Trump Claims Iran Agreed to Drop Nuclear Weapons, Sent ‘Big Gift’ to US

US President Donald Trump said Iran agreed never to have a nuclear weapon and sent a “significant prize” related to the Strait of Hormuz even as he declared victory in the three-week war.

Speaking to reporters at the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump claimed Iran was keen to “make a deal” and indicated that Vice President J D Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special envoy on Middle East Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were leading the negotiations.

The President said that the current Iranian leadership had already undergone significant changes. “It’s what we really have, regime change. You know, this is a change in the regime because the leaders are all very different from the ones that we started off with that created all those problems,” he said.

Earlier, Trump endorsed a social media post by Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on facilitating the talks between Iran and the US. Sharif also offered to host the talks for a comprehensive settlement of the ongoing conflict.

“I don't want to say in advance, but they've agreed they will never have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters after the swearing in ceremony of Markwayne Mullin as the new secretary for Department of Homeland Security.

Trump said the Iranian leadership gave the US a "significant prize" related to the Strait of Hormuz and the flow of oil. “They are going to make a deal. They did something yesterday that was amazing, actually. They gave us a present. And the present arrived today. It was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money,” the US President said.

“I am not going to tell you what that present is, but it was a very significant prize. And they gave it to us,” he said. “So that meant one thing to me, we're dealing with the right people. No, it wasn't nuclear weapons. It was oil and gas related,” Trump said.

The US President asserted that the war against Iran has been won. “I don't like to say this. We've won this. This war has been won... It's like we're not winning a war where they have no Navy and they have no Air Force and they have no nothing. And we literally have planes flying over Tehran and other parts of their country. They can't do a thing about it,” Trump said. He said the US obliterated Iran’s nuclear potential, which could have been used against American allies in the Middle East.

“We obliterated it. Just obliterated their nuclear potential. You would have had them having two weeks after that attack, had we not made the attack (using B-2 bombers). They would have had a nuclear weapon. They would have absolutely used it. And they would have used it on the entire Middle East, including Israel,” Trump said. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said never in history has a modern military been so rapidly and historically obliterated, defeated from day one.

“Never in history has a modern military, Iran had a modern military, a modern Navy, a modern Air Force, modern air defences, leadership, massive bunker. Never has a modern military been so rapidly and historically obliterated, defeated from day one with overwhelming firepower,” Hegseth said. PTI