Trump says US will work closely with Iran, discuss sanctions

By Bo Erickson, Humeyra Pamuk and Doina Chiacu

WASHINGTON, April 8 (Reuters) – The United States will work closely with Iran and the two countries are discussing tariff and sanctions relief, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, following the announcement of a two-week ceasefire.

Trump’s upbeat talk towards Iran in three Wednesday social media posts marks a dramatic, 24-hour turn in tone. On Tuesday he had threatened to end the country’s whole “civilization” while on Wednesday he declared “A big day for World Peace!”

Trump said on social media that many of the 15 points in the U.S. plan proposed to Iran had been agreed to, but did not elaborate.

“We are, and will be, talking Tariff and Sanctions relief with Iran,” Trump said.

Despite his ebullient comments, and widespread relief on Iran’s streets and in global financial markets over the ceasefire, the main disagreements between Washington and Tehran remain unresolved and the two sides are sticking to competing demands for a potential peace deal.

Trump’s agreement to a two-week cool-down came less than two hours before the deadline he had set for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane, or risk its bridges and power plants being destroyed.

He said on Wednesday the United States “will be helping the traffic buildup” in the Strait. Some analysts have predicted it will likely take more than two weeks to clear the backlog of more than 1,000 ocean-going ​vessels trapped within the Gulf.

The president also said any country supplying weapons to Iran would immediately face a 50% tariff on any goods exported to the U.S., although he did not specify under what authority he would impose the levies. The Supreme Court in February struck down his use of the authority invoked for last year’s sweeping global tariffs, and other tariff options available have limitations to their scope and hurdles to swift imposition.

Beijing and Moscow have helped Iran build military capacity to counter U.S. and Israeli pressure, supplying missiles, ​air-defense systems and technology intended to bolster deterrence. But that support appeared capped during the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran.

Both countries have denied any recent weapons supplies, although allegations against Moscow have persisted. U.S. imports of Russian goods have shriveled since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the wave of sanctions imposed on Moscow as a result.

‘VERY PRODUCTIVE REGIME CHANGE’

Trump offered praise on Wednesday for Iran’s current leaders after U.S. and Israeli strikes killed a number of top officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He has been replaced as supreme leader by his son, Mojtaba Khamenei.

“The United States will work closely with Iran, which we have determined has gone through what will be a very productive Regime Change!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

The negotiations could happen in person, but no final decision has been made, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance, while traveling in Budapest, Hungary, said that he has been working to advance a deal and that Trump is “impatient” to find progress.

He said the president told his team to negotiate in “good faith” if Iran does, as well. “But that’s a ​big if, and ultimately, it’s up to the Iranians how they negotiate. I hope they make the right decision.”

Trump, whose initial reasoning for U.S. military operations centered on preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, also declared in his posts that there will be “no enrichment of Uranium, and the United States will, working with Iran, dig up and remove all of the deeply buried (B-2 Bombers) Nuclear ‘Dust.'”

“Nothing has been touched from the date of attack.”

The war waged by the U.S. and Israel has yet to deprive Iran either of its stockpile of near-weapons-grade highly enriched uranium or its ability to hit its neighbors with missiles and drones. And Iran’s clerical leadership, which faced a mass uprising months ago, has withstood the six-week onslaught with no sign of domestic opposition.

Regardless, the president is also seeing opportunity in Iran if it moves into a reconstruction phase, promising that the United States will be “hangin’ around” to try to usher in a “Golden Age of the Middle East.”

“There will be lots of positive action!” Trump posted just after Wednesday midnight in Washington. “Big money will be made.”

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey, and Bo Erickson in Washington; Humeyra Pamuk in Budapest, Hungary,Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Gareth Jones, Ross Colvin, Philippa Fletcher)