US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would soon release the text of a proposed agreement with Iran, speaking at the G7 summit in France.
He added that the deal explicitly states that Tehran will not pursue nuclear projects.
"Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, that's what it says. It won't have one."
Trump also confirmed that the Strait of Hormuz would be operated toll-free during and after the 60-day period reportedly designated for negotiations in the agreement.
"The strait will be open toll-free, and it's toll-free beyond the 60 days," he said.
Trump insisted that “having a United States with a strong president” is the only way to keep the Strait of Hormuz open in the future, adding that agreements made with “bad people” don’t carry any weight.
Trump slams Obama's JCPOA, claims Congress critics support deal
Trump rejected comparisons between his deal and Obama’s 2015 Iran deal, saying his agreement was better.
The president said that “Obama… could have destroyed the Middle East with the JCPOA,” which he described as a “road to a nuclear weapon,” while his own agreement was “a wall against a nuclear weapon.”
Trump also dismissed reports that congressional Republicans, including Senator Lindsey Graham (South Carolina), were skeptical of the deal.
“[Lindsey’s] not skeptical, he's just fine," Trump said, adding that he would agree to Graham’s suggestion of sending the deal to Congress for approval.
Graham, a strong critic of Iran and one of the main supporters of the war, had praised the White House’s deal in a post on X/Twitter this week while expressing concern over what Iran said the deal included.
“Congratulations to all for getting us to this point. Time will tell,” he wrote.
Trump also said that the US plans on destroying Iran's enriched uranium, which he argued remained recoverable despite the US strikes on its nuclear facilities, saying the bombing caused the mountain above the site to collapse. He said excavating the material would be difficult and could only be accomplished by the United States or China, but stressed that Washington was in no rush to retrieve it.
“When we get it, we'll destroy it,” he added.
Trump says more Middle Eastern countries could join Abraham Accords soon
Trump also said he believed additional Arab states would join the Abraham Accords.
“I think they’re all gonna come into the Abraham Accords,” he said, noting that the conflict with Iran was the only obstacle preventing more Arab countries from joining the normalization framework.
In recent days, Trump seemed to dismiss the notion that regime change in Iran was on the table.
“As far as regime change, I never cared about regime change,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Sunday. Iran’s current leadership is “the third group we’ve dealt with, and this is the most rational group yet.”
This sentiment echoes that of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Monday told the press that regime change was never the goal of the war with Iran.
In the past two days, speculation has surrounded Trump's deal with Tehran, which is meant to lead to an end to the war with Iran, and is due to be signed on Friday.
At the G7 meeting, Trump told reporters that he means to "go over the document with the media in a couple of days."