Trump says ‘getting close’ to deal to avoid Iran military action

US President Donald Trump said Thursday a deal was close on Iran’s nuclear programme that would avoid military action, sending oil prices tumbling as he boasted of raising “trillions of dollars” on a Gulf tour.

“We’re not going to be making any nuclear dust in Iran,” Trump said in Qatar, the second stop of his multi-day Gulf tour.

“I think we’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this,” he said, in reference to military action.

Oil prices plunged more than three percent on rising hopes for a nuclear deal.

Iran has held four rounds of talks with the Trump administration, which has sought to avoid a threatened military strike by Israel on Tehran’s contested nuclear programme.

“You probably read today the story about Iran. It’s sort of agreed to the terms,” Trump said.

The president did not specify which remarks he was referring to, but an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ali Shamkhani, told ABC News that Tehran would give up stockpiles of highly enriched uranium as part of a deal in which Washington lifts sanctions.

Trump said that Iran should “say a big thank you” to Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who had pressed the US leader to avoid military action against his country’s giant neighbour.

Qatar has also been a key mediator in talks to end the 19-month Gaza war and release hostages held by the Palestinian militants Hamas.

Trump again said without elaborating that the United States wanted to “take” Gaza, which has been obliterated by the war started by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

Gaza will become a “freedom zone”, Trump said, without elaborating.

He has also vowed to “go back on the offensive” should Yemen’s Huthi rebels launch attacks, despite a ceasefire agreement with Washington this month.

– Gulf largesse –

Trump, who began his first major foreign tour in Saudi Arabia and later Thursday heads to the United Arab Emirates, has been unabashed about seeking Gulf money and hailed the effect on creating jobs at home.

“This is a record tour. There’s never been a tour that will raise — it could be a total of $3.5-4 trillion just in these four or five days,” Trump said in Qatar.

In Doha, the president hailed what he said was a record $200 billion deal for Boeing aircraft.

Saudi Arabia promised its own $600 billion in investment, including one of the largest-ever purchases of US weapons.

The final stop of his tour is the UAE, which is seeking to become a leader in technology and especially artificial intelligence to help diversify its oil-reliant economy.

But these ambitions hinge on access to advanced US technologies, including AI chips under restricted export — which the UAE president’s brother and spy chief Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed reportedly lobbied for during a Washington visit in March.

The Gulf leaders’ largesse has also stirred controversy, with Qatar offering Trump a luxury aeroplane ahead of his visit for presidential and then personal use, in what Trump’s Democratic rivals charged was blatant corruption.

– Business, not ‘nation-builders’ –

In a speech in Riyadh, Trump attacked both the left and the traditional wing of his Republican Party for their policies on the Middle East.

Complimenting the skyline of the Saudi desert capital, Trump said: “The gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called ‘nation-builders’, ‘neocons’ or ‘liberal non-profits’, like those who spent trillions failing to develop Kabul and Baghdad.”

Trump has made no mention of human rights during his tour.

Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden had initially vowed to shun Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over US intelligence findings that he ordered the gruesome murder in 2018 of Jamal Khashoggi — a Saudi dissident writer who lived in the United States.

Trump instead hailed the crown prince, who is Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, as a visionary due to the kingdom’s rapid economic investments.

He also acceded to a key request by the crown prince in announcing the lifting of sanctions on Syria following the toppling of Bashar al-Assad in December.

He met in Riyadh with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the first such meeting between leaders of both nations in 25 years.

Sharaa — a former jihadist once on the US wanted list — dressed in a suit and was complimented by Trump as a “young, attractive guy”.