US President Donald Trump said he was willing to consider lifting sanctions on Iran, provided Tehran demonstrated peaceful behavior.
The statement, made against the backdrop of recent US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, combined threats and hints at a potential diplomatic path, Bloomberg writes.
Trump spoke about the condition for lifting sanctions on Iran
“We have sanctions in place. And if they (Iran – Ed.) work, if they can be peaceful, if they can show us that they can no longer cause harm, I would lift the sanctions,” Trump said on the Fox News Sunday Morning Futures program.
The statement came after Trump said on Friday he had considered easing sanctions on Iran after the ceasefire but decided to leave them in place, criticizing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for claiming victory in the war with Israel.
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Last week, the US president hinted at a possible easing, saying he had no objection to China continuing to buy Iranian oil. White House officials later clarified that this did not mean a relaxation of US restrictions.
Iran's nuclear program set back
In an interview with Fox News taped on Friday, Trump repeated his argument that Iran was weeks away from obtaining a nuclear weapon and that the American strikes “destroyed” a key underground facility in Iran’s nuclear program.
But he added a note of caution, noting that Iran's nuclear ambitions had been set back “at least for a while.”
Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a foreign policy hawk close to President Trump, has proposed that the United States demand Iran recognize Israel's right to exist as a condition for resuming U.S.-Iran talks, which have gone through several fruitless rounds this year.
“They have to say, for the first time — the Iranian regime — we recognize Israel's right to exist,” Graham said Sunday on ABC's “This Week.” If they can't say that, you're never going to get a deal that's worth anything.
UN agency denies claims of extent of damage
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, has rejected the Trump administration's claims about the level of damage to Iran's nuclear program from US strikes that targeted its uranium enrichment capabilities.
“You can't say that everything is gone and there's nothing there. It's clear that there was serious damage, but it's not total damage,” Grossi said on CBS's Face the Nation.
Iran has the industrial and technological capacity to resume enriched uranium production, he said, possibly “within months.”
“So if they want, they can do it again,” he added.
Grossi also cautioned that it is not the IAEA's job to assess damage, and the agency's information on the state of Iran's nuclear program is limited.
