Skip to Content Subscribe Our Offers My Account Manage My Subscriptions FAQ Newsletters Canada Canadian True Crime Canadian Politics Health World Israel & Middle East Financial Post NP Comment Longreads Puzzmo Diversions Comics NP News Quiz New York Times Crossword Horoscopes Life Eating & Drinking Style Sponsored Play for Ontario Travel Travel Canada Travel USA Travel International Cruises Travel Essentials Culture Books Celebrity Movies Music Theatre Television Business Essentials Advice Lives Told Tails Told Shopping Buy Canadian Home Living Outdoor Living Kitchen & Dining Tech Style & Beauty Personal Care Entertainment & Hobbies Gift Guide Travel Guide Amazon Prime Day Deals Savings National Post Store More Sports Hockey Baseball Basketball Football Soccer Golf Tennis Driving Vehicle Research Reviews News Gear Guide Obituaries Place an Obituary Place an In Memoriam Classifieds Place an Ad Celebrations Working Business Ads Archives Healthing Epaper Manage Print Subscription Profile Settings My Subscriptions Saved Articles My Offers Newsletters Customer Service FAQ Newsletters Canada World Financial Post NP Comment Longreads Puzzmo Diversions Life Shopping Epaper Manage Print Subscription HomeNewsWorldIsrael & Middle EastTrump blows through his red lines to justify interim peace deal with IranIran hawks may not need to worry too much: The interim deal opens the door for 60 days of negotiations and Trump hasn’t given anything away yetAuthor of the article: You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.U.S. President Donald Trump walks to speak to reporters at the airport as he arrives to attend a dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron at Chateau de Versailles in Orly, France, on June 17, 2026. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump and his team had several red lines that they used to justify the U.S. war against Iran. At a press conference on Wednesday, Trump largely brushed them aside.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorExplaining his decision to agree to an interim peace deal, Trump repeated his insistence that the country would never get a nuclear weapon. Yet he went on to suggest that Iran should have the right to enrich uranium, be allowed to develop ballistic missiles and get access to billions of dollars in frozen funds.Those three things have been at the center of the debate around how to approach Iran for years, dating to the 2015 agreement that the U.S., under President Barack Obama, and other great powers signed with Iran to limit its nuclear program.Columnist Jesse Kline keeps you up to date with what’s happening in Israel and the effects of antisemitism on life here in Canada. Friday mornings.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Channel Israel will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againNot only that: Trump had repeatedly cited those issues as reasons why Obama and past presidents had failed so badly in containing the threat posed by the regime in Tehran.In a head-spinning turn of events, Iran hawks including former Vice President Mike Pence and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley lamented Trump’s new vision, while some of the president’s most vehement critics cheered.“It’s doing a lot of the things that Trump criticized Obama for doing,” Christian Whiton, a State Department adviser in the George W. Bush and first Trump administrations, said of the president’s comments. “And whether or not he means it, he has expressed to them he will not resume military operations because doing so will cause the worst recession since the great depression.”The National Iranian American Council, meanwhile, cheered what it saw from Trump.“The measures in this agreement should not be read as concessions but rather corrections to a decades-old policy of coercion that was an abject failure and made war inevitable,” the group said in a statement.Hours later, at the palace of Versailles near Paris, the president signed the so-called memorandum of understanding to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.To be sure, he has a history of taking a hard stance only to reverse it days — sometimes even hours — later. And Iran hawks may not need to worry too much: The interim deal opens the door for 60 days of negotiations and Trump hasn’t given anything away yet.The Trump administration also has said Iran has been so weakened economically and militarily that the U.S. has achieved its goal of threat reduction and even opened the door to the country rejoining the global economy, if its leaders choose that path.But there was plenty in the press conference that surprised even the president’s supporters.Take Iran’s ballistic missile program. Days after the U.S. and Israel launched the war with Iran in late February, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. objective was to “destroy the missile threat” posed by Iran.Trump shrugged off that idea at the press conference marking the end of a G7 summit in Evian, France. He even derided those offering him advice — he referred to them as “guys I like” — as focusing on the wrong thing with the fixation on ballistic missiles. “I mean, they have to have some because other people have some,” Trump said.“Missiles aren’t the problem,” Trump told reporters. “They hurt a little location but they don’t blow up the planet.”The president took the same approach with nuclear enrichment. For years, he and many Republican critics of Iran have questioned why it should be allowed to enrich uranium if, as it insists, it doesn’t want a nuclear weapon. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News in May that Iran needs to “walk away from enrichment.”With Rubio standing right behind him on Wednesday, Trump made clear he no longer agreed.“It’s a little hard when other people have it, other adjoining states have it, and you’re not letting them have it for purposes of electricity and things like that,” Trump said. “You have to use a little common sense.”The third red line Trump crossed centered on Iran’s frozen assets. The country has billions of dollars in overseas accounts that the U.S. has blocked banks from releasing. Part of the justification for years has been that Iran is a leading state sponsor of terrorism, funding proxy groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, and can’t be trusted not to do so again.“It’s not our money, it’s their money — and we froze it at a certain point in time,” Trump said. “I guess we’re going to have to give it back, you know. If we didn’t give it back, nobody would ever invest in the dollar again.”That idea met with strong opposition from some of the president’s most ardent supporters including Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican.“History teaches us giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is not a good idea,” Cruz said in an interview.Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here. Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.