Maybe we’ve been misunderstanding Donald Trump this entire time. For more than a decade, the US President has been railing against Barack Obama’s “terrible” Iran nuclear deal time and again.
Obama had persuaded Iran to delay any nuclear enrichment activities for at least 10 years, and dramatically reduce its existing stocks of enriched uranium. In exchange, many US sanctions against the country would be lifted, and it would be allowed to use financial assets previously frozen or seized by the USA.
Trump had almost constantly attacked the deal, but focused in particular on a flight returning $400m (£298m) of previously frozen funds to Iran. “It’s so sad, so disgusting,” Trump said in one of his many interventions on the topic. We had all assumed that Trump was outraged at the idea of the US sending money to Iran, even if the money had been Iran’s in the first place.
Shorts
But as the details of Trump’s own peace deal with Iran emerge, it seems like that can’t have been the case. Not only does Trump’s deal appear to unfreeze billions of dollars of Iran’s money, but the proposals include plans for a $300bn (£223bn) “reconstruction fund” for Iran, funded by the USA and its allies.
