Scott Jennings@ScottJenningsKY
🚨After receiving a briefing from a Senior TRUMP Administration Official on the status of the Iran negotiations (someone in the know & not just speculating), I can tell you the following:
-USA IS NOT GIVING IRANIANS MONEY FOR NOTHING. All speculation and propaganda to the contrary is false. Some hardline elements of Iran’s govt (IRGC) have pushed fake stories & propaganda to try to kill this negotiation.
-Iran deal is NOT done (95%, but still haggling over some language). No deal being signed today. May be a few more days before this is done.
-Iran will NOT get any money or sanctions relief up front.
-Iran must turn over nuclear stockpile to get anything. USA position is that failure to meet deal commitments means Iran gets nothing.
-Long term USA objective is preventing Iran from having nuclear weapon.
-Initial deal point is to re-establish free flow of commerce by reopening Strait of Hormuz.
Deal should have 2 phases:
Step 1 - Open Strait of Hormuz. Give world economy breathing room. Iran agrees to give up enriched uranium.
Step 2 - Get the nuclear material turned over. Only then can Iran get sanctions relief.
Bottom line: goal is to make a deal that lowers costs for Americans, calms world energy markets, and guarantees that Iranians cannot have a nuclear weapon over the long term. We aren’t there yet. Iran takes forever to get you a response on even small things. But we are close although it still could be a few days.
“If we get what we are demanding, this is going to be a historic deal,” SAO says.
SAO sounds prepared to do no deal at all if all Iran will do is a “bad deal.” SAO admits deal could fall apart yet. But if a deal is reached, SAO expects very senior USA admin officials to take part in a signing ceremony of some sort.
Iran has agreed in principle to the framework but there are still a couple points USA isn’t satisfied with. 95% done. But literally changing words sometimes requires days in Iran’s system. Haggling over language. But USA feels like we have a commitment on nuclear stockpile and on opening Strait of Hormuz.
If IRAN doesn’t deliver on commitments, they get nothing.
“Iran’s ability to project power is a lot more limited than it was two months ago,” SAO says. “Their industrial base for building ballistic missiles has been substantially destroyed.”
