What They’re Saying About the U.S.–Iran Talks—June 18, 2026
U.S.
President Donald Trump | Truth Social
“These fools, who think I haven’t been tough enough on Iran, when the Stock Market Just Hit A RECORD HIGH, and Oil prices are ‘tumbling’ down, are either jealous, bad people, or stupid. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
President Donald Trump | Comments to Journalists
“There’s not one nation that came to us and said ‘please keep dropping bombs on them, please keep dropping bombs’—the stupid people say that. The one thing I didn’t want to see is, I didn’t want to see economic catastrophe. . . . Every time we talked about the possibility of peace, the stock market shot up like a rocket ship. … It would have been easier, and I would have satisfied a group of 10 percent of the people, but it would have been the wrong thing to do, and it could have caused it, could have caused an international depression. If it doesn’t get done in 60 days, it’s all right. We go back to bombing. . . . If they don’t honor the agreement, or 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. And if they don’t honor that, we’ll probably go back to bombing them until they honor it.”
Vice President JD Vance | Press Briefing
[Question: “What’s stopping Iran rebuilding and restarting from where we were pre the war their nuclear program?”]
“Well, number one, they would have to get a lot of money in order to rebuild their nuclear program. You're talking about billions and billions of nuclear infrastructure that the United States destroyed . . . And we have them in an economic chokehold right now that we’re not gonna release until they fundamentally change their behavior. What would that look like? That would mean a real inspections regime. That would mean a real enforcement regime. As the MOU contemplates, that would mean the destruction of their enriched [uranium] stockpile. All of these things are the sorts of steps you’re gonna take if you’re serious about ending your nuclear weapons program. And that, again, is why I go back to this fundamental trade that’s built into the deal: They need money to do anything. Their economy is in absolute dire straits. But in order for them to get any integration into the world economy, they’re going to have to show us and verify for us that they are changing their behavior. And that’s why the deal is set up in the way that it is.”
Vice President JD Vance | Press Briefing
[Question: “You keep saying Iran will only get economic rewards if they comply and change their behavior, but under this deal they are being allowed now to sell their oil freely. How is that not a financial benefit and they are being allowed to do that without making any new concrete nuclear commitments? So, can you explain how that is not lopsided?”]
“First of all, they made very concrete nuclear commitments. They have committed to the destruction of the highly enriched [uranium] stockpile that they have in their possession. But number two, all we’ve done is lift the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. We’ve basically returned it to where it was before the conflict. The blockade is off—we put that in after the conflict started. The straits are now open. That’s not a new benefit to the Iranians—they were selling oil for many, many years, well before we put the blockade. We imposed that blockade, they stopped selling oil, and now we’ve lifted the blockade in order to promote the free flow of energy across the world.”
Vice President JD Vance | Press Briefing
“The Obama nuclear deal allowed enrichment. Ours won't. The Obama deal gave them a billion dollars of American money. This gives them zero dollars of American money.”
Vice President JD Vance | Press Briefing
“We destroyed a substantial number of their ballistic missiles and the ballistic missile launchers themselves . . . And all the president said yesterday is that, of course, countries don’t give up the right of self-defense. Israel doesn’t give up the right of self-defense if Hezbollah fires rockets or drones at Israel. The Iranians don’t give up the right of self-defense in their country. But we do expect that as part of the final deal, they are not going to be able to build the kind of missiles that can broadly threaten the entire world. . . . It’s very simple: You can’t tell a country, whether Israel or Iran, they’re not allowed to have any self-defense. That’s not what the president has asked; that’s not what the president has requested. But as part of the final deal, what we want to see is Iran not funding regional instability, funding regional terrorism, and, of course, trying to rebuild their nuclear weapons program. That’s the main thing.”
Vice President JD Vance | Press Briefing
“The idea that the Iranians get all these benefits before the deal is actually consummated is fundamentally a talking point that is issued by people who want the conflict to continue indefinitely despite the fact that it's not good for the American people.”
Vice President JD Vance | Press Briefing
“Israel has the right to defend itself, but fundamentally, the Israelis, just like everybody else, have to respect this peace process that is fundamentally good for them and good for the entire region. But the [resident gets growing frustrated sometimes is that we seem to be right on the cusp of a major breakthrough in the agreement, and that all of a sudden there’s a major explosion that goes off in a civilian population center in Beirut, and a lot of people who have nothing to do with Hezbollah lose their lives. That’s not acceptable.”
Vice President JD Vance | Press Briefing
“What I will say, and this does bother me, is that you have seen people within Bibi’s cabinet who have come out and attacked the deal, and in some ways very personally attacked the President of the United States, and I guess my message to them would be twofold: 1- Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time, and he happens to be the head of state of the world superpower. If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world. 2- The second message I would give to some of those cabinet members, Bibi, to his credit has not gone down this path, but to some of these cabinet members in Israel who are attacking the present United States, the other thing that I would say is that over the last three months two thirds of the defensive weapons that have protected your homeland have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars. The problem for Israel is not Donald J. Trump, and anybody in Israel who thinks their biggest problem is the President of the United States needs to wake up and smell the reality of the situation that country is in.”
Vice President JD Vance | Press Interview
“You know you can’t just drop weapons from the sky here—there isn’t really the infrastructure to get weapons to sort of the heart of the Iranian people. One of the things the president was very bothered by, the whole administration was bothered by, was all of these innocent protesters who were being slaughtered of course by the people in charge a few months ago. Those people are now gone, but we’re going to see. Do these new leaders treat the people differently? We certainly hope so. And if they don’t, we can figure it out once we actually see their conduct. Which is why I say the good thing about this MOU it’s not built around words, it’s built around conduct.”
“Today, U.S. forces lifted the blockade on all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas, in accordance with the President's direction. American forces are not impeding the transit of vessels to or from Iranian ports. All U.S. military blockade enforcement efforts have ceased. Our great Naval Ships will remain in the general area to make sure that all aspects of the agreement are adhered to, obeyed and in full force and effect.”
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen | Press Interview
“Well, we haven’t really seen the details of what was agreed to do. What has been released, if it is accurate, is a very bad deal. It didn’t accomplish any of the aims that the president talked about before he started this war. And we would be coming out with an outcome that is much worse than the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal that the President pulled us out of in his first term. It does not address Iran’s support for proxies, it doesn’t address their missile program, it doesn’t provide for any of the details about how they’re going to handle the enriched uranium. And for what any future nuclear deal might look like, it leaves not just the current regime in place, but a regime that’s even more hardline than the one at the start of this war. So it has not accomplished any of the aims that President Trump laid out at the start of the war.”
“For more than 15 weeks, the Administration left Congress and the American people in the dark about a war of choice that has proved to be a strategic failure and inflicted real costs on Americans. Since February 28, 14 service members have been killed, hundreds wounded, critical U.S. assets in the region have been damaged, U.S. munition stockpiles have been depleted, regional partners have suffered the brunt of Iranian retaliation, and global prices of food, oil, and material goods skyrocketed for months while the Strait of Hormuz remained closed. Although President Trump has repeatedly declared the war is over, the Administration has refused to testify publicly or provide the American people with the answers they deserve. While we welcome the Administration’s turn toward diplomacy and its decision to end this war of choice, the Administration must provide Congress with greater details about the MoU, any side agreements, and the Administration's plan and strategy for the 60-day ceasefire period; including its approach to sanctions relief, Iran’s nuclear program, and reported economic and reconstruction funds. On all these questions, the Administration has already repeatedly contradicted itself while asking the American people to trust the contents of an agreement that hasn’t been made available to them.”
House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith | Press Interview
“Well I think this shows that this war has been one of the biggest foreign policy disasters in the history of our country. And don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that the war is coming to an end, given the terrible position that Trump put us in by starting the war with no idea where it was going and how to end it. You know we weren’t going to get a very good [deal] one way or the other. I think the war coming to an end is definitely a positive, but it just shows the stupidity of starting this war. This 14 point agreement is basically us and the world paying Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz, which was open before the war started. And we have accomplished none of our objectives around Iran’s nuclear program, their support for terrorist proxies, or their ballistic missile program. So, this has been a complete disaster. Now I will say an agreement had to be made. It probably wasn’t going to be very good, but even I am a little surprised at how bad this is. We give Iran everything, lifting all sanctions on Iran, on oil and everything else. And then a $300 billion fund to help them rebuild. We needed this agreement, and needed to look something like this. But I don’t see why we had to give everything to Iran to bring this war to a conclusion.”
Sen. Roger Marshall | Press Interview
[Question: “Are you okay with Iran having missiles?”]
“You know I’m hesitating, I’d prefer that they not. I sort of don’t want them to have long distance missiles, I don’t want them to have nuclear armed missiles. I would prefer they didn’t, but I don’t think that’s the key issue here. I think that they have to be able to defend themselves. I just kind of come back to the big picture here is that the Middle East countries like this agreement.
[Question: “Do you think Iran needs to be able to defend itself?”]
“I do, I think that they have to be able to defend themselves. Otherwise we turn this into a forever war. You’re never going to get them short of boots on the ground, of surrendering everything an unconditional agreement if you will. But what I’m getting at here is this agreement has the support of all the, most of the countries in the Middle East. And I think that’s going to give it more of a long lasting relationship, a long lasting success as well.”
“No surprise—bipartisan condemnation for a disgraceful deal that looks like ‘unconditional surrender,’ not by Iran, as Trump demanded, but by America. The humongous $300 billion+ windfall, lifting of sanctions, unrestricted oil sales, total lack of inspection or verification. All for vague unenforceable promises on nuclear arms—bolstering Iran’s claim to victory against the Great Satan. Anything like this deal will be dead on arrival in the Senate. It must be approved here to have enforceable effect. Republicans are already running for cover.”
Sen. Ron Johnson | Comments to Journalists
“[The MOU is recognizing] reality and oftentimes that’s not fun to do . . . Trump loves winning, but he hates losing worse, and the Iranians ought to take that into consideration.”
Sen. Ted Cruz | Press Interview
“I am hoping there are more deep details and better details than what has been released. What has been released so far suggests that, unfortunately, the president is getting, I think, very poor advice when it comes to this deal. History teaches that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is a bad idea. Under the terms of what’s been released, somewhere between $10 billion and $30 billion will flow to the Ayatollah immediately before they make even a single nuclear concession. I think that’s ill-advised. That money, if it goes to the Ayatollah, will go to fund terrorists trying to kill Americans and weapons that will be used to try to kill Americans. And it also appears to formalize a permanent role for the Islamic regime controlling the Strait of Hormuz. It is difficult to see what possible benefit to America could come from that. . . . I do not believe the Ayatollah should be able to charge one penny for the free navigation of the seas. It has also been discussed that the financial reward could be $300 billion to the Ayatollah. If that is true, that would be three times more than the money Joe Biden and Kamala Harris funneled to the Ayatollah. It is a virtual certainty that if $300 billion went to the Ayatollah, that money would be used to murder Americans. I’ll also say the idea that we should want a Marshall Plan for Iran to come in and rebuild Iran like the United States did for Europe after World War II makes no sense whatsoever. President Trump was exactly right to initiate military action against Iran because for 47 years the regime has been waging war against America, has been the world’s leading funder of terrorism, and has been murdering Americans for 47 years. Nearly one thousand Americans have been murdered by the Ayatollah and the mullahs. That is why the president acted as a strong commander-in-chief to take out their military capacity. It is not remotely in America’s interest for us to pay to rebuild that capacity that we just took out.”
Sen. Todd Young | Comments to Journalists
“My standards of success have not changed. It’s two things: you’ve got to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. It looks like that is going to happen. Is it going to happen sustainably? I don’t know. And we have to make sure all of the uranium material is removed. That’s still to be negotiated. That’s how I will measure success.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy | Press Interview
“The details that I have seen so far look awful, this will go down as a tremendous foreign policy blunder. Iran ends up stronger, our allies in the region are weaker, and Iran has learned that if they are willing to grab that Strait of Hormuz and choke it off they can get the Western world to dance to their tune. I think it’s a deep mistake.”
Sen. Eric Schmitt | Press Interview
“The president of the United States, President Trump, was very clear from the get go what the mission here was, which was to ensure that Iran would never have a nuclear weapon. They have no ability to do that, and they are signing on the dotted line now . . . for the first time that they are not going to do that. And we don’t need to trust them, we just need to verify that. Right so, effectively the president knocked out their military capability, their navy is at the bottom of the sea, they have no air defense, their nuclear program is in shambles—it’s nowhere near being started up again. And we can always go back and mow the lawn if necessary because we have got eyes on it. So the president has provided now through all of that action, space for diplomacy—that has always been his north star, you know that, in any situation. And he’s got it right now, so there’s always more things to do. We need to make sure obviously we are verifying all of this. But the president has pulled off something here that most experts six months ago would not have thought were possible and I think it’s good for the American people.”
Sen. Chris Murphy | Press Interview
“I mean this is an insane deal, and while there might be confusion over when it was signed or executed, there’s not a lot of confusion about what the deal is. It’s a multibillion dollar payoff to Iran in exchange for nothing. Right, Iran says, as you pointed out, they’re not going to get a nuclear weapon. They already made that concession. They are reopening the Strait; it was open before the war. They are agreeing to sit down to nuclear talks; they weren’t willing to sit down to nuclear talks before the war began? So the agreement is basically just we lift oil sanctions and Iran does nothing—that’s it. That’s a humiliation. Now, I’m somebody who wants this war to end basically on any terms, but this is just proof positive that the war got America nothing. Iran won, Trump surrendered, and that’s essentially what this deal represents.”
Rep. Brad Schneider | Statement
“President Trump is now the first U.S. President to officially sign a surrender agreement, made even more of a disgrace by the fact that he unilaterally started this war without the support of Congress or the American people. . . . From the beginning, it was clear that the President and his Administration went in without a clear plan and refused to seek authorization from Congress or inform the American people. Throughout the first weeks of the war, President Trump, Secretary of Defense Hegseth, and Secretary of State Rubio repeatedly claimed they went to war to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, eliminate its Navy, block its path to a nuclear weapon, end the regime’s support for terrorist proxies, and empower the Iranian people to free themselves. None of these goals are yet realized. We all want to bring this conflict to a swift conclusion. However, it is beyond outrageous that President Trump has signed a secret agreement with Iran, going into immediate effect, before presenting it to Congress for review, as required by law. The terms conceded to Iran represent an unacceptable capitulation without achieving any of our objectives. Instead, this agreement will facilitate the rebuilding of Iran’s missile and drone programs and strengthen the regime’s support of proxy terrorist groups, ensuring Iran has the strategic depth necessary to restart and defend its nuclear program. President Trump and Vice President Vance have agreed to a deal that immediately gives Iran hundreds of billions of dollars, the ability to freely sell its crude oil and petrochemicals, and invaluable access to the international banking system. It also, unconscionably, pays $300 billion in reparations to the world’s number one state sponsor of terror, posing grave danger to our interests, allies and partners. The Administration must bring this agreement to Congress, as stipulated by the Iranian Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, and as Secretary Rubio has promised to me in an open hearing of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Congress must ensure that any agreement addresses our security concerns and protects our national interests. Unless the agreement is changed to actually close and permanently block Iran’s path to nuclear weapons, I will vote against it.”
IRAN
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf | Press Interview
“The true way to avenge the martyred Imam [Ali Khamenei] is the liberation of Jerusalem (Quds). One hundred Netanyahus are not worth the shoelace of the martyred Imam.”
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf | Interview with State TV
“The Strait of Hormuz will not return to its prewar status . . . [when the 60 days of free passage end] ships will have to pay service expense in accordance with international law and navigation rules . . . Iran has sovereign rights over the Strait of Hormuz and will receive fair compensation for the services we provide . . . The enemy has foolishly awakened Iran’s capacity to leverage the Strait of Hormuz.”
President Masoud Pezeshkian | X
“This [MOU] text reflects the voice of a nation that did not trade its dignity and independence for any threat or pressure. What was recorded today was the result of national perseverance, political rationality, and responsible diplomacy.”
President Masoud Pezeshkian | X
“This is a historical document and a message from the powerful Iran: peace will be achieved in the shadow of mutual respect. The Islamic Republic of Iran is always committed and committed to global peace by preserving dignity and independence, progress and regional cooperation.”
ISRAEL
Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter | Press Interview
“We are very, very hopeful that the MOU that is about to be signed, that is apparently agreed upon with Tehran, will actually lead to what it claims, and that’s the complete cessation of any kind of nuclear proliferation on the part of Iran. We are also hopeful that within these 60 days, the issue of ballistic missiles is also going to be discussed and hopefully terminate, because Tehran is not like any other state in the region. They are not like any other state altogether—they are a murderous bunch of thugs. And if they have ballistic missiles, they are going to use them on their neighbors. And one more thing that we’re very concerned about, and I hope will be ironed out in the next couple of days, is the conclusion of Lebanon in the MOU. This was apparently an Iranian insistence on including their proxy, Hezbollah, in Lebanon. We can’t have Hezbollah on our border. We can’t have Hezbollah continue to maintain tens of thousands of their Radwan fighters, their terrorist fighters that tried to infiltrate northern Israel and fire shoulder-to-shoulder missiles and killer drones into our communities. So we’re very hopeful that Iran will not be allowed to dictate the future of Lebanon for the Lebanese and for Israel.”
GULF STATES
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud | Press Interview
“First of all I have no details on this fund, I have no information or insight into the concept behind it so I can’t comment on it specifically. But what I will say is as you mentioned as a result of this conflict Iran attacked not just the Kingdom, but all of the countries of the [Gulf Cooperation Council]. That has created a significant gulf of trust, a significant loss of trust between all of us. We were just in the beginning process of rebuilding our relationship with Iran as a result of the Beijing understanding after a significant period where we had broken off relations. That was only just starting to really gather momentum and we were starting to at the edges explore potential areas of opening up on economic cooperation and things like that. I think we have since then regressed, and we’re going to have to have a conversation on how we rebuild that trust, how we rebuild that relationship, before any concept of economic cooperation, mutual investment, or anything like that can rationally be addressed. I’d suspect that similarly goes for many of the GCC countries as well.”
PAKISTAN
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif | X
“I am honoured to announce that the historic ‘Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding’ has been electronically signed today between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Memorandum has been signed by honourable Presidents of both the countries and also endorsed by me as the mediator. The signing of this agreement at the highest level of the respective governments demonstrates the commitment of both sides to a diplomatic resolution of the conflict. Islamabad MoU shall enter into force with immediate effect and as a first step, Islamic Republic of Iran will instantly reopen the Strait of Hormuz and the United States of America will immediately lift the naval blockade. . . . May this Memorandum of Understanding serve as an enduring foundation for greater understanding, mutual respect and shared prosperity for the complete region.”
EUROPE
“#Switzerland welcomes the signing of the MoU between the #UnitedStates & #Iran yesterday by both countries. The signing is an important step toward de-escalation in the region. Currently, the plan remains for the US & Iran, along with the mediators #Pakistan & #Qatar, to meet tomorrow at the Bürgenstock for initial negotiations on the implementation of the agreement.”
Receive Iran News in Your Inbox.
Eye on Iran is a news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a section 501(c)(3) organization. Eye on Iran is available to subscribers on a daily basis or weekly basis.