President Trump says the agreement he reached with Iran could end the war he started and ensure that the country will never have a nuclear weapon. He claimed that Iran has promised not to develop one, a promise it has made before, including in the nuclear deal reached with the Obama administration that Mr. Trump ripped up.<\/p>\n
But the details on the future of Iran\u2019s nuclear program have not been settled. Those issues will be negotiated in the 60 days after two sides are scheduled to sign the agreement on Friday.<\/p>\n
The text of the accord has not been released and both sides are spinning their versions of it, making it difficult to know precisely what Iran has promised. For example, Iran has in principle agreed to suspend enriching uranium for some years, but the two sides have yet to agree on how long that will be.<\/p>\n
In a telephone interview with The New York Times on Sunday, Mr. Trump admitted<\/a> that a consensus had not been reached. He wants Iran to stop enriching for 20 years; Iran reportedly wants no more than a decade.<\/p>\n The president hinted that he might settle for a 15-year suspension but was also adamant that Iran would be limited to enriching at low levels that \u201ccould never be used by the military.\u201d But he declined to say what that enrichment level would be, and whether it would be the same as the 3.67 percent purity \u2014 enough for civilian use only \u2014 laid out in the 2015 nuclear deal signed by former President Barack Obama that Mr. Trump abandoned in 2018, calling it the worst deal in history. He said only that the new accord would assure that \u201cthey can only enrich for nonmilitary purposes. Forever.\u201d<\/p>\n If it really is \u201cforever,\u201d that would be an improvement on the 2015 deal, which had time limits attached to it.<\/p>\n Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n