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Trump says Iran will “ask for a deal”
US President Donald Trump said yesterday that Iran’s economic troubles were going to force it to seek a new security deal with the US.
Speaking at a press conference at the end of the NATO summit in Brussels, Trump said Iran was treating the U.S. with “so much more respect” since it withdrew from the JCPOA Iran nuclear deal. Trump said he expected Tehran to be in touch asking for a deal.
He said: “I know they’re having a lot of problems and their economy is collapsing. But I will tell you this: at a certain point they’re going to call me they’re going to say ‘Let’s make a deal’. They’re feeling a lot of pain right now.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday called on American allies to put economic pressure on Iran. He tweeted: “There’s no telling when Iran may try to forment terrorism, violence, and instability in one of our countries next. We must cut off all funding the regime uses to fund terrorism and proxy wars.” The US Government has told other countries that from 4 November they must stop importing all Iranian oil or face financial sanctions.
Germany, France and the UK still support the 2015 nuclear deal, under which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear development in exchange for international sanctions relief.
Following a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on 12 July, Ali Akbar Velayati, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s top adviser, said Russian firms are prepared to fill in for some of the loss of business.
He told Iranian state television: “Putin said that Russia is prepared to continue its oil investment in Iran at the level of $50 billion. It means Russia is ready to invest this amount in Iran’s oil sector. This is an important amount that can compensate for those companies that have left Iran.”
Velayati claimed that one of Russia’s major oil companies has signed a US$4 billion deal with Iran, to be “implemented soon”. He also said that “two other major Russian oil companies, Rosneft and Gazprom, have started talks with Iran’s Oil Ministry to sign contracts worth up to US$10 billion”.