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14 Jun 2026, 23:48

Trump's interview with The New York Times, machine translation:
President Trump said in an interview on Sunday afternoon that the agreement reached with Iran will ultimately ensure that the Strait of Hormuz is "forever free of tolls," arguing that despite the opposition from Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, he has saved Israel from nuclear destruction.

Mr. Trump also insisted that if Iran fails to reach a final nuclear agreement with the United States—a process his aides say is expected to begin on Friday in Switzerland—he will resume military attacks on Tehran or, in exchange for receiving 20% of regional revenues, will make the United States the "guardian of the Middle East."

In a 28-minute phone conversation that Mr. Trump initiated from his residence in the White House, and in a subsequent brief call, the President claimed that his decision to attack Iran in late February and the subsequent naval blockade of its ports after Tehran closed the Strait transformed the Middle East in favor of the United States.

Speaking on his 80th birthday, with the sound of his family gathering for a birthday dinner in the background, he praised two authoritarian leaders—Xi Jinping, the President of China, and Vladimir V. Putin, the President of Russia—for their assistance in this agreement and severely criticized Mr. Netanyahu for conducting attacks that nearly derailed the final agreement.

Regarding the Prime Minister of Israel, Mr. Trump said, "He is a very difficult person, and to be honest, he should be very grateful to us for this. Because if Iran had a nuclear weapon, Israel wouldn't last two hours."

Although the text of the agreement has not yet been released, it appeared that Mr. Trump was describing concessions from Iran that the country has not yet made or have been postponed for later negotiations. For example, the memorandum only suspends tolls for passing through the Strait for 60 days and then promises regional dialogue about the future. Iran never charged tolls before the war, so Mr. Trump is essentially celebrating a return to the pre-war status.

Mr. Trump repeatedly compared his new memorandum to the 2015 agreement between Barack Obama, the then-President, and Iran's leadership, stating that his agreement will ensure that Iran "cannot produce or acquire nuclear weapons." Iran had agreed to this when it ratified the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1970, and it was reiterated on the front page of the Obama-era agreement.

In the past three months of negotiations, led by Steve Witkoff, the President's special envoy, and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, the Iranians insisted that they would never give up their right to enrich uranium under that treaty. Mr. Trump said they are still negotiating whether Iran will suspend its enrichment for 20 years or not—Trump implied he might accept a 15-year suspension—but stated that Iran will be permanently limited to low-level enrichment; levels that "can never be used by the military."

The Obama administration's agreement also had this condition, but after Mr. Trump abandoned that agreement in 2018, Iran began enriching at much higher levels, including uranium close to the level needed for a bomb, with a 60% enrichment.

During this conversation, the President was in a cheerful mood and spoke about the upcoming UFC event that is set to take place on the South Lawn of the White House and the possibility that rain might disrupt it. He said, "Things like this happen during wartime."
nytimes

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