John Bolton in criticizing the potential deal with Iran. Cruz said he was deeply concerned and called it a “disastrous mistake.” Pompeo posted on Twitter: “America First by no means.” Graham warned: “If there is a perception in the region that a deal with Iran allows the regime to survive and become more powerful over time, we will have spilled gasoline on the conflicts in Lebanon and Iraq.”
Rubio fired back at critics, arguing that “no one should question” Trump’s commitment to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
“The idea that somehow this president, given everything he’s already proven he’s willing to do, is somehow going to agree to a deal that will put Iran in a stronger position in terms of nuclear ambitions is absurd,” he told reporters on Sunday. “That’s just not going to happen.”
By Monday, Graham praised Trump’s latest proposal requiring an extension of the Abraham Accords, calling it “absolutely brilliant” on social media, and predicting “it will result in the most significant change in the Middle East in thousands of years.”
Graham said he hoped America’s Arab allies, as well as Israel, would accept the proposal.
But the countries Trump wants to sign the Abraham Accords – notably Saudi Arabia – are unlikely to do so. Riyadh has long said it would only agree to a deal if there was a clear path toward a Palestinian state. The region’s relations with Israel have deteriorated since it leveled Gaza following Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and its involvement in two wars with Iran, prompting Tehran to retaliate against the Middle Eastern country.
Qatari officials also said Doha has no current plans to join the Abraham Accords. Any Qatari engagement with Israel would focus on resolving the Palestinian issue, one of them said.
“This is hope tied to a galaxy far, far away rather than new realities in the Gulf,” said Aaron David Miller, Middle East negotiator in Republican and Democratic administrations at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He said that after Israel’s actions in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon, the Gulf countries that come closer to it will have to face public reaction.
Write to Lindsay Wise lindsay.wise@wsj.comon meredith mcgraw Meredith.McGraw@WSJ.com and on alexander ward alex.ward@wsj.com
