TEHRAN – U.S. President Donald Trump told American media that he wants indirect talks with Iran to lead to a “total dismantlement” of the country’s nuclear program, but he would still muse an agreement that acknowledges Iran’s right to pursue “civilian nuclear energy”. 

Trump's recent comments to NBC News add to a string of inconsistent statements from U.S. officials regarding Iran's nuclear activities and a potential new agreement. The president unraveled a 2015 deal on Tehran’s nuclear program during his first term, with his then-Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, demanding new curbs, particularly on Iran’s military and foreign policies. 

As Trump returned to the White House for a second time this year, he reached out to Iran via a letter, stating he was willing to engage in talks without asking for concessions on non-nuclear issues. The two sides have so far engaged in three rounds of indirect talks since early April, with authorities in Tehran saying that, apart from military and foreign policy issues, they are also unwilling to discuss the full dismantlement of the country’s nuclear program.

“I think that I would be open to hearing it, you know?” Trump said to an NBC interviewer when asked about the prospects of a potential deal that respects Iran’s right to operate a nuclear program. “Civilian energy, it’s called. But you know, civilian energy often leads to military wars. And we don’t want to have them to have a nuclear weapon. It’s a very simple deal.”

The fourth round of talks was scheduled for May 3, but it was postponed due to “logistical and technical reasons”, according to previous remarks by the Iranian foreign minister and chief negotiator in the Omani-mediated discussions, Abbas Araghchi. Since entering the talks, Araghchi had been cautious to strike an optimistic tone, seemingly due to American officials' fickleness and their history of abandoning commitments.        

While Iranians across the political spectrum have been clear about what they want from nuclear negotiations for years – the removal of sanctions – voices within the Trump administration have taken on different positions. Alarming analysts, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for instance, prefers foregoing discussions with Iran and instead engaging in a conflict, according to obtained by the Tehran Times.