US Iran Peace Deal | Trump's Iran Push: Peace Deal Or Power Play?

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]All right, good evening and welcome to Left Right and Center. I am Vishnu Som on the program this evening. We are looking at the next set of developments which have taken place as regards to the situation in West Asia. There is a peace proposal which is now being discussed, but there has been no breakthrough and there was an expectation of a breakthrough very very soon. Um That said, there is still a little bit of hope that things might eventually worked out. Now, one of the key points which has been mentioned is that the US President Donald Trump wants several of the Persian Gulf nations, the GCC nations, to sign on to the Abraham Accord. That includes Pakistan as well, incidentally. Now, what is the plan? It includes lifting all US sanctions, a full American troop withdrawal from the region, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and the broader guarantees against future strikes, steps that prompted President Trump to pause planned military action and call the offer a workable basis for talks. But, despite the promising signals and weeks of backchannel diplomacy, the White House has rejected Iran's proposal, right, as being insufficient. No comprehensive deal has been reached so far, leaving both sides still at the table, [music] but clearly there appears to be time running out. There are substantial differences between the Iranians and the Americans, and it is absolutely clear, and let there be no doubt about this, that Iran doesn't believe that it's negotiating from a position of strength.

[00:01:27]But, there is an important development today. Donald Trump, the US President, in speaking to several leaders of GCC nations, Persian Gulf nations, say that they need to actually get into the Abraham Accords. Now, what exactly are the Abraham Accords? They are 2020. They were US-brokered normalized agreements establishing diplomatic ties between Israel and Arab nations like the UAE and Bahrain. These accords represented a major Trump foreign policy achievement by fostering economic and security cooperation without requiring a Palestinian state solution first. Today, President Trump proposed making these Abraham Accords possibly mandatory, but for most countries involved in the current Iran peace negotiations, Trump urged Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, and others to join simultaneously, and even invited Iran to participate if it signs a US deal. But that's in fact not the entire story. The key issue is the potential deal. Now, where exactly is it? Let's bring you a couple of points.

[00:02:31]Now, is there going to be a nuclear reset? That's a key issue. Iran is pledged no nuclear weapons, nothing new in that. Tehran says is to give up 60% enriched uranium stockpile, according to what we are hearing. Has Tehran agreed?

[00:02:45]We don't know as yet. There are approximately 440 kg of uranium stock under the deal framework, which is being looked at. Will that be moved out of Iran or not? We don't know. There is a 60-day roadmap to dispose this enriched uranium. Now, these are proposals again, I repeat, Iran has not accepted this, but this is what we are what we are hearing. In exchange for doing this, uh what uh Iran is expected to do is to phase the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait of Hormuz will be reopened. The US may lift a blockade on Iranian ports uh as well.

[00:03:23]Sanctions waivers will enable Iran to get into oil sales, and there could be a potential deal if this all works out.

[00:03:31]What would we look at? Regional de-escalation, and a formal end to the Israel-Hezbollah war on the table.

[00:03:38]That's what Iran certainly wants. A push for a broader West Asia ceasefire. A deal which aims to reduce regional tensions. All right, so it's it's all out there. Now, how much will America be willing to agree to parts of this, how much will Iran be willing to accept? It's not happened as yet. There was a sense in the last 24 hours that in fact there would hopefully be some important changes. Well, joining us now Dr. John Harrison. He's a Middle East expert. Um and uh and a fellow at the Rabdan Security and Defense Institute. Amy Frederickson is a Republican strategist. Richard Sanders is a former advisor to the Chief of Staff of the US Army. And Mohammad Khatibi is a broadcast journalist of Middle Eastern affairs who joins us live from Tehran. In fact, Mohammad Khatibi, let me come to you first.

[00:04:28]Is the Iranian government at all willing to cut down on enriching uranium? Let alone transferring that 60% enriched uranium outside the country.

[00:04:43]I think there is a big mistrust between Iran and the United States and it stands for over 47 years and that can't be done just in two or three days or one or two sessions of talks. I think that Iran is willing to offer concessions to the United States much more than what it offered in the JCPOA, which Trump in his first administration withdrew from it.

[00:05:09]Iran is willing to show the US that it don't want a nuclear weapon, but enrichment is a red line. However, because of showing goodwill, Iran is willing to halt its enriching program for some time, but not a long term as there are reports about 20 or so years. Iran is ready to Mohammad Khatibi, that's an important point.

[00:05:39]But but let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. Iran may be willing may be willing to stop its uranium enrichment, but what about the uranium that already exists in Iran? 400 plus kilograms of 60% enriched uranium. Is Iran willing to have that leave your country, possibly to the United States?

[00:06:03]I don't think that the government is thinking about that right now because that enriched uranium gives Iran many options and the United States knows that well. Iran can use that to build a bomb.

[00:06:17]Iran can use that enriched uranium to create dirty bombs, some kind of chemical weapons, and Iran is using that as a leverage and this can't happen because Iran wants that enriched uranium inside Iran, but I think that Iran is ready to degrade it inside Iran, but sending it outside is a red line right now. But That's interesting. That is interesting. Let me go across to Dr. John Harrison. Dr. Harrison, I mean, I realistically for Iran to give up that uranium, put it onto a plane, and it gets shipped out to Washington, assuming they're able to physically retrieve it, right?

[00:07:02]That seems I would suggest difficult. However, if the Iranians are willing to dilute it, right? And this is something which is verified, would that be perhaps the biggest breakthrough that we can hope for?

[00:07:15]Uh well, certainly turning it over to the United States is unlikely, but there are plenty of other countries that you could that the US and Iran could agree upon to get the the that 60% enriched uranium removed from the table. And I think that's going to be the most important thing because you've got to remember, not only is has the United States been focusing on this issue, but many other members of the GCC Right. Don't trust Iran, either.

[00:07:43]Uh and there are a number of countries that would like Iran uh to to show that it is in fact not interested in getting nuclear weapons. Iran says a lot of things and many countries have had difficulty believing anything they have said. Certainly the the distrust goes both ways.

[00:08:01]But the question is Iran has to live prove that is willing to live up to some sort of international agreement. It hasn't done so in almost 50 years. Uh so that's the question would be what are they going to give up? And I think turning over uranium that is already 60% uh enriched. Uranium that yes, it may be difficult to remove uh at the moment.

[00:08:20]But if they are willing to give that up and get it out of Iran to a country that is mutually agreed upon. I don't think it has to be the United States necessarily. But as long as it is out of Iran and is no longer a threat to be used in a breakout capacity. Uh then I think you can have a much longer term solution. Because remember it's not only the nuclear question. Well, that is paramount for the United States. The other issues that started this round of the war cuz remember this is a 50-year struggle.

[00:08:48]Uh is about not is about the ballistic missiles and is also about Iranian proxies in in Hezbollah, in Iraq and in Yemen. So there's a lot more on the table than just this. The international community is obviously focused on the the nuclear question and the Strait of Hormuz issue. But there's a lot more going on here. Uh that is going to have to be addressed uh and this is really the only time you can get any sort of agreement is when Iran is in the position that it is in and the US is willing has shown it is willing to use force.

[00:09:21]And in fact probably has at least one more round it would be able to deliver should the should the Trump administration think that Iran is not willing to negotiate any All right. I get your point. AB Frederickson the flip side of the argument and I do disagree a little bit with Dr. Harrison is that you know, there may be another round of attacks. If there is another round of attacks, there is absolutely no guarantee that Iran is just going to sit around and let that happen. They will strike at oil refineries across the region. They've already done that. They can continue to mine the Strait of Hormuz. They can target ships as well.

[00:09:55]So, any American attack effectively, potentially, sends us back years, right? Is that something that any of the nations in the Persian Gulf or the United States would like to see happening?

[00:10:10]Well, so I hear a lot of folks on your talking about trust. And certainly there's been a lack of trust. But peace in the Middle East historically has not come about because folks trust each other, but by a mutually recognized risk. And I think that both sides have come to a recognition of some mutual risk. And more importantly, because the United States in this doesn't doesn't feel it other than an economic squeeze and a and a political season, it it's the Americans are not feeling that as much, but certainly allies and potential allies in the Middle East are feeling this. And more and more, I think that Persian Gulf states, Middle Eastern countries are recognizing are seeing that, you know, stability and and some sort of agreement and stand down is going to be beneficial more far more beneficial than any kind of escalation.

[00:11:05]And so with that, in these in these next rounds, I'm hopeful that there can be Yeah.

[00:11:11]there doesn't need to be any more attacks and we can find an actual sort of detente. Maybe not peace, but some kind of Middle Eastern peace.

[00:11:21]Richard Sanders, is there not a concern right now that you know, it's basic, but we are dealing with egos, American egos, egos of the leadership on on both sides, Iranian egos and therefore if this is being played out in messaging publicly, right? With America saying something and then Iran saying something else because both sides are appealing to their domestic constituencies and both sides are trying to prove that they've not lost the war or they've not come out second in this war, isn't that the big problem over here?

[00:11:54]That the way the messaging is taking place is something which is actually stalling in the process of a genuine peace.

[00:12:04]Well, I would certainly agree that diplomacy by text message is less than ideal. We of course don't know what's going on below the surface, the mediation that Pakistan and Qatar have been involved with and where things are.

[00:12:19]What we need to recognize is we don't have an agreement yet and if we get to a memorandum of understanding, even that is a very preliminary document. We've heard about all the complexities of the nuclear issue and allegedly there's a 60-day plan of negotiations.

[00:12:39]These sound like issues that are not susceptible to a 60-day negotiating cycle but are much more complex than that and yes, there's there's issues that seem to have been taken off the table, question of missiles which is very important first in the event that Iran has a nuclear capability and also even with conventional weapons, these missiles can can reach Israel, they've reached up till now, they can reach the Gulf states. So there's a huge number of concerns that need to be addressed. Even the Gulf of the Straits of Hormuz, how that will be resolved is rather complicated. There's the question, will there be tolls? The Iranians seem to have backed off of that but they're still talking about some kind of service fee for allowing this to go forward.

[00:13:29]What would Oman do? We have 1,500 ships backed up in the Persian Gulf. How will their departure be sequenced? Um, there's many, many issues that need to be resolved. Can't be done in 60 days.

[00:13:42]And I would agree doing it back and forth uh by by tweet, by text message, and introducing out of nowhere new issues like the getting these countries to sign off onto the Abraham Accords I do not make it easier. But there are probably mutual goals that can overlap and Iran has taken a lot of pain as well as the United States and the world as well. So, we'll have to see where this evolves.

[00:14:09]Dr. Harrison, the entire issue of the Abraham Accords being extended, uh it just seems terribly unlikely. I mean, this is a you know, you know, something new on the cards for all of these nations to actually agree to a bigger and a greater relationship with Israel and presumably it's This is being spoken about because that's exactly what Israel wants for the for a sense of their own security, but it's just too large an issue, I would suggest, to be looked at now. All we want right now is for the ceasefire to actually last and and you know, to be some sort of an agreement to bring in something larger, you know, which requires possibly separate negotiations. At this stage, does that help?

[00:14:55]Certainly I think that it doesn't make things easier.

[00:14:59]Dr. Harrison, go ahead.

[00:15:00]>> Uh but Yeah. Yes, that that's okay. But but remember something, before Hamas attacked on October 7th, the Saudis had made it pretty clear that they were willing to maybe not formally join the Abraham Accords, but come pretty close to it. Uh so, I think there's quite a bit of movement within the region quietly. There's going to have to be some settlement or at least some possible plan towards addressing the Palestinian question for at least many of the domestic audiences.

[00:15:32]But one of the things that has become clear and one of the things that was really driving the movement towards the Abraham Accords was that many of the GCC members and those on this side of the Arabian Gulf were very clear that it was Iran that was the threat. And remember all these countries have now lived through an attack from Iran. Right. Each one of the members of the GCC said they were not involved in the war, none of the countries were, and Iran still went and attacked. Yep.

[00:16:02]>> So while the Abraham Accords in a formal sense may be a bridge too far at the moment, some sort of agreement short of that, I don't think is is quite as far off as people think. Okay.

[00:16:13]Well, I'd like to thank you all very much for being with us. Let's see what happens. Let's hope that there is a a serious announcement of a breakthrough sooner than later.

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