U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that Iran has his administration's proposal and knows it needs to move quickly, a day after saying Washington and Tehran were close to a nuclear deal amid ongoing high-level negotiations, Reuters reports.
"They have a proposal. More importantly, they know they have to move quickly or something bad — something bad's going to happen," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after leaving the UAE to return to Washington after a four-day surprise-filled Gulf tour.
Trump's remarks represent the first time he's acknowledged an American proposal with Tehran after multiple negotiations between U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who told journalists at the Tehran International Book Fair on Thursday that Iran had not received any proposals from the Americans yet.
Negotiations have gotten into the “expert” level, according to the Washington Post, meaning the two sides are trying to see if they can reach any agreement on the details of a possible deal. But one major sticking point remains Iran’s enrichment of uranium, which Tehran insists it must be allowed to do and the Trump administration increasingly insists the Islamic Republic must give up.
Araghchi criticized what he called conflicting and inconsistent statements from the Trump administration, describing them as either a sign of disarray in Washington or a calculated negotiation strategy. "We are hearing many contradictory statements from the United States — from Washington, from the president, and from the new administration," Araghchi said. "Sometimes we hear two or three different positions in a single day."
