{"id":498467,"date":"2026-06-18T04:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T04:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/498467\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T04:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T04:42:09","slug":"donald-trump-says-iran-deal-means-israel-is-not-going-to-be-nuked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/498467\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump says Iran deal means Israel is \u2018not going to be nuked&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Iran will retain ballistic missiles but will never be allowed to have nuclear weapons, President Donald Trump said Wednesday, stressing that his deal opening the Strait of Hormuz and ending the war with the Islamic Republic would save Israel from atomic destruction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">\u201cThink of what Israel is getting. They are not going to be nuked,\u201d Trump told reporters in Evian, France, toward the end of the G7 summit, where he secured the support of its leaders for the deal that relies on a carrot-and-stick approach.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Trump has offered Iran economic benefits if it halts its nuclear weapons program but has threatened \u201cto bomb the hell out of them\u201d if it doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>The White House on Wednesday afternoon provided to media outlets including Reuters and the Associated Press a copy of its<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/middle-east\/iran-news\/article-899761\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Memorandum of Understanding<\/a> digitally signed on Sunday between Washington and Tehran. The agreement has been met with staunch criticism from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\/defense-news\/article-899740\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Israeli and US politicians<\/a> across the political spectrum, even though prominent Republicans began backing it once details were known.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham wrote on X\/Twitter Wednesday that it could be beneficial, while Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy called it \u201cthe worst foreign policy blunder in decades.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Youths ride vehicles while waving flags of Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Hezbollah in Baghdad on June 15, 2026, during celebrations following the announcement of a deal to end the war between Iran and the US.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"822\" height=\"829\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781757729_954_725816.jpeg\"\/>Youths ride vehicles while waving flags of Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Hezbollah in Baghdad on June 15, 2026, during celebrations following the announcement of a deal to end the war between Iran and the US. (credit: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Israel and its supporters are concerned that the memorandum empowers the Islamic Republic, allows for economic resources to pour into Iran, is short on details regarding the prevention of a nuclear Iran, fails to mention ballistic missiles and demands an end to the war in Lebanon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Israel has been under heavy Iranian ballistic missile fire in the last year, first during a 12-day war in June 2025, and again from February 28 to April 8, when a shaky ceasefire went into effect. The memorandum prolongs that ceasefire for 60 days, with the option of an extension, during which time Washington and Tehran will hold talks to flush out details of the agreement.<\/p>\n<p>During the press conference, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/tags\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Trump<\/a> said that the deal was good for Israel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">\u201cI told Bibi, \u2018Bibi, your biggest risk was that they drop a nuclear weapon into the middle of Israel; they only need one, and there would be no more Israel. You got the most important thing that you were asking for,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">\u201cIran has agreed they will neither produce or procure nuclear weapons,\u201d Trump said, adding that Tehran would work with the US to \u201cturn over\u201d the enriched uranium at the nuclear sites bombed during the war. Technical discussions on the removal of all stockpiles of enriched materials will begin immediately, he added.<\/p>\n<p>Iran gets to have ballistic missiles and billions of dollars<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">He defended his position on Iran\u2019s retention of ballistic missiles, explaining that the country had to keep pace with its neighbors, such as Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">\u201cThey [Iranians] have to have some, because other people have some,\u201d Trump said, adding, \u201cAm I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles but they can\u2019t have them? It doesn\u2019t work that way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Trump similarly defended the provisions in the agreement that lifted sanctions, including on the export of oil, and allow for the creation of a $300 billion fund for rehabilitation and economic development accessible should a final nuclear deal be arrived at after the 60-day negotiation period.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">The fund \u201cis only if they are doing things right,\u201d Trump underscored, adding \u201cthey have to behave themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The president also addressed one of the central sticking points of the deal for Israel, the demand for an end to the war in Lebanon. Doing so would leave the Iranian proxy group there intact at a time when Israel has been negotiating with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/tags\/lebanon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Lebanon<\/a> for a peace deal that would tackle the issue of Hezbollah.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">\u201cIn all fairness to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he happens to be a very good man; he gets a little excited sometimes,\u201d said Trump, explaining that they \u201chad a little dispute over Lebanon.\u201d Trump said that Lebanese leaders would be visiting the White House soon, as he reiterated comments from two days ago criticizing Israeli combat in Lebanon, explaining that Syria would do a better job against Hezbollah.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">With an eye to the future, Trump said he still sought Saudi entry into the Abraham Accords, first put in place in 2020 and under whose rubric a number of Arab countries normalized ties with Israel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">\u201cI think Saudi Arabia, if they lead the way, they will be doing themselves a big favor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran will retain ballistic missiles but will never be allowed to have nuclear weapons, President Donald Trump said&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,87,142930,12157,143295,145137,46,1486,43,8679,2201],"class_list":["post-498467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-iran","tag-iran-deal","tag-iran-missiles","tag-iran-us-conflict","tag-iran-us-nuclear-talks","tag-israel","tag-memorandum-of-understanding","tag-news","tag-nuclear-weapon","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498467","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=498467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}