President Trump reveals Iran wants a new deal, but questions their reliability following renewed military strikes.
President Donald Trump said on July 9, 2026, that Iranian officials had reached out to the United States about a new agreement, while making clear he doubts the regime’s reliability and its record of keeping promises.
“They want a deal. Badly,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after the NATO summit. He quickly added: “I just don’t know if they’re worthy of making a deal. I don’t know that they’re going to honor the deal. That’s the problem.” Iran, he said, “has very little left” after recent U.S. military action, yet he questioned whether more talks would produce a durable outcome.
The comments come during a shaky ceasefire and a return of fighting. In mid-June, Washington and Tehran signed an interim memorandum of understanding remotely. The MOU was meant to stop combat on several fronts, including Lebanon, reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping without restriction, and create space for wider nuclear talks. Trump at first called the pact an important move toward calmer conditions in the region.