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President Trump shockingly claimed that the controversial memorandum of understanding with Iran “probably” amounts to unconditional surrender from Tehran as he grapples with a GOP revolt over the preliminary deal.
Back in March, during the early days of Operation Epic Fury, Trump publicly insisted that he would not cut a deal with Iran unless it agreed to an unconditional surrender.
“Well, but really it probably is unconditional surrender,” Trump told Axios reporter Mark Caputo, per a preview clip of their interview.
Typically, unconditional surrender has meant that the losing side agrees to all demands.
Under the MOU, Iran is getting oil sanctions temporarily waived, key assets unfrozen, a $300 billion reconstruction, an end to the naval blockade, and more. Vice President JD Vance has stressed that those perks are conditional on Iran holding up its end of the deal.
Critics have noted that while Iran agreed in principle that it won’t pursue a nuclear weapon and to engage in negotiations to address its stockpile of enriched uranium, it hasn’t actually relinquished the “nuclear dust” yet.
Moreover, there are concerns that the Islamic Republic may take advantage of the sanction relief to beef up funding for its terrorist proxies.
Some detractors argued that the deal looked lopsided and pointed to Iran’s wreaking havoc in the Strait of Hormuz, where over a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil supplies once flowed through annually, as a reason.
The chaos in the Strait of Hormuz caused gas prices to rise, creating political pressures for Trump in a midterm year.
Caputo pressed Trump about whether the war in Iran was a humbling experience for him and illustrated the limits of his power, but the president scoffed at that suggestion.
“There are no limits,” Trump shot back. “I haven’t learned that lesson yet. I know there are, but there are no limits. We defeated them totally militarily.”
The MOU calls for the two sides to iron out a more fleshed-out peace deal within the next 60 days. That agreement is supposed to include more specific mechanics about how Iran will address its stockpile of enriched uranium.
Trump has made clear that his No. 1 priority is to ensure that Iran never obtains nuclear material. He bombed multiple nuclear facilities, including ones that had close to 1,000 pounds of uranium enriched up to 60%, a short technical step away from weapons-grade enrichment, which is 90%.
Iran also has thousands of pounds of 20% enriched uranium.
During the interview with Axios, Trump ripped into his more interventionist critics who want him to crack down harder on Iran.
“The only way I can get tougher is if I go in there for another two or three weeks and continue to bomb the hell out of ’em. Right? But what does that get us? The Strait of Hormuz will not be open,” he said.
“We wouldn’t have oil for months. As long as you’re dropping bombs, that thing is automatically closed,” he continued. “…This is the kind of thing that could cause a worldwide depression.”
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