Can Trump convince Republicans he’s won the war on Iran?

**Sarah Smith** (0:00)
Donald Trump is claiming victory in the war in Iran, long before a peace deal has even been agreed. But already, there are lots of critics in America asking, if we won, why are we waving sanctions on Iranian oil and effectively giving the regime money up front before safeguards and nuclear inspections have been agreed? Just months before the midterm elections, Donald Trump's got to try and persuade his own party and voters that this is a really good deal from America. And he's facing a lot of skepticism. We're going to unpick the politics behind how he's going to try and sell this as a victory. Welcome to Americast.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:39)
Americast.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:40)
Americast from BBC News.

**Donald Trump** (0:42)
You hear that sound? Oh, I think when I hear that sound, it reminds me of money.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:47)
We didn't start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it. This is a big cover up, and this administration is engaged in it.

**SPEAKER_6** (0:54)
This guy has Trump derangement syndrome.

**Anthony Zurcher** (0:58)
Four words for you.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:00)
Turn the volume up.

**Sarah Smith** (1:06)
Hello, it's Sarah here in the BBC's Bureau in Washington.

**Anthony Zurcher** (1:09)
It's Anthony sitting right next to Sarah here in Washington DC.

**Sarah Smith** (1:13)
Let's recap, Anthony, where we've got to, because I wouldn't be at all surprised if people are confused about what the state of negotiations or the war with Iran is. I find it incredibly difficult to keep up myself.
The US and Iran have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, haven't they? Which is not a peace agreement. It's basically an extended ceasefire deal that gives them 60 days to talk about what a final settlement might look like. It's a bit confusing as to what's in this and what the terms of this agreement are. The things Donald Trump are telling us are completely different from what the Iranians tell us. Do we know the truth?

**Anthony Zurcher** (1:48)
There's a lot of gray area in this 14-point Memorandum of Understanding. There's talk about ceasing hostilities, obviously not even threatening hostilities. There's talk about lifting US sanctions on Iran. Iran reiterating that they're not going to develop a nuclear weapon. There's talk about opening the Strait of Hormuz, which obviously was one of the big points that the United States wanted to accomplish here, even if it just goes back to the way things were before the war. Talk about the United States lifting the barricade, the blockade on all Iranian traffic, which the United States seems to do.
It lays out the framework for some sort of lasting piece, as you say, but it is not the details about nuclear inspections, how to ensure that Iran is giving up its nuclear program, what to do with the enriched uranium, how to get it down to a level that is not so close to being ready for a nuclear bomb. All of that stuff still needs to be hashed out, which is one of the reasons JD Vance, the vice president, and a negotiating team went to Switzerland this last weekend, met with Iranians there, and came out again with progress being made, but no concrete kind of developments, at least not yet.

**Sarah Smith** (3:02)
Yet some of the provisions that we do know about that have come into force already, like as you mentioned, Anthony, rolling back oil sanctions have become incredibly controversial here in America because you've got, well, you've got Democrats who were opposed to this war from the very beginning, you've also got a significant hawkish strand of the Republican Party who didn't want them to stop until the Iranian regime had been toppled or certainly very clearly defeated in a way they feel they haven't been, as well as of course all the MAGA base who are deeply uncomfortable about the idea of getting embroiled in this war. And some of them seem to be united around the idea that it's not a great idea to lift sanctions on selling Iranian oil before they've been compelled to do anything else. It's like just in order to get the talks going, all of a sudden they're going to be able to sell oil in the international market for the first time since 1979

**Anthony Zurcher** (3:52)
Yeah, when Obama and his team were negotiating the JCPOA back about 10 years ago, they tied the sanctions lifting and the delivery of money, the assets that were frozen to Iran to the signing of the formal deal that set forth all of these details about inspections and enriched uranium and everything else. So this is different. This is essentially giving Iran something right off the get-go. And Donald Trump says, it's not like that, it's not like that. We're not giving him all this money. Well, here, let's listen to him explain this in a clip from Monday in the Oval Office.