{"id":3303,"date":"2026-02-03T12:55:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T09:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/?p=3303"},"modified":"2026-02-03T12:55:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T09:25:21","slug":"trumps-return-to-irans-nuclear-file-from-claims-of-destruction-to-a-search-for-a-new-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/trumps-return-to-irans-nuclear-file-from-claims-of-destruction-to-a-search-for-a-new-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s return to Iran\u2019s nuclear file: From claims of \u201cdestruction\u201d to a search for a new deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Donald Trump, the U.S. president, launched his new game with Iran by interventionist remarks on Iran\u2019s domestic protests, and portraying the military threat as imminent, he has once again placed Iran\u2019s nuclear file at the center of his policy, claiming he seeks a new agreement with Tehran. But why?<br \/><br \/><strong>Tehran &#8211; IranView24<\/strong> <br \/><br \/>In recent weeks, as everyone has been waiting for Trump\u2019s order to attack Iran, he has said in his latest remarks regarding Iran that he \u201chopes Tehran will agree to a deal under which Iran would not possess nuclear weapons.\u201d The remark appears to be a continuation of Washington\u2019s long-standing line. Yet the position takes on a meaning when viewed alongside Trump\u2019s earlier claims. Beyond his initial assertions of support for protesters and terrorist cells organized by Israel, it bears recalling that following the illegal and aggressive attacks of June 22, 2025, Trump claimed Iran\u2019s nuclear program had been \u201cdestroyed\u201d during the military developments of recent months. Now the question is if Iran\u2019s nuclear program had truly been eliminated, why has the White House once again made it the central pillar of its policy toward Tehran?<br \/><br \/>First, it is necessary to point out the political nature of long-standing U.S. claims about Iran\u2019s nuclear program\u2014false claims that have consistently served as a pretext for exerting political, economic, and military pressure against Iran, and paved the way for the June attacks and the subsequent assertion that nuclear facilities were \u201cdestroyed\u201d during the 12-day war. The experience in the last two decades show that Iran\u2019s nuclear program is not merely a collection of physical facilities that can completely be erased through a handful of strikes, acts of sabotage, or assassinations of scientists. Indigenous technical expertise, human and academic networks, and a dispersed, localized infrastructure related to the program enable rapid reconstruction. Even Western intelligence assessments of the impact of last summer\u2019s attacks spoke of the program being \u201cset back,\u201d not definitively ended. Trump\u2019s renewed focus on the nuclear file, therefore, is less a sign of retreat from a victory than an implicit admission of the fact that Iran\u2019s nuclear program has neither been destroyed nor is it destructible, and instead, it is an explicit admission of the U.S. habitual politicization underlying allegations against Iran.<br \/><br \/>Second, the nuclear issue appears to function as Trump\u2019s primary lever for shaping a deal or extracting concessions. Trump\u2019s conduct in foreign policy is built on \u201cmaximum pressure for maximum gain\u201d: first portraying the situation as a crisis, then presenting himself as the actor capable of ending it through a historic agreement. In reality, however, Iran\u2019s nuclear issue serves as a pretext for a security concern, and the real story is the U.S. refusal to accept an independent Iran; the United States views the Islamic Republic of Iran as an obstacle to creating a dependant, subordinate Iran.<br \/><br \/>Third, the return to the nuclear file stems from America\u2019s structural lack of confidence in the feasibility and low legitimacy of war against Iran. From this perspective, the emphasis on preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons provides the most legitimate framework for sustaining pressure, sanctions, the mobilization of regional allies, and the extraction of broader concessions in other areas such as Iran\u2019s missile program and regional influence.<br \/><br \/>Finally, Trump\u2019s domestic motives should not be overlooked. Facing declining popularity and political legitimacy, he is in need of a foreign policy achievement, and an agreement with Iran could serve that purpose. Stressing that \u201cIran must not have nuclear weapons\u201d allows him to both gain relative support for adventurist actions against Iran inside the U.S., and portray himself internationally as a proactive and decisive actor.<br \/><br \/>In this light, Trump\u2019s renewed focus on the nuclear issue\u2014though seemingly at odds with his earlier claims\u2014actually represents a continuation of Washington\u2019s traditional strategy against Iran: exaggerating the threat to build international backing, and applying pressure through imposed negotiations with predetermined conditions, aimed at weakening and disarming Iran and, consequently, enabling to advance a weakened and capitulated Iran.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Donald Trump, the U.S. president, launched his new game with Iran by interventionist remarks on Iran\u2019s domestic protests, and portraying the military threat as imminent, he has once again placed Iran\u2019s nuclear file at the center of his policy, claiming he seeks a new agreement with Tehran. But why? Tehran &#8211; IranView24 In recent weeks, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":3584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,69,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis-and-notes","category-note","category-the-most-important-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3303"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3586,"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303\/revisions\/3586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}