{"id":498210,"date":"2026-06-18T01:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T01:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/498210\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T01:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T01:08:15","slug":"as-deal-takes-force-trump-says-its-okay-for-iran-to-have-some-ballistic-missiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/498210\/","title":{"rendered":"As deal takes force, Trump says ‘it’s okay’ for Iran to have some ballistic missiles"},"content":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed Iran should be allowed to keep some of its ballistic missiles, as he defended the signed memorandum of understanding between his administration and Tehran shortly before the deal entered into force.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf other countries have them, it\u2019s a little bit unfair for them not to have some,\u201d Trump said in France, where he held a press conference on the sidelines of a G7 summit. \u201cIf Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and they all have some, I would say that in relative proportion, I think it\u2019s okay\u201d for Iran to have ballistic missiles as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cMissiles aren\u2019t the problem\u2026 They hurt a little location, but they don\u2019t blow up the planet (like nuclear weapons do),\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

Destruction of Iran\u2019s missile program had been an aim on the same footing as others for Israel when it launched a war against the Islamic Republic alongside the US on February 28. While the US for weeks waffled on its own aims for the war, it has insisted throughout that Iran was attempting to use its missile program as a shield to make it impossible for other countries to prevent it from building a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s de-prioritization of the missile issue appeared to mark a shift for the US, though he did clarify that the program would be discussed in follow-on talks that the sides agreed to hold for the next 60 days.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
\n\t\t\tby email and never miss our top stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n

Hours after Trump\u2019s press conference, the Iranian foreign ministry announced that the text of the MOU had been \u201cofficially\u201d signed by the presidents from both countries, which Trump confirmed following a dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles.<\/p>\n

A US official clarified to Reuters that Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed it after the memo was signed digitally on Sunday by Vice President JD Vance and Iran\u2019s chief negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and witnessed by Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe text of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding was finalized with the signatures of the presidents \u2014 now it is time to test the implementation of the agreement,\u201d Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said, quoted by the state news agency IRNA.<\/p>\n

Despite the signings, the US has refrained from officially releasing the text of the deal, leading to mounting criticism that it was trying to hide the terms.<\/p>\n

As different versions of the deal began leaking, the White House decided to hold a phone briefing for reporters with two of the top officials in the Trump administration during which they read out the full <\/a>MOU.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tUS President Donald Trump meets with Egypt\u2019s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi (not seen) on the\u00a0sidelines of\u00a0the G7 summit, in Evian-les-Bains, France, June 17, 2026. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson\/AP)<\/p>\n

Enriched uranium not that important either<\/p>\n

The readout confirmed that the MOU also does not require Iran to hand over its stockpiles of highly-enriched uranium, which can be used to produce 11 nuclear bombs.<\/p>\n

Instead, it states that the US and Iran have agreed to address the issue through a mechanism that will be negotiated over the next two months, \u201cwith the minimum methodology to be down-blending on site under the supervision of the IAEA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pushed on the issue during his press conference, Trump downplayed the importance of obtaining Iran\u2019s uranium stockpiles, claiming that Tehran cannot access them anyway.<\/p>\n

He again asserted that the \u201cnuclear dust\u201d is buried deep under rubble after bombing Iran\u2019s three main nuclear sites last year. He said only the US and China have the equipment to reach it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually not valuable, but we\u2019d like to get it psychologically,\u201d Trump said. \u201cNobody\u2019s touching it. We also have Space Force cameras\u201d monitoring the sites.<\/p>\n

It has not been publicly confirmed that the stockpiles are actually located in any of those three sites. Iran is also said to have other stockpiles of uranium enriched to lower levels \u2014 which could also ultimately be turned into a nuclear weapon \u2014 located elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Regardless, Trump said the issue will still be a key topic of discussions with Iran over the next two months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll work closely with us to turn over the so-called enriched material,\u201d he says, before again suggesting that the goal is not that important to him, as Iran is likely to push back on the demand.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tUS President Donald Trump meets with Qatar\u2019s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani\u00a0during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G7 summit, June 16, 2026, in Evian-les-Bains, France. (AP\/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)<\/p>\n

More bombing would\u2019ve led to \u2018economic catastrophe\u2019<\/p>\n

After spending much of the war defending the decision to use military force against Iran, Trump on Wednesday found himself asserting the limits of such force.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we didn\u2019t do this deal, we could have dropped more bombs for another three weeks, two to four weeks, [but] you would never have the Hormuz Strait open, the market would have\u2026 gone down to levels that nobody ever saw before,\u201d Trump said, arguing that he staved off \u201ceconomic catastrophe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump knocked hawkish critics who oppose the deal, calling them, \u201cthe tough guys that would drive the country right down the tubes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we keep bombing\u2026 You\u2019re talking about $500, $600, $700 million a day. It\u2019s a lot of money,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

He then suggested the US would have run out of ammunition had it continued bombing Iran, rather than reaching a deal this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe run out of reserves in about four weeks\u2026 There are reserves all over the world, and we would really run out, and there\u2019ll be a time when you wouldn\u2019t be able to get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tUS President Donald Trump, center, speaks as United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio stands right, during a press conference at the end of the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo\/Vadim Ghirda)<\/p>\n

Ready to bomb some more<\/p>\n

While Trump maintained that additional strikes would have caused major harm to both civilians in Iran as well as the global economy, he still went on to threaten to resume the bombing if Tehran does not comply with the MOU.<\/p>\n

But given that the MOU is a rather general document, Trump was pressed on how exactly it binds Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere doesn\u2019t have to be\u201d anything enforceable in the agreement, Trump said during the press conference, insisting his threat to bomb Iran if it does not comply is sufficient.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat else am I going to do? Am I going to say, \u2018I\u2019m going to take you to court\u2019? No. We\u2019re gonna bomb the hell out of them if they violate the agreement,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

Trump was also pressed to explain his claim from recent days that the MOU permanently prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, given that the actual text suffices with, \u201cIran reaffirms that it shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I say permanently, it should be permanently, but if it\u2019s not permanently, we will bomb them,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tCommuters drive past an anti-US billboard referring to President Donald Trump and the Strait of Hormuz, installed on a building at the Valiasr Square in Tehran, on May 10, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s with me as president. If you have a weak, pathetic president, maybe that doesn\u2019t happen,\u201d he added, admitting that he cannot control what will happen after his term ends.<\/p>\n

On the separate phone briefing, the senior US official said the administration was working to get as much oil out of the Strait of Hormuz as possible so that the global supply can be restocked in case Trump decides to resume the war against Iran.<\/p>\n

The official argued that the US is not risking very much by agreeing to an MOU this week with Iran because the bulk of the sanctions relief it may provide will only be realized if Tehran makes concessions in the subsequent nuclear negotiations that will be held over the next two months.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the meantime\u2026 we\u2019re working to get as much oil out of there as possible and to let everyone restock global supplies and help everyone get into position for if Iran misbehaves and there has to be another round of efforts,\u201d the senior US official said.<\/p>\n

The official said negotiators from both sides will be meeting over the weekend in Switzerland, where the MOU is set to be formally signed on Friday. That sit-down \u201cwill be quite critical in order to see how we get to the next phase.\u201d<\/p>\n

The official noted that the meeting will be held at a Swiss hotel owned by officials from Qatar, which shares a gas field with Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be a very good illustration to show that with the money that comes out of this gas field, [it] can either be used to buy great properties that give you cash flow and returns to reinvest in your population\u2026 or you could fund terrorism, which basically has led to destruction and devastation that makes them much worse off,\u201d the senior US official said.<\/p>\n

However, Iran\u2019s foreign ministry later suggested the meeting in Switzerland may be called off now that the deal was signed by Trump and the Iranian president.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Friday meeting was confirmed until a few hours ago, but when it was decided that the presidents of the two sides (Iran and the US) would sign the agreement, it was decided to pause consideration of the Friday meeting for now,\u201d Baghaei said.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tPeople walk at Tajrish traditional bazaar in northern Tehran, Iran, June 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Vahid Salemi)<\/p>\n

US downplays up-front sanctions relief granted to Iran<\/p>\n

Trump also faced questions regarding the up-front sanctions relief that the US has agreed to provide Iran after repeatedly insisting that it would only do so after Iran makes concessions in the follow-up nuclear talks.<\/p>\n

In going over the text of the MOU on the briefing call, the senior US official revealed that a US waiver on sanctions against Iran oil exports is actually in the text itself, which states that it will be \u201cimmediately\u201d applied upon the deal\u2019s signing.<\/p>\n

The senior official claimed that Iran was able to sell oil, regardless of the sanctions, and was \u201cgiving China a massive discount\u201d \u2014 a benefit that the US wanted to end.<\/p>\n

A second senior US official on the call argued that the war caused hundreds of billions of dollars in damages to Iran, while the relief from the sanctions waiver will only be in the \u201csingle digit billions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that significant in the scheme of things. They were able to (export oil) anyway by opening the strait, so we thought that was actually a fair concession to give them, as it also helps bring down global oil prices,\u201d the US official said.<\/p>\n

As for Iranian funds that the US has frozen in accounts abroad, Trump indicated during the press conference that he will allow Tehran to access those as well, without specifying any conditions.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tThis handout picture provided by the media office of the Iranian presidency shows President Masoud Pezeshkian (3R) and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (4R) attending the Tehran Dialogue Forum in Tehran on May 18, 2025. (IRANIAN PRESIDENCY \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have taken a lot of their money \u2014 it\u2019s their own money, and we froze it at a certain point in time,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI guess we\u2019re going to have to give it back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we didn\u2019t give it back, nobody would ever invest in the dollar again,\u201d Trump claimed.<\/p>\n

\u2018That\u2019s what Iran asked us to do\u2019<\/p>\n

Attempting to explain why the US had refrained from releasing the text of the MOU despite it first being signed Sunday, the senior US official briefing reporters claimed Tehran asked that it not be released until the Friday signing ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe motto that we want to have with this deal is no side-deals and full transparency, so it was unfortunate we weren\u2019t able to put it out right away,\u201d the US official said.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tAn individual plays a satirical video game installations titled Operation Epic Furious Strait to Hell, created by guerrilla art group Secret Handshake, at the District of Columbia War Memorial on May 11, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Heather Diehl\/Getty Images\/AFP)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were trying to accommodate their domestic messaging and their domestic politics, and we\u2019re trying to build trust with them, and that\u2019s what they asked us to do,\u201d the US official said.<\/p>\n

Trump revealed during the press conference that the US had \u201csent a copy\u201d of the MOU to Israel. Earlier in the week, Hebrew media reported that the US had refused Israeli requests to see the text.<\/p>\n

The senior US official on the briefing call denied those reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing has been requested of us. We\u2019ve always shared with them some of the concepts of what it was. We\u2019ve had consultations with [the Israelis] along the way,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu \u201chas not asked us for a copy of (the MOU). Maybe he hasn\u2019t seen the final document, but he can\u2019t say that he\u2019s not up to speed on what\u2019s occurring,\u201d the US official insisted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat (Netanyahu) said to us is that if we can get all of these concessions out of Iran the way that we\u2019re thinking about it, he thinks that would be a historic deal,\u201d the US official continued. \u201cHe remains skeptical that we\u2019ll do it, but we remain skeptical as well. That\u2019s why we\u2019re going to go forward to the next negotiations, and see what we\u2019re able to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other senior US official on the call went on to knock \u201cthe Iranian and Israeli press for misrepresenting or misunderstanding\u201d the MOU \u2014 lumping Iran\u2019s state-controlled media together with Israeli outlets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed Iran should be allowed to keep some of its ballistic missiles,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[190560,229277,190507,49,54,42,144078,89717,31403,53,45061,11487,43,40,38,41,39,11605,194094],"class_list":["post-498210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-2026-israel-hezbollah-conflict","tag-2026-us-iran-memorandum-of-understanding","tag-2026-us-israel-war-with-iran","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-iran-missile-program","tag-irans-nuclear-program","tag-iranian-missiles","tag-israel-us-relations","tag-jared-kushner","tag-jd-vance","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uranium","tag-uranium-enrichment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}