Ruptly
"Donald Trump hinted that the Iran deal could be contingent on Gulf countries joining the Abraham Accords with Israel - although didn't go quite that far - at his latest cabinet meeting in DC on Wednesday. "We'd like to have the countries we were talking about, with Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, and the others, we'd like to have them immediately join the — and Steve Witkoff is working on that with Jared and some others — but we'd like to have them join the Abraham Accords. It'll be historic if they do it. And we would — I think they — I think they owe that to us, to be honest. I think — because that really would be a tremendous sign. And I think those countries owe it to us," he said. "We're definitely pushing it, Mr. President. I'm not sure we should make the deal if they don't sign," he admitted. "You want to know the truth. If they don't sign to join the Abraham Accords, I don't know that we — you know, we have countries in there already — UAE, great. Great countries. Bold countries. And it's turned out to be so good, so effective. And so we're, you know, requesting strongly that they join. It'll be great. It'll be great for Saudi Arabia. It'll be great for Qatar and Kuwait, the whole group." Asked if the deal was contingent on that, he appeared to backtrack: "I don't know. I don't want to say that. I'm not going to give you, you know, what's contingent, what's not. I can say that we can make a good deal right now, but maybe not a great deal." Earlier, Iranian state media revealed there was a draft 'agreement' in the works - which it said involved the US withdrawing forces and lifting the blockade of Iran's ports, with Tehran agreeing to return the Strait of Homruz to 'pre-war levels' within a month. However, the White House posted one of its social media accounts: "This report from Iranian controlled media is not true and the MOU they “released” is a complete fabrication. Nobody should believe what Iranian state media is putting out. FACTS MATTER." On Monday, Trump said he either wanted a 'great and meaningful' peace deal or 'no deal' - and also demanded that Arab nations sign up to his Abraham Accords normalisation agreements with Israel, adding that it 'should be mandatory'. "It should start with the immediate signing by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and everybody else should follow suit. If they don't, they should not be part of this deal in that it shows bad intention," he added, and even suggested Iran itself could join: "Wow, now that would be something special". Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said talks with the US were focused on 'ending the war' rather than the 'nuclear issue'. Trump has repeatedly insisted that Iran 'cannot have nuclear weapon', while Tehran has always said its nuclear programme is 'peaceful'. "
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