Foreign Policy

Trump's Iran Deal Looks a Lot Like the Previous Ones He Hated

What exactly was the point of killing thousands of people and destroying the world economy?

Matthew Petti | 4.17.2026 2:29 PM

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(Andrew Leyden/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom/Iranian Foreign Ministry/UPI/Xinhua/Sipa USA)

The best sign of a U.S.-Iranian compromise is both sides insisting that they aren't giving anything up. On Friday morning, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he had reached a deal with Iran to give up its enriched uranium. "No money will exchange hands," he claimed, and the "deal is in no way subject to Lebanon, either," though he also declared that "Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer."

The lady doth protest too much. Axios reports that in Pakistani-brokered talks, the U.S. has offered to unfreeze several billion dollars of Iranian money in foreign banks in exchange for the uranium. And the Israeli press reports that Trump pushed Israel to accept a ceasefire with Lebanon, over the Israeli government's objections, because Iran threatened to walk out of talks.

Meanwhile, the same morning, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi declared the Strait of Hormuz "completely open for the........

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