What They’re Saying About the Iran War—June 17, 2026
U.S.
President Donald Trump | Comments to Journalists
“No, it’s not final, it’s a memorandum of understanding. And if I don’t like it, we’ll go back to shooting at them, dropping bombs on their head. . . . Because they have misbehaved for 47 years, alright. But nobody could have made this deal. The JCPOA done by Obama, he handed them 1.7 billion in cash, gave them hundreds of millions of dollars, billions and billions of dollars. . . . You know what the Iranians did, they laughed at Obama and said he is a stupid son of a bitch.”
President Donald Trump | Comments to Journalists
“No president in history has ever been tougher on Iran than I have, and they know that. By the way, if they don’t honor the agreement, some things aren’t even mentioned in the agreement. It’s a memorandum of understanding, but we have an understanding of certain things without writing it. If they don’t honor that we will probably go back to bombing them until they honor it. You know, it’s amazing what bombs can do.”
President Donald Trump | Comments to Journalists
“It is a little hard though when you say that somebody wants other people to have [a nuclear program], other adjoining states have it, and you’re not letting them [the Iranian regime] have it for purposes of electricity and things like that, it’s always a little tough. You have to use a little common sense.”
President Donald Trump | Comments to Journalists
“There are people around me who say they [the Iranian regime] shouldn’t even have one missile. I asked: what exactly do you suggest? That Saudi Arabia can have missiles and Iran cannot? It just doesn’t work that way.”
President Donald Trump | Comments to Journalists
“Missiles aren’t the problem. Missiles, they hurt a little location but they don’t blow up the planet.”
President Donald Trump | Comments to Journalists
“It’s a great deal for a lot of reasons, but number one by far is 99.9% they will never gave a nuclear weapon, and you can’t give Iran a nuclear weapon. And they will never have a nuclear weapon, so that’s very very strong—it’s a very strong deal. Nobody knows what it is, but it’s very strong. Most people seem to be very happy, who’s really happy is the market. Because the market has gone up thousands of points over the last four or five days since hearing about it. And the Strait is going to be opening, it’s already partially opened, it’s going to be opened up soon in full over the next day or two. . . . The alternative would be a world wide depression, the stupid people want to have a world wide depression, you can only go so far, drive somebody into the ground, and a lot of bad things happen. Number one, the Strait would never open, because they don’t like floating billion dollar ships up and down a Strait when there are rockets flying over them and mines all over the place. So the Strait would never be open, it wouldn’t be open for a long time.”
President Donald Trump | Comments to Journalists
“It’s false, totally false—people, you can invest if you want. What am I going to do, say nobody is allowed to ever invest? We are not investing, we are not putting up ten cents, and people can decide to do that, but it’s up to them. . . . We are not investing in it and we do not have a fund. I am not asking Gulf countries to invest, and if they do it’s fine, but I would say they won’t be doing it for a while until they find out their behavior.”
President Donald Trump | Comments to Journalists
“You know, deals are amazing, I’ve done them all my life. I’ve gone into deals that are 100 percent and they don’t happen. I’ve gone into deals that there was no chance of getting them done, and it happens and they happen easily. So you never know with deals, but you’re going to find out pretty soon, I think it will be done. They want to sign, they want to get back to a normal life. You know, we hit them very hard, don’t forget, people talk about when this started. This didn’t start three or four months ago, this started years ago when I took out Soleimani. That was a big event, there were those that said that was the biggest event in the Middle East in fifty years. So we took them out and they became a much different country, and then we terminated, I terminated the JCPOA. That was Barack Hussein Obama’s horrible deal that gave them a nuclear weapon. I terminated it and I stopped it, and then I stopped it a second time with the B-2 bombers. These were all major events in the history of the world in my opinion because it prevented them from having a nuclear weapon. And now we are going to do it again, and we’re going to see how it works out. So this is a memorandum of understanding, but it’s a very strong one. This isn’t just like a two paragraph, this is a long and pretty detailed memorandum that goes into a regular contract. I would think they would do it. If they don’t, then that’s okay, we will have to start the process again. And we have the greatest military in the world, the greatest naval blockade was 100 percent effective, and again they have no navy, no air force, all bombed out. I don’t want to say the leaders, but the first level of leaders gone, the second level of leaders gone, some of the third level of leaders gone. And they want to make a deal. They are so ready to make a deal.”
President Donald Trump | Comments to Journalists
“Well the unfreezing, that’s an easy one to answer. We have taken a lot of their money, and we have their money. We have taken their money, and we froze it. At a certain point in time, I guess we are going to have to give it back. You know, if we didn’t give it back, nobody would ever invest in the dollar again.”
President Donald Trump | Comments to Journalists
“[W]e are not doing anything. We’re not putting up money, only if they are doing things right. If they are doing things right, if people want to invest they can invest. But they have this $300 billion fund, it’s only if they are doing things right. Remember this also: when you talk about billions of dollars, they have had much more than a trillion dollars’ worth of damage done. They got a long way, they will be 15 to 20 years to rebuild what they have now, so they have to behave themselves. If they are not behaving, they will be hit again. You know they will be hit again because we can do it really easily. It’s going to take them a long way to build back their anti-aircraft stuff.”
President Donald Trump | Comments to Journalists
“They will work closely with us to turn over the so-called enriched material that is very deep under the bowels of the earth. Very deep, nobody can get it, so it’s not important that we do it quickly. But we can do it fairly quickly. When we have a chance we will do it. But in the meantime we have cameras on every inch of it, nobody can do it, and if they do we will hit them with Patriots, that’s all. And they will be gone, and they know that. Technical discussions on the removal of all stockpiles of enriched materials will begin immediately—we’re going to start that immediately. And unlike Barack Hussein Obama, who sent Iran pallets of cash, any relief they receive under this deal, they'll have to get based on merit—and it won't be from us. We don’t have to give them anything.”
Vice President JD Vance | Press Interview
“First of all, the president said by the latest Friday, possibly as early as tomorrow we are going to release the Memorandum of Understanding text. The reason why we haven’t released it yet is there are some delicate diplomatic things going on where the Iranians, and not just the Iranians, but some of our mediators, the Qataris and the Pakistanis, have asked us to sequence this in the right way. I don’t frankly fully understand it, but there are sensitivities that exist in the Arab and Muslim world that we’re trying to be responsive to. Fundamentally, does it really matter if the deal comes out on Wednesday versus Friday? No. That’s why we haven’t emphasized it so much, because at the very latest the text is going to be out on Friday.”
Vice President JD Vance | Press Interview
“The Pakistanis, who have been helpful in mediating this agreement with the Iranians. They have asked us not to release the full text for a little while, it will come out at the latest on Friday. We are actually trying to push them to get it out today, because we want to tell the American people what is in this deal. It is fundamentally a good deal for the American people, but it is also pretty simple and I’ve seen some misrepresentations about it. So in short, what it does is it opens the Strait of Hormuz immediately. This is why you see oil prices down in the 70s from a high in the 120s is because you are seeing the Strait already open its traffic to the flow of oil and gas. It also provides a framework whereby if the Iranians give us what we need, on stopping the funding of terrorism, on no longer pursuing a nuclear weapon. Then they can get some benefits, be re-invited into the world economy, and when I say benefits I’m talking about sanctions relief on their economy. We have destroyed their nuclear program, but one of the things thepPresident is trying to do is give them the incentive not to try to rebuild that program for the long haul. So that it’s not just us, we don’t have to worry about Iran having nuclear weapons for the next couple of years, but for the next generation, that generation doesn’t have to worry about it either.”
Vice President JD Vance | Press Interview
“The agreement is actually very simple, it says one Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, two the Straits of Hormuz are open, and number three there are all of these benefits contemplated that the Iranians can get if they behave. If they stop developing terrorism, if they stop funding terrorism, if they stop supporting the rebuilding of the nuclear arms program they actually can get some real benefits. If they don’t do any of that stop, they actually can’t get anything. And I think that’s where a lot of the misunderstandings come from, because you got Iranians propagandists out there saying well we get all of these things. And then they leave out the fact that they only get those things if they fundamentally transform themselves as a country. So the United States wins either way as the President said, either they get nothing, we destroyed their nuclear program and the Straits of Hormuz are open. Or they fundamentally transform themselves and that’s a big win too, it’s really up to them.”
Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee | X
“Iran demands Israel cease defense of border against Hezbollah. Gaza peace plan depends on Hamas disarming. Idea: EVERY member of Hezbollah & Hamas DEPORT to ‘Mothership’ in Iran. Result? Lebanon & Israel free from Iran terror proxies. Give PEACE a chance!”
Sen. Tim Kaine | Press Interview
“Well, look, an offramp to a war that was illegal and foolish to begin with is a good thing. So, I like the fact that we’re in an intermission and hopefully can end this illegal war. Here is what I know so far: I have not seen details of the Memorandum, I have seen reporting on it in Bloomberg and other publications. Here’s some things I notice: the agreement we had with Iran, the agreement we had with Iran, the JCPOA, that was negotiated by President Obama and his team, included a provision on[Page one saying that Iran would never seek, develop, or acquire any nuclear weapons. The reporting about this deal says that there’s a provision that Iran will never produce nuclear weapons. That’s not as comprehensive as seek, develop, or acquire. The reporting on this agreement suggests that all sanctions will be eliminated. The JCPOA only eliminated the sanctions against Iran pertaining to the nuclear program, but allowed the US to continue to use sanctions against Iran for missile violations, for human rights violations, for interfering with foreign countries. And finally, the reporting on this deal suggests that not only will Iran have access to its own assets in sanctions relief, but there’s also a guaranteed 300 billion dollar investment fund to reconstruct Iran. So if the reporting is accurate, the US is giving a lot more to get a lot less than we got in the deal we negotiated 10 years ago. . . . At some point the president will need Congress to approve this deal, because I offered with Senator Bob Corker a bill called the Iran Nuclear Review Act, requiring any [resident that does a nuclear deal with Iran to submit it to Congress for review. Now the question is the Memorandum that will be apparently released Friday, if it just says here’s what we’re going to do on the Straits and on Iranian ports and we’ll keep talking about the nuclear program, if the nuclear details are not really agreed to, then perhaps this version wouldn’t need to be presented to Congress. But any final agreement that actually deals with the Iranian nuclear program will have to be presented to Congress, and then any member of Congress who wants to could file a resolution of disapproval and force a vote on the deal.”
“I just had a very lengthy and productive discussion with Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steve Witkoff about the state of play regarding Iran. After this discussion, it is my opinion that signing the MOU will be beneficial to the United States, in as much as the Strait of Hormuz will begin to open, and the hostilities with Iran will stop. Whether or not the United States can reach an acceptable, verifiable deal with Iran regarding its nuclear program and other issues is yet to be determined, but I see little downside to trying. The economic stability that comes from opening up the Strait and the cessation of hostilities could create a pathway to peace well beyond the Iranian conflict. The expansion of the Abraham Accords and normalizing relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel is President Trump’s and my ultimate goal. I think that is best achieved by creating economic stability for the United States, the region and the world, as well as the cessation of hostilities. The signing of the MOU is an essential step to make that happen and thus it is worthwhile.”
Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner | Press Interview
“The things we do know are this: the regime is more hardcore now than it was before. The new leader—[the U.S.] essentially killed his dad, his wife, his kid—more hardcore. We do know the Iranians have been masters for years at trying to hide the ball on their enriched uranium. And the idea that we are somehow going to get this without troops on the ground or by some international agreement, god willing, but I’m not going to hold my breath. The fact that DOD and Hegseth misrepresented how much we had taken out of the Iranian ballistic missiles, obviously not the case since they are still shooting them off, and that doesn’t even count their drones. And then we have taken what was an international open gateway of passage, [the] Strait of Hormuz, and Iran will have something to say on a going forward basis. None of that makes us, none of that makes our Gulf allies, none of it frankly even makes Israel stronger when we started 107 days ago.”
“Reagan is rolling over in his grave. Iran’s nuclear ambitions were not curbed, and they have learned that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works and will undoubtedly leverage it in the future. Now, Iran gets to build brand-new infrastructure under this deal. Before the war, the strait was open, Iran was being crushed by sanctions, and 13 service members were still alive. Now, 13 Americans are dead, families have paid billions at the pump, sanctions will be lifted, and the bombing has stopped. This is the worst foreign policy blunder in decades.”
“Trade oil for free. No sanctions. A $300 billion reparations fund. For NOTHING. Just going back to pre-war status. Even Fox can't sugarcoat this disaster.”
“The deal between Trump and Iran, cements the fact that this war was the biggest foreign policy disaster in the last twenty years. I want this war to be over, and I knew the terms were going to be humiliating. But I didn’t think they were going to be this humiliating. Here is what this deal basically is, Iran makes zero concessions, and the United States lets Iran trade oil for free and commits to give them 300 billion dollars in reparations. This deal is essentially Iran’s terms, and it is going to make any future nuclear negotiations practically impossible. Because by releasing the oil sanctions now, you have very little leverage to get Iran to commit to do anything later on their nuclear program. This is the price of incompetence, this is the price of people cosplaying diplomats, you got the President’s son-in-law and a real estate developer in charge of these negotiations and this is what you get. A deal in which Iran commits to nothing, and the United States effectively just pays Iran hundreds of billions of dollars to end the war. 13 Americans dead, 60 billion dollars of your taxpayer money wasted for nothing. America gets nothing out of this agreement, Iran gets billions. I want the war to end, these guys are digging the hole deeper and deeper every day, Americans want it to end. It has cost them billions of dollars at the pump, this deal makes two things perfectly clear. One this war was just a total epic embarrassing disaster for the country, and two the Iran hawks who have been telling us that if we just bomb Iran we will get a good deal for them have always been wrong and they are now proven wrong.”
ISRAEL
Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter | Press Interview
“We’re less encouraged about the fact that it seems that Lebanon has been included in the agreement with Iran. And we think that that’s unnecessary and unhelpful.”
“For decades, the Iranian regime has used Hezbollah to undermine Lebanon's sovereignty and advance its regional ambitions. The Lebanese people deserve to shape their own future - not one dictated by the Iranian regime. Israelis and Lebanese alike want peace, safety, prosperity, and a better future for their children.”
UAE
Anwar Gargash, Chief Diplomatic Adviser to the UAE President | X
“While acknowledging Mr. Amr Moussa, any discussion regarding new regional arrangements must not overlook a fundamental fact: Iran has not limited its conflict to Israel or the United States; rather, it has engaged in direct aggression against the UAE and the Arab Gulf states. Any serious approach to the region's future must be grounded in respect for sovereignty and the rejection of aggression against Arab Gulf states, rather than glossing over or ignoring such actions.”
G-7 LEADERS
“We welcome the announcement of a deal between the United States and Iran, secured under the strong leadership of President Trump, with the support of mediating countries, which provides an historic opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring any nuclear weapon and tackling the threats related to its regional and ballistic activities. We support and are ready to contribute to its implementation. We reaffirm that the right of transit passage without restrictions or tolls is the bedrock of international trade. We agree that the multinational, independent, and defensive initiative led by France and the UK can play an important role to facilitate the resumption of maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz by protecting merchant vessels, reassuring commercial shipping operators, and supporting verification that all mines are removed. We strongly support a robust and comprehensive diplomatic follow-on agreement to the Memorandum of Understanding secured by President Trump that can bring peace and security for all in the region. We underline the need for the negotiation to this end to address the threats posed by Iran in the region and beyond and ensure that they never obtain a nuclear weapon. We agree that such a negotiation would benefit from the contributions from relevant regional and international partners, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). We reaffirm that Iran will never obtain a nuclear weapon.”
CANADA
Prime Minister Mark Carney | Press Interview
“I have to say, it’s exceeded my expectations. We’re very pleased with the deal that’s been struck. . . . [It] sets the groundwork to ensure Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney | Press Interview
“There’s a variety of things we can do, I guess a couple of things. One there are frozen assets, I think it’s for the principles of the deal to speak to the details of the money. To be clear there is no Canadian money going into that, what you need in any of these accords is you need people to help implement them, third parties to help implement them, moderators overseeing them. If you have money that is linked to, which is the case with this deal, which has conditions and is linked to the fulfillment of those conditions and being managed, sometimes you have third countries do that. Canada is of course willing to help if that is appropriate.”
VATICAN
Pope Leo XIV | General Audience
“I welcome with satisfaction the reaching of an agreement between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, which will be signed on Friday, as an encouraging result of patient work of dialogue and negotiation. . . . I hope that this agreement may help strengthen mutual trust, security and stability in the Middle East, promoting paths of dialogue and cooperation among peoples."
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