US President Donald Trump said he is growing increasingly doubtful that Iran will agree to halt uranium enrichment as part of a renewed nuclear deal with Washington, while reaffirming his commitment to preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“They seem to be delaying, and I think that’s a shame, but I’m less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago,” Trump said in an interview released Wednesday on Pod Force One, a podcast hosted by New York Post columnist Miranda Devine.
“Something happened to them, but I am much less confident of a deal being made.”
Despite the growing pessimism, Trump stressed that Iran will not be allowed to develop a nuclear bomb. “If they don’t make a deal, they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon, too. So it’s not going to matter from that standpoint.”
“But it would be nicer to do it without warfare, without people dying — it’s so much nicer to do it,” Trump added. “But I don’t think I see the same level of enthusiasm for them to make a deal. I think they would make a mistake, but we’ll see. I guess time will tell.”
In March, Trump threatened to bomb Iran if a new deal was not reached within a deadline which he did not state publicly.
His latest comments come amid a stalled diplomatic effort led by his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, who has held five rounds of indirect talks with Iranian representatives for the past few months without significant progress.
Witkoff has previously suggested allowing limited uranium enrichment for civilian use, echoing terms from the 2015 nuclear deal brokered under President Barack Obama. Trump withdrew from that agreement in 2018, calling it “deeply flawed.”
However, US officials in both the State Department and White House have maintained a hard line, insisting Iran should not be allowed to enrich uranium at all — even for peaceful purposes.
Asked whether China might be influencing Iran’s reluctance to engage, Trump dismissed the idea. “I just think maybe they don’t want to make a deal. What can I say? And maybe they do. So what does that mean? There’s nothing final.”
Also on Wednesday, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that a nuclear deal with the US is within reach, framing Tehran’s opposition to nuclear weapons as a potential basis for agreement.
Araghchi wrote on X that Trump says Iran should not acquire nuclear weapons, adding, “That is actually in line with our own doctrine and could become the main foundation for a deal."
Talks are set to resume Sunday, and Araghchi expressed optimism about a rapid resolution, provided key conditions are met.“An agreement that can ensure the continued peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program is within reach—and could be achieved rapidly.”
Any deal, he added, must preserve Iran’s enrichment capabilities while lifting sanctions: “That mutually beneficial outcome relies on the continuation of Iran's enrichment program, under the full supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA), and the effective termination of sanctions.”
In a statement delivered at the IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna earlier in the day, the European Union warned that Iran’s continued production of highly enriched uranium is pushing the Middle East toward a potential nuclear proliferation crisis.
On Tuesday, the Europe-based opposition group National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) released a report estimating Tehran has spent at least $2 trillion on its nuclear program over the past three decades.
