US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday (June 3) that Iran has already agreed not to develop a nuclear weapon and that he expected to eventually meet Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei “depending on how it all works out.”
Speaking in an interview broadcast on the “Pod Force One” podcast, Trump told the host: “They’ve already agreed they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon.” Asked about Khamenei’s role in ongoing negotiations, Trump said the Iranian leader remained “actively involved” in the process. “He’s involved, absolutely. I think they have a lot of respect for him,” Trump said, according to Reuters wire copy carried by Ada Derana.
The claim is the strongest framing Trump has offered to date on the nuclear file. Until now, the White House has framed talks as ongoing, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio telling a Senate hearing on Monday that a Phase 2 nuclear deal could take 30 to 90 days. Neither the Iranian Foreign Ministry nor the Supreme National Security Council has publicly confirmed any agreement to forgo weapons-grade enrichment as of Wednesday evening.
Trump also said he had “never had the privilege of meeting” Khamenei but wanted to and “probably will at some point.” He described the conflict with Iran, which began with US-Israeli strikes on February 28, as a success because Iran’s military had been “defeated.” Pressed on next steps, Trump said: “We’re working on a deal, and that happens fine. If it doesn’t happen, that’s OK too. We’ll do it the other way” — a phrase the President has previously used to signal a return to military action.
The Wednesday remarks land amid a wider US-Iran negotiation cycle that has seen Trump’s own edits to the deal text in early June and pushback from Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Baghaei on uncompensated access to the Strait of Hormuz. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, separately, has insisted Iran must never be allowed a nuclear weapon regardless of the political framework reached in Washington.
