Iranian and U.S. representatives are set to hold talks next week, President Donald Trump said on June 25, following the conclusion of a 12-day armed conflict involving Iranian, Israeli, and U.S. forces.
“We’re going to talk with them next week, with Iran. We may sign an agreement, I don’t know,” Trump said at a press conference during the NATO alliance summit in the Netherlands.
The Trump administration had engaged in several rounds of talks with Iran over the spring, seeking an agreement to curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
A deal between the United States and Iran had proven elusive. On June 13, Israeli forces launched surprise attacks across Iran, aiming to cripple it’s nuclear programs and offensive military capabilities.
Following the Israeli attack, Iranian representatives canceled a set of June 14 talks with U.S. representatives, and Iran began firing retaliatory missile and drone barrages at Israel.
Trump eventually ordered the U.S. military to wade into the mix, directing an around-the-world bomber strike against three Iranian facilities, including Iran’s subterranean Fordow uranium enrichment facility, which had been difficult for Israeli forces to damage with their weapons.
Trump has cast the overall June 21 bombing mission as a resounding success that has severely damaged Iran’s nuclear program.
Following what he characterized as a “weak” and choreographed retaliatory Iranian missile barrage against a U.S. military base in Qatar, Trump called for an end to the Middle East conflict.
Even as he announced the upcoming U.S.–Iran talks, Trump questioned whether it would even be necessary.
“I don’t care if I have an agreement or not. The only thing we'd be asking for is what we were asking for before. We want no nuclear, but we destroyed the nuclear,” the president said.
In the hours after the June 21 U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Trump said U.S. forces “completely and totally obliterated” their targets.
At a press conference on June 22, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. military was still conducting its battle damage assessment from the strike.
The president continued to defend the efficacy of the U.S. strike on Wednesday, reading a statement from the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission that said the U.S. strike on Fordow rendered the uranium enrichment facility “totally inoperable.”
The White House also shared a statement with The Epoch Times on Wednesday, which quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei saying that “our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that’s for sure.”
