Whereas President Trump has repeatedly declared that the US’ army strikes on key Iranian enrichment and analysis websites “completely obliterated” the nation’s nuclear facility, the intelligence neighborhood and different officers inside his administration have quietly insisted that reaching a diplomatic answer was simply as crucial as ever.
On Tuesday, a number of officers informed ABC Information that an preliminary intelligence report assessed that the assault on Iranian services over the weekend didn’t fully destroy the nation’s nuclear program and sure solely set it again by months.
Within the wake of the strikes, European allies have additionally been trying to make the case for renewed nuclear diplomacy to Trump administration officers, and a supply acquainted with the conversations says Secretary of State Marco Rubio has acknowledged that there is nonetheless a necessity for a diplomatic answer.
Iran’s supreme chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks after casting his poll through the runoff presidential election in Tehran, on July 5, 2024. | Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waves at supporters on the finish of a marketing campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Nov. 4, 2024.
Atta Kenare/AFP by way of Getty Pictures | Charly Triballeau/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
However publicly, the Trump administration has despatched combined messages on the urgency behind renewed negotiations with Iran.
“Iran’s not going to have a nuclear weapon,” the president informed reporters on Tuesday. “I believe it is the very last thing on their thoughts proper now.”
As he travelled to The Hague for a summit of NATO leaders, President Trump posted on his social media platform, Fact Social, that China could be permitted to buy oil from Iran.
Officers inside the Trump administration did not reply questions on whether or not the president was indicating he would elevate any sanctions on Iran, however analysts predicted the feedback might sign a shift towards lax enforcement of the commerce restrictions focusing on the nation.
On Tuesday, public-facing officers in Washington additionally notably declined to explain the U.S. strategy to Iran as “most stress”– the often-repeated phrase utilized by the administration to check with the sanctions marketing campaign waged towards the regime following the president’s resolution to depart an Obama-era nuclear take care of the nation in 2018.
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters onboard Air Power One en path to the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, June 24, 2025.
Brian Snyder/Reuters
Sources say Trump’s particular envoy to the Center East, Steve Witkoff, has been involved with Iran all through the battle with Israel, however to this point, U.S. officers haven’t pushed plans for an additional face-to-face assembly.
“A return to diplomacy should begin as quickly as attainable,” mentioned Dana Stroul, a former deputy assistant secretary of protection for the Center East.
“There was by no means going to be army operations, both Israeli operations or US army operations, that might fully eradicate Iran’s program,” mentioned Stroul, who was the Pentagon’s high Center East official between 2020 and 2023. “And we already know that the stockpile of enriched uranium was moved. We do not know the place it’s, and we all know that a few of Iran’s nuclear services have been broken however not eradicated.”
Rafael Grossi, the Director Normal of the Worldwide Atomic Power Company, indicated on Monday that he believes Iran’s enriched uranium has been moved — however mentioned that the nuclear watchdog at present has no accounting of it.
When requested in regards to the urgency of restarting nuclear negotiations, State Division spokesperson Tammy Bruce acknowledged the president was “assured” Iran couldn’t receive a nuclear weapon.
“Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon,” she mentioned. “And the understanding is now they are not going to have one.”
“How we transfer ahead from right here is as much as the president of the US,” Bruce added.
Iran and the U.S., within the spring of this yr, held 5 rounds of oblique talks, which the State Division on the time didn’t name “negotiations,” associated to Tehran’s nuclear program.
If the perimeters got here collectively once more, talks would once more hinge on the president’s key demand that Iran vow to not enrich uranium by itself soil, mentioned Stroul, who’s now the director of analysis and a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Close to East Coverage.
“The query is whether or not the Trump administration goes to double down and demand that Iran surrender all home enrichment and full the dismantling of its services,” she mentioned. “And that presumably would occur beneath the auspices of the IAEA, which is why the Director Normal, Rafael Grossi, is asking to get into Tehran as quick as attainable.”
Public statements from Iran have been centered on portraying the regime’s energy relatively than diplomacy, because the nation’s officers have signaled it can swiftly restore its broken nuclear program.
“The plan is to stop interruptions within the means of manufacturing and companies,” Iran’s nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami mentioned Tuesday, in line with the nation’s state media.
Andrea Strickler, the deputy director of the nonproliferation and biodefense program on the Basis for the Protection of Democracy, says Iran’s vow is cause for the Trump administration to double down on diplomacy.
“To ban Iran from ‘constructing again higher’ its nuclear risk, Washington ought to search a negotiated answer with the regime requiring its full, everlasting nuclear dismantlement,” she mentioned, emphasizing {that a} deal “should flip over all remaining secret property like enriched uranium, centrifuges, and services.”
President Donald Trump arrives for a proper dinner on the Huis Ten Bosch Palace through the NATO Summit in The Hauge, Netherlands, June 24, 2025.
Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press by way of AP
Grossi’s repeated feedback that the IAEA is unaware of the uranium’s whereabouts have raised issues amongst proliferation consultants.
“Whereas Iran’s capability to complement uranium has been severely degraded, the existence of this already 60 p.c enriched materials implies that a major barrier to weaponization has already been overcome,” mentioned Joseph Rodgers, deputy director and fellow with the Venture on Nuclear Points within the Worldwide Safety Program on the Middle for Strategic and Worldwide Research.
“The longer the situation of this extremely enriched uranium stockpile stays unknown, the larger the potential for a proliferation disaster,” Rodgers continued.
Vice President JD Vance indicated in an interview with ABC Information’ Jon Karl on Sunday that the Trump administration would “work with” Iran to “do one thing with that gasoline,” but it surely’s unclear if any progress has been made on that entrance.
Vance and different U.S. officers, together with Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth, have mentioned the U.S. has continued to speak with Iran by way of intermediaries. Hegseth mentioned Sunday, “each private and non-private messages” have been being “immediately delivered to the Iranians, giving them each alternative to return to the desk.”
Stroul mentioned the weekend strikes on Iran’s nuclear websites “marked a decisive shift” in Washington’s strategy to Iran’s nuclear program, and that “the regime in Tehran has to grasp now…that the Individuals are prepared to place severe pores and skin within the recreation in an offensive approach.”
“Iran is weak diplomatically,” she mentioned, arguing the US now not has a “containment” posture towards Iran and that the president is able to “demand the completion of the dismantling of the infrastructure of Iran’s nuclear program, and to insist that the regime surrender any future need to complement uranium domestically.”
