Can Donald Trump convince Iran to stop pursuing nuclear weapons? In his first media appearance on this week’s Middle East tour, Trump offered an olive branch — if Iran is truly interested in peace and security for the region. He offered Tehran “a new and better path” by dismantling its enrichment systems and ending its provocative proxy wars:
President Donald Trump in a speech in Saudi Arabia will urge Iran to take a “new and a better path” as he pushes for new nuclear deal.
Trump, according to excerpts of the speech to be delivered at the U.S.-Saudi investment conference, will also say he wants to avoid conflict with Tehran.
“As I have shown repeatedly, I am willing to end past conflicts and forge new partnerships for a better and more stable world, even if our differences may be profound,” Trump will say.
Trump then went on to warn what would happen if Iran didn’t take the opportunity to end its nuclear-weapons pursuit:
“Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.”
During remarks at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum, Pres. Trump warned that if Iran rejects his “olive branch” about a nuclear deal, “then we will have no choice but to inflict massive, maximum pressure.” https://t.co/QLVRcevdB6 pic.twitter.com/AHO8ikpM8a
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) May 13, 2025
To emphasize that choice, the US increased sanctions on an Iranian oil-distribution network, even while talks progressed. The Iranians praised the engagement but sharply criticized the sanctions:
The U.S. on Tuesday imposed sanctions on a shipping network it says has sent millions of barrels of Iranian oil to China, the State Department said, two days after Washington and Tehran held a fourth round of talks in Oman on Iran’s nuclear programme.
“The talks were useful” Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told local media.
“In recent days they [the U.S.] issued sanctions on Iran, this is completely incompatible with the process of negotiations… This will definitely affect our positions”, Baghaei said on the sidelines of a book fair.
That was the purpose of those sanctions — to “affect” Iranian positions. The Iranians refuse to admit that they have been and still are pursuing nuclear weapons, despite the exposure of decades of deceit on the topic. Tehran has refused to stop its uranium enrichment activities as part of the deal, claiming that all such activities are in pursuit of peaceful nuclear energy for domestic use, even though their enrichment levels far exceed the necessary threshold for peaceful power generation.
Last week, a smoking gun for their intentions emerged. Fox News got satellite imagery of a large facility near Tehran that claimed to work on commercial chemical production. Instead, intelligence supplied by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) proved that the facility produces tritium, which has no role in nuclear-power generation. It does, however, amplify the impact of nuclear weapons:
The newly identified site, located in Iran’s Semnan Province, is far from the regime’s already-known nuclear facilities. According to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), intelligence gathered from sources inside the country points to a sprawling compound covering nearly 2,500 acres.
Code-named the “Rainbow Site” by Iranian officials, the facility has reportedly been in operation for more than a decade, masked as a chemical production company known as Diba Energy Siba.
According to NCRI sources, the primary function of the Rainbow Site is the extraction of tritium — a radioactive isotope used to enhance nuclear weapons. Unlike uranium enrichment, tritium has virtually no peaceful or commercial applications, casting further doubt on Iran’s longstanding claims that its nuclear ambitions are solely for energy or civilian use.
The NCRI investigators laid out the case, along with the history of the facility:
“This is not a peaceful program. This is a weapons project designed to produce nuclear warheads that can be mounted on missiles with ranges exceeding 3,000 kilometers,” Samsami stated. “Iran’s nuclear infrastructure must be dismantled, enrichment must be halted, and the IAEA must verify the full closure of these sites. The regime’s nuclear ambitions are part of a survival strategy fueled by repression and deception.”
Since Masoud Pezeshkian took office as the regime’s president in 2024, Samsami noted, the regime has executed over 1,200 prisoners, including political detainees, highlighting an increasingly desperate regime facing mounting domestic dissent.
Alireza Jafarzadeh, Deputy Director of NCRI-US, detailed the findings based on intelligence provided by the MEK’s network inside Iran. The same network first exposed the Natanz and Arak nuclear sites in 2002. “This investigation began over a decade ago and includes names, organizations, structures, and on-site details. The site’s development began in 2009 under the supervision of the assassinated nuclear weapons chief Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and became operational in 2013.”
I spoke with Alireza Jafarzadeh yesterday about this facility and the threat it represents to the US and the region. The NCRI wants to get this information out as widely as possible to ensure that whatever agreements arise from these talks deal with the real and specific threats of nuclear blackmail that the mullahs intend to create.
As for regime change, Alireza acknowledges that the US has tried to avoid talking about it in order to facilitate negotiations. The problem, though, is that the regime is likely doomed either way, and that their only hope now may be to cling to nuclear weapons to maintain their grip on power.
This regime thrives on two pillars of the killings inside Iran, but also terrorism outside of Iran. Terrorism is, you know, the proxies they made with a great cost. You know, Assad in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, the Shiite militias in Iraq. There’s a whole list of them. I can name them.
They were all supposed to give the regime what they call a strategic depth to keep them in power. And that’s why they will not give up their nuclear weapons program unless and until they feel that if they don’t act the way the world asked them to do, it will speed up their overthrow. But the dilemma is that either way they’re doomed to fall. If they back down on their nuclear weapons program and give up everything as the way the outside world has asked them.
The time to get tough in talks is now, Alireza emphasizes, because the regime is at its weakest point since the 1979 revolution:
Unlike the previous times that the regime was negotiating with Europe or the United States during the Obama administration, or even Biden administration, this time this regime is so weak, They have no leverage whatsoever, and they have lost their own population. So this is a time to insist on that. This is a time to insist on, you know, shutting down all of those resources, all of those sites in the country.
But given the experience of the past, I think the only sure way to end the threat of the nuclear weapons program of Iran and also the threat of terrorism and warmongering in the region and the killings inside Iran is to end the rule of the clerics. And of course, that’s the responsibility of the people of Iran and the organized resistance.
Alireza Jafarzadeh has much more to say. The podcast of the interview is below:
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