Eli Lake, Columnist

Trump Lowers the Bar for a Deal With Iran

Once there were 12 conditions for reopening negotiations. Now there are just three.

August 26, 2019 at 8:40 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Who wants a deal with Iran more?
Photographer: Michael Kappeler/picture alliance via Getty Images/picture alliance

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When President Donald Trump finally followed through on his threats and withdrew the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, it looked like he was after something far more ambitious. Shortly after the announcement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo outlined 12 conditions for the U.S. to lift the sanctions Trump had just reimposed, including an end to threats against Israel, a withdrawal of Iranian forces from Syria and the release of all U.S. citizens Iran was detaining.

Today, at a press conference at the Group of Seven summit in France, Trump whittled down those conditions to just three. “We’re looking for: no nuclear weapons, no ballistic missiles and a longer period of time,” he said, referring to the expiration of many conditions of the last deal in 2030. “Very simple, we can have it done in a very short period of time.”