Waltz says Iran wanted sanctions relief up front in rejected deal; Tehran pushes back
Por Jalen Beckford — POLITICO – TOP Stories
Mike Waltz, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Sunday that President Donald Trump rejected Iran’s latest proposal because Tehran wanted sanctions relief and access to “billions in frozen assets” before negotiating an end to its nuclear program.
“They were asking for everything up front, with a promise that they would then talk,” Waltz said on CNN’s “State of the Union” when asked what Trump objected to.
In a separate interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Waltz called the proposal “a pretty cynical attempt to put something on the table that they knew was unacceptable.” He said the U.S. would ultimately need to reach “some type of agreement” with Iran, but Trump would keep all options on the table.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in an interview later on the same NBC program, pushed back on Waltz’s account and told host Kristen Welker that Iran was prepared to open the strait if the U.S. met its conditions, including releasing frozen assets and allowing Iranian oil sales.
“I am surprised that the ambassador is talking about a seven-day plan, as he has not read it,” Araghchi said. “Maybe he has not been given a copy.”
On Saturday, Trump rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume nuclear talks in exchange for the U.S. lifting its naval blockade of Iranian ports, waiving sanctions on Iranian oil sales and committing to a seven-day ceasefire that would include Lebanon.
In an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” recorded Friday and aired Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian described the proposal as a staged approach based on an earlier U.S.-Iran agreement.
“Ultimately, the requests that were included in that memorandum and MOU have now been broken down into stages so that we can proceed according to those stages,” Pezeshkian said. “These are things that both sides need to open up first, then we can sit down at the negotiating table and discuss other issues at hand.”
“They wanna make a deal where they open the Strait immediately because they’re losing so badly,” Trump told reporters. “We’re winning tremendously. We have total control of the Hormuz Strait.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing U.S. officials, that Trump has told aides he expected to resume bombing Iran after the November midterms.
Asked about the report, Waltz said, “I don’t think that the president has said that himself; that’s some reporting by a newspaper.”
“What the president has said and said here at his U.N. speech was that the Iranians are miscalculating that he’s taking into account politics here,” Waltz added.
On “Meet the Press,” Waltz also declined to confirm the reported timetable, saying Trump would “leave all options on the table.”
Araghchi, asked about the same report, said Iran was “fully prepared for the war to be resumed” but remained open to diplomacy. “It is up to President Trump to choose,” he said.
This comes as the war in Iran and rising gas prices put pressure on Republicans ahead of the November midterms.
Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories
