Trump says open to negotiate with Iran: 'It depends on them'

U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday night 12 that he is open to negotiating a new nuclear deal with Iran,but that the first step depends on the Iranian regime. His only conditions, as he made clear, are: "no nuclear weapons and do not kill the protesters." The goal of preventing iranians from obtaining atomic weaponry was already the goal of the previous agreement signed by his predecessor, Barack Obama, in 2015.

"Actually, I'd like them to negotiate. It depends entirely on them," Trump said on Twitter.

The agreement proposed by Trump would replace the 2015 text, also approved by the UK, Germany, France, Russia and China. This agreement, from which the United States withdrew in 2018 because it considered insufficient, allowed the supervision of Iran's nuclear program and limits on uranium enrichment to ensure that there was no development of nuclear weapons. In return, Washington withdrew some of the economic sanctions on the country.

Defense Secretary Mark Esperhad already advanced the White House position on Sunday, but without the conditions imposed by Trump in an interview with CBS News television. Esper said the government is ready to discuss with Tehran's leaders, "without preconditions, a new path, a series of measures that would make Iran a more normal country."

Trump unilaterally dropped out of the agreement in 2018 and revived pre-agreement economic restrictions. Shortly thereafter, he instituted new ones. Tehran didn't be quiet. In one of the first signs of an escalation that could lead to the open conflict, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (GRI) shot down an American drone in the Persian Gulf in June 2019. Washington narrowly did not respond to the Persian country with its military power, retreating at the last minute.

In September, Aramco refineries, Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company, were attacked causing the price of oil to skyrocket. Iran has denied taking part in the action, and Houthis rebels, Tehran's allies in Yemen, have taken over. That's why the United States and the Saudis accuse Iran.

In the meantime, Iran has been failing to gradually comply with the 2015 text commitments, but without leaving the agreement entirely, as the United States did. To renegotiate the agreement, the Iranian government puts as a condition the withdrawal of all sanctions against the country's economy.

Trump's statement follows the week of escalating tensions in the Middle East nearly leading Tehran and Washington to open war. In just over a week, the regime's number two and commander of the ELITE GRI force, Qasem Soleimani,was killed after a deliberate attack by the United States and the base that houses U.S. troops in Iraq attacked by Iranian ballistic missiles.