Iran is Humiliating Trump and Vance in Negotiations
The U.S. administration seems in a hurry to make a deal, while Iran is dragging out talks.
A June 22 X post featuring a claim that Iranian officials later denied.
Since Donald Trump became U.S. president for a second time in 2025, two regimes have been immune from his threats: Vladimir Putin’s Russia and Xi Jinping’s China. Now, you can add a third: the theocracy in Iran. Earlier this year, the regime in Tehran -- weakened by airstrikes by the U.S. and Israel last June -- withstood a 37-day bombing campaign and closed the Strait of Hormuz, a global oil choke point. Last week, Trump signed a lopsided peace agreement extending an April cease-fire, reopening the strait, giving Iran significant sanctions relief, and acknowledging Tehran’s colonial influence over Lebanon, while making Iran’s nuclear program the subject of future negotiations.
Now, those negotiations have commenced and Iran has proceeded to humiliate the U.S. by denying the claims made by Trump and Vice President JD Vance on what has been agreed to.
Trump claimed in a June 23 Truth Social post that Iran had “fully and completely agreed to highest level Nuclear inspections long into the future (Infinity!!!)” After talking with Iranian officials on June 22 in Switzerland, Vance claimed that inspections would begin as soon as that very day.
However, Iranian officials denied this and said there were no plans to allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors back into the three most crucial sites of Iran’s nuclear program that the U.S. and Israel bombed last year. Allowing inspections isn’t a concession: it is required by the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Tehran signed in 1970. (Update: IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said on June 24 that inspections are “going to happen” under the interim deal; however, he declined to provide a timeline.) Meanwhile, the Trump Administration has already granted Iran sanctions relief to sell its oil in U.S. dollars for the first time in decades, providing Tehran’s flailing economy with a vital injection of hard currency.
The rest of this story is for paid subscribers only. Unlike global oil prices, my subscription rates have not gone up AT ALL. A yearly subscription to Public Sphere is only $1.35 per week; please consider upgrading your subscription to help me continue offering analysis and reporting on global affairs.
