President Trump said Thursday that the United States and Iran have “sort of” agreed to terms on a nuclear deal, offering a measure of confidence that an accord is coming into sharper focus.
Mr. Trump, in an exchange with reporters at a business roundtable in Doha, Qatar on Thursday, described the talks between American envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as “very serious negotiations” for “long-term peace” and were continuing to progress.
Still, throughout his visit with Arab Gulf leaders this week, the president has underscored that military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities remains a possibility if the talks derail.
“Iran has sort of agreed to the terms: They’re not going to make, I call it, in a friendly way, nuclear dust,” Mr. Trump said at the business event. “We’re not going to be making any nuclear dust in Iran.”
Without offering detail, he signaled growing alignment with the terms that he has been seeking.
But a top political, military and nuclear adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told NBC News on Wednesday that Tehran stands ready to get rid of its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium that can be weaponized, agrees to enrich uranium only to the lower levels needed for civilian use and allow international inspectors to supervise the process.
Ali Shamkhani added that in return, Iran wants an immediate lifting of all economic sanctions.
Mr. Trump said his demands have been straightforward.
“They can’t have a nuclear weapon. That’s the only thing. It’s very simple,” Trump said. “It’s not like I have to give you 30 pages worth of details. It is only one sentence. They can’t have a nuclear weapon.”
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright told CBS News’ Weijia Jiang earlier in the week that he anticipates a deal with Iran by the end of the year, calling it a “very active dialogue in all of my travels in the Middle East.”
“I think sometime later this year, and hopefully on the sooner, and hopefully much sooner than late this year, we’ll see large breakthroughs in Iran,” Wright said. “Look, this is a win, win deal. Iran agrees to completely give up their nuclear program. They can have trade, they can have engagement with the rest of the world. They can bring down rampant inflation. They can bring investment, make their society better, and the rest of the region can thrive, if it’s not constantly under bombardment by Iranian proxies or the threat of a nuclear armed Iran This is by far the biggest security issue in the Middle East.”
Trump tells troops at U.S. base: “Priority is to end conflicts, not start them”
Wrapping up his time in Qatar, Mr. Trump stopped at a U.S. installation at the center of American involvement in the Middle East and spoke to U.S. troops. The Republican president has used his four-day visit to Gulf states to reject the “interventionism” of America’s past in the region.
Al-Udeid Air Base was a major staging ground during the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The base houses some 8,000 U.S. troops, down from about 10,000 at the height of those wars.
Mr. Trump told the troops that his “priority is to end conflicts, not start them.”
“But I will never hesitate to wield American power if it’s necessary to defend the United States of America or our partners,” he said.
Mr. Trump has held up Gulf nations such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar as models for economic development in a region plagued by conflict. He urged Qatari officials to use their influence to entice Iran to come to terms with his administration on a nuclear deal.
Mr. Trump later flew to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates for the final leg of his trip. He visited the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the country’s largest mosque. The UAE’s founder, Sheikh Zayed, is buried in the mosque’s main courtyard.
Mr. Trump took his shoes off, which is customary, as he stepped into the house of worship and spent time marveling at the architecture.
“It’s beautiful,” Trump said.
He will also be hosted for a state visit in the evening by UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the Qasr Al Watan palace.Lifting sanctions on Syria
Mr. Trump’s comments on Iran came after he met Wednesday with Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, a face-to-face engagement with the onetime insurgent leader who spent years imprisoned by U.S. forces after being captured in Iraq.
In a readout on the two leaders’ meeting in Saudi Arabia, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Mr. Trump had told the Syrian leader that “he has a tremendous opportunity to do something historic in his country,” and urged him to join Saudi Arabia in signing onto the U.S.-backed Abraham Accords, to normalize ties with Israel.
Mr. Trump agreed to meet al-Sharaa at the end of his stay in Saudi Arabia. The president then headed to Qatar, where he is being honored with a state visit. His Mideast tour also will take him to the United Arab Emirates later this week.
Al-Sharaa was named president of Syria in January, a month after a stunning offensive by insurgent groups led by al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, stormed Damascus and ended the 54-year rule of the Assad family.
Mr. Trump said he decided to meet with al-Sharaa after being encouraged to do so by Prince Mohammed and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The president also pledged to lift yearslong sanctions on Syria.
Mr. Trump told reporters that the meeting with al-Sharaa went “great” and described him as a “young, attractive guy” with a “very strong past.”
“He’s got a real shot at holding it together,” Mr. Trump said.
Prince Mohammed joined Trump and al-Sharaa for the meeting, which lasted 33 minutes. Erdogan also took part in the talks via video conference.
The prince said Mr. Trump’s decision to engage with al-Sharaa and lift the sanctions will “alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people” and spur a “new chapter” for the nation.
Formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, al-Sharaa joined the ranks of al-Qaida insurgents battling U.S. forces in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion. He still faces a warrant for his arrest on terrorism charges in Iraq. The U.S. once offered $10 million for information about his whereabouts because of his links to al-Qaida.
Al-Sharaa returned to his home country of Syria after the conflict began in 2011 and led al-Qaida’s branch called the Nusra Front. He changed the name of his group to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and cut links with al-Qaida.
The U.S. sanctions go back to the rule of Assad, who was ousted in December, and were intended to inflict major pain on the Syrian economy.
Both the Biden and Trump administrations left the sanctions in place after Assad’s fall as they sought to take the measure of al-Sharaa.
State visit to Qatar
After meeting with members of the GCC — which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — Mr. Trump flew to Qatar, the second stop in his Mideast tour.
Like the Saudis did a day earlier, Qatar rolled out the red carpet for Trump. Trump was greeted at the airport by Qatar’s emir Sheikh Tamim Al Thani, and Air Force One was escorted by Qatari F-15 jets as it neared the capital city of Doha.
As he sat down for talks with the emir at the Royal Court told the Qatari leader, he Mr Trump said he was impressed with the “perfecto” marble as well as the camels that took part in his grand arrival ceremony.
Al Thani, for his part, said he had high hopes for Mr. Trump’s efforts at ending the grinding war in Gaza.
“I know that you are a man of peace,” he said. “I know that you want to bring peace to this region.”
Qatar, like the other Gulf Arab states, is an autocratic nation where political parties are banned and speech is tightly controlled. It is overseen by its ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Sheikh Tamim took power in June 2013 when his father stepped down.
Qatar has also been linked to several high-profile pay-to-play-style scandals around the globe.
Two European Union lawmakers were accused of taking money from Doha in a scandal dubbed “Qatar-gate.” U.S. prosecutors in 2020 accused Qatar of bribing FIFA executive committee members to secure the tournament in the country in 2022.
In 2024, RTX Corp., the defense contractor formerly known as Raytheon, agreed to pay more than $950 million to resolve allegations that it defrauded the U.S. government and paid bribes to secure business with Qatar. Doha always has denied any wrongdoing.
Qatar also has served as a key mediator, particularly with the militant terrorist group Hamas as the international community pursues a ceasefire for in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Qatar also served as host of the negotiations between the United States and the Taliban that led to America’s 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Qatar is home to Al-Udeid Air Base, a sprawling facility that hosts the forward headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command.
The oil-and-gas rich country is also in the center of a controversy over its offer to give Mr. Trump a luxury $400 million Boeing 747-8 to be used as Air Force One. The president has said the plane is “a gift from the Nation to the United States Air Force/Department of Defense” and not him.
The Qatari government has said a final decision hasn’t been made. But Trump has defended the idea even as critics argue it would amount to a president accepting an astonishingly valuable gift from a foreign government.
Mr. Trump said after he leaves office the plane would reside at his library and not be used.
