President Trump has been remarkably clear about what a nuclear deal with Iran must contain. During his State of the Union Address, he outlined his conditions with unusual specificity, giving observers a detailed picture of what an agreement under his administration would require from Tehran.
The centrepiece of Trump’s requirements is straightforward but demanding: Iran must publicly, clearly, and unconditionally declare that it will never build a nuclear weapon. Trump called these words the “secret words” that Washington has been waiting to hear — a phrase that captured the simplicity of what he’s asking for and the difficulty Iran apparently has in saying it.
Trump also made clear that the deal would need to account for Iran’s missile capabilities, which he said already threaten Europe and American forces overseas and are advancing toward systems that could reach the US. Any comprehensive agreement, the president implied, must address not just nuclear weapons but the delivery systems that could carry them.
The president referenced last year’s Operation Midnight Hammer as a demonstration of what the US is prepared to do if diplomacy fails. He said the strike destroyed Iran’s nuclear programme, but accused Tehran of attempting to rebuild — a development that complicates the diplomatic picture considerably.
With two rounds of talks already completed this month, the framework of what a deal might look like is beginning to take shape. Whether Iran is willing to meet Trump’s conditions remains the open question — one that carries enormous consequences for the Middle East and the world.
