Allowing Iran to be able to enrich uranium at any time in the future, even decades later, is a departure from the president's past stance, which has repeatedly emphasized that the country should never be given such an opportunity.
Although there have been reports that the United States is negotiating some kind of schedule behind the scenes, the Trump administration has consistently denied that it would accept any solution other than Iran's full surrender and permanent abandonment of its nuclear ambitions.
“Twenty years is enough”
But on his way back from a summit in China, when the war with Iran seems to have no easy end, the president pushed the boundaries of expectations as he spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One.
“Twenty years is enough, but the level of guarantee on their part is insufficient,” he said of Tehran's latest proposal. — In other words, it must be a real twenty years.
The president added that he had read the latest Iranian draft agreement and rejected it, saying: “If they retain their nuclear potential in any form, I will not read further.”
The war has destroyed Iran's ability to enrich new material for the foreseeable future, but the country still has a stockpile of about 440 kg of highly enriched uranium that Washington is demanding.
Trump expressed optimism that Tehran would eventually agree to the deal, and also admitted that the Iranians told him that only the United States and China had the equipment to remove the so-called nuclear dust.
Earlier this week, the president called Tehran's latest peace proposal “completely unacceptable” after Iran formally responded to the latest US offer to end the war. This is one of several peace proposals that the US and Iran have made since Pakistan brokered a ceasefire between the two sides on April 8.
