White House points out two factors that changed Trump’s mind on the Iran deal

Still, the White House faced a number of questions during the briefing about what specifically has changed on either the U.S. or Iranian side, considering the president has claimed to be close to a final agreement dozens of times since April. 

One senior administration official mentioned two specific factors that were giving the U.S. side hope that Iran would stick to the terms of the agreement. 

HOW IRAN WORE DOWN TRUMP’S PREFERENCE FOR DIPLOMACY

“One, just from the outside — we feel like the Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz has weakened such that we’ve gotten more oil out of the trade before moves over the last couple of weeks than we did the first few weeks of the conflict,” the aide said. “So we do think that our leverage has increased there, and some of their leverage, their pressure has deflated a bit.”

The official suggested that the second key factor was Trump getting the Iranian negotiators to agree to language he desired regarding the shuttering of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, which will include the destruction of enriched uranium and other associated material in the country before its removal.

“We’ve gotten the language in a place that the president is much happier on,” they said. “That is a big change that’s happened in the MOU over the last couple of weeks. Again, it’s something we were proposing a couple of weeks ago. It’s something that we feel like the Iranians have gotten consensus on their system over the last couple of days.”

According to the White House, the MOU has five broad points, with specifics to be negotiated over the 60 days immediately following the signing:

• 1. Nuclear material will be destroyed and removed.
• 2. The nuclear program will be dismantled.
• 3. No money is released until it performs.
• 4. Strait of Hormuz will be open.
• 5. No Iranian funding of terrorist groups.

TRUMP FUMES OVER ‘FAKE’ PEACE DEAL TERMS LEAKED BY IRAN

Trump administration officials said Iran will not receive any economic remuneration until it demonstrates a commitment to upholding the deal in perpetuity. 

“We have structured this in a way where it’s not built around trust, it’s built around physical milestones, it’s built around action, and built around verification,” a senior administration official said. “We feel good about where we are, but we’re also going to see whether the Iranians care more about their economic prosperity than they do their nuclear weapons.”