Former White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday that President Trump can secure a new deal to curtail Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, on the heels of negotiations between U.S. officials and Iran in Oman.
Mr. Sullivan, who was a top adviser on foreign policy to President Joseph R. Biden, said he believed Mr. Trump can get a new agreement — but it would likely appear similar to one President Barack Obama developed and Mr. Trump scrapped.
“I think there is a possibility that they could get a deal,” Mr. Sullivan told ABC News’ “This Week.” “I think that deal, in its elements, won’t look too different from the deal that President Obama … produced in the Obama administration that Donald Trump ripped up.”
The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as JCPOA, allowed Iran to continue its nuclear program but imposed restrictions on uranium enrichment among other things.
Mr. Trump protested the deal in 2015 and pulled the U.S. out of the agreement in 2018 after taking office.
On Saturday, the U.S. discussed Tehran’s nuclear ambitions with Iranian officials in Oman and left with the promise for additional talks.
Meanwhile on Saturday, a major explosion rocked a port in southern Iran just after the talks began, killing at least 40 people and injuring some 1,000 others. Authorities offered no immediate cause for the blast, which appeared to have been caused by a highly combustible material — though officials ruled out its oil and gas industry.
Iran’s military denied reports the blast was linked to the delivery from China shipments of ammonium perchlorate — a key component used in the manufacture of solid rocket fuel for ballistic missiles.
The private security firm also linked to a shipment of a chemical ingredient used to make missile propellant to the port as well.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state television after the talks that the discussions were “very serious and work-focused.”
“This time, the negotiations were much more serious than in the past, and we gradually entered into deeper and more detailed discussions,” Mr. Araghchi said. “We have moved somewhat away from broader, general discussions — though it is not the case that all disagreements have been resolved. Differences still exist both on major issues and on the details.”
Before the weekend rendezvous, Mr. Trump said he expected to make a deal with Iran. Mr. Trump said in an interview with Time Magazine that he believed he could get a deal and that he did not stop Israel from attacking Iran’s nuclear sites.
“I think we can make a deal without the attack. I hope we can,” Mr. Trump said in the interview published Friday on his first 100 days in office. “It’s possible we’ll have to attack because Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. But I didn’t make it comfortable for them, but I didn’t say no. Ultimately I was going to leave that choice to them, but I said I would much prefer a deal than bombs being dropped.”
Asked if he was open to meeting Iran’s supreme leader or president, Mr. Trump answered “sure.” Mr. Trump’s willingness to meet with Iranian officials directly comes fewer than six months after the Justice Department accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of an effort to surveil and kill Mr. Trump.
Mr. Sullivan told ABC the Biden administration weakened Iran to a sufficient point for negotiations to occur, but Mr. Trump thinks the Biden administration’s policies benefited Iran.
“When Biden came and he took off all the sanctions, he let China and everybody else buy all the oil, Iran developed $300 billion in cash over a four-year period,” Mr. Trump told Time. “They started funding terror again, including Hamas. Hamas was out of business. Hezbollah was out of business. Iran had no money under me. I blame the Biden administration, because they allowed Iran to get back into the game without working a deal.”
• This article includes wire service reports.
Correction: A previous version of the story misspelled Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s last name.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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