President Trump on Wednesday issued a fiery defense of his deal with Iran, lashing out at critics concerned that the agreement will mirror one reached 11 years ago by a predecessor he disdains.<\/p>\n
Mr. Trump insisted on Wednesday that the United States was not, in effect, paying Iran to agree to the recently negotiated peace agreement<\/a>, and, in an expletive-laden rant, he angrily proclaimed that his deal surpassed the one former President Barack Obama signed with Tehran in 2015.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd you know what the Iranians did? They laughed at Obama, and they said, \u2018He\u2019s a stupid son of a bitch,\u2019\u201d Mr. Trump said.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump made his comments as he gathered with other leaders at the Group of 7 Summit in France. They came just hours before a senior administration official disclosed what the official said were the terms of the deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump\u2019s attack on Mr. Obama on the world stage underscored how much the former president\u2019s deal looms over current negotiations with Iran, which Mr. Trump has trumpeted as a legacy-defining achievement<\/a>. The president has regularly sought to cast himself as a better negotiator than Mr. Obama, and he has criticized the deal Mr. Obama signed<\/a> in 2015 as financially rewarding Tehran without an ironclad guarantee that it would never obtain a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n His personal attack on the former president also added to the stream of provocative, rambling and sometimes contradictory messaging Mr. Trump has delivered in the weeks he has pursued the deal with Iran, and in the days since the two sides agreed to it on Sunday. Until Wednesday, the terms had not been released, stirring speculation and criticism.<\/p>\n Even after trumpeting the deal, he added to the confusion.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very strong deal,\u201d he said. \u201cNobody knows what it is, but it\u2019s very strong.\u201d<\/p>\n The formal signing of the agreement is scheduled for Friday. The text released Wednesday called for the critical Strait of Hormuz to reopen immediately and states that there will be no charge for transit, but \u201cfor 60 days only.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the harshest critics of the deal was Mr. Trump\u2019s former Vice President, Mike Pence. Asked if, based on what he knew, he thought the Trump administration was making a mistake, Mr. Pence said he thought it was \u201cmuch bigger than a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn this moment \u2014 the posture that we\u2019re getting from the Iranians \u2014 but my concern is what appears to be leaking out,\u201d he said in an interview with CNN. \u201cThese immediate concessions, particularly sanctions waivers right out of the gate, that would essentially be a lifeline to the Iranian regime, I think, is ill-advised. We ought to keep the pressure on, keep the blockade on, and if need be, let our armed forces get back to work.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Trump on Wednesday equivocated on whether the deal included any immediate sanctions relief for Iran. At first, he said \u201cno,\u201d and then, when asked again, he said, \u201cThey have to behave well.\u201d<\/p>\n He denied reports that the deal included any U.S. investment in a $300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran, one of the points that has drawn the most attention.<\/p>\n The text of the agreement says the United States \u201cundertakes with regional partners to develop a definitive, mutually agreed plan with at least U.S.D. 300 billion for the reconstruction and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran.\u201d That language allows Mr. Trump to thread the needle on the fund, asserting that there will be no American investment, but that Gulf states might contribute.<\/p>\n At a news conference before he departed the summit, Mr. Trump continued to weave when pressed on the fund. He said that the U.S. had damaged the country so badly during the war that \u201cSomebody\u2019s going to have to help them out.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUnlike Barack Hussein Obama, who sent Iran pallets of cash, any relief they receive under this deal, they\u2019ll have to get based on merit \u2014 and it won\u2019t be from us,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have to give them anything. But some people may want to invest. Like, what are you going to do to say \u2018you can never ever invest in a country,\u2019 I mean, it\u2019s pretty tough.\u201d<\/p>\n The focus on Mr. Obama on Wednesday underscored Mr. Trump\u2019s obsession with persuading people he is a superior leader to the former president. Over the course of the 3-day summit, Mr. Trump \u2014 who has had a fixation with the nation\u2019s first Black president for more than a decade, starting with pushing a racist lie that he was not American \u2014 mentioned Mr. Obama by name nearly two dozen times.<\/p>\n Few issues animate Mr. Trump and other critics of the Obama-era deal as much as the U.S. shipment of $1.7 billion in cash to Tehran a few months after the nuclear deal was agreed upon. That payment was a debt owed to Iran<\/a> for military equipment the United States never delivered. The $1.7 billion, however, pales in comparison next to the $50 billion or more<\/a> in Iranian foreign assets unfrozen under the agreement.<\/p>\n Regarding the $300 billion investment fund, one diplomat said that Iran and the United States must conclude a comprehensive deal to end the war to enable the fund\u2019s creation.<\/p>\n Work on the fund was underway. Commitments amounting to half of the $300 billion figure have already been made, including from companies in the United States, the Middle East, Asia, South America, and Africa, the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations. The fund would be a conduit for private investment, not a reparations program, the diplomat said. Reuters first reported the details about the funding pledges.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Majed al-Ansari, a spokesman for the Qatari foreign ministry, suggested Qatar would not take responsibility for the fund alone. \u201cAny effort on this topic needs to be an international effort,\u201d he said, adding that economic development in the Middle East was everyone\u2019s responsibility.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s economy has long been hobbled by a vast array of sanctions, which have cut it off from much of the world. The $300 billion fund appears to offer Iran a pathway to reintegrate into the world economy.<\/p>\n