Pres. Trump signals progress on Iran peace talks

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - Thursday, President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire agreement involving Israel and Lebanon and said the U.S. might hold peace talks with Iran this weekend.

Hours after Trump announced that Israel and Lebanon had reached a 10-day cease fire agreement, he said he may travel to Pakistan to close a deal with Iran.

For the past seven weeks, the Strait of Hormuz has been shut down to cargo ships and oil tankers. Some 20 percent of the world’s supply of petroleum must transit the Strait to make it to the global markets.

Reopening the Strait of Hormuz

Before the president departed the White House on Marine One for a trip to Nevada, Gray Media’s White House correspondent Jon Decker asked about his plan for reopening the Strait.

“So if you look at the oil and if you look at the price we’re paying, it’s about half what people thought it would be if you did what I had to do,” Trump said. “We had to take this journey to the Middle East in order to get rid of a nuclear weapon.”

White House correspondent Jon Decker also asked Trump about his intentions regarding Iran’s oil reserves.

“We’ll see. I mean, we have a very good relationship with Iran right now,” Trump said. “As hard as it is to believe, I think it’s a combination of about four weeks of bombing and a very powerful blockade. The blockade is maybe more powerful than the bombing.”

Cost of Iran war

On Thursday at a Senate hearing with Director of the Office of Budget and Management, Russ Vought and the Trump administration declined to estimate the cost of the Iran war. Some estimates put the cost at about $2 billion a day, as originally calculated by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

When asked if he would make Arab countries pay a portion of the cost, Trump said he thinks they will make a contribution.

“I think the Arab countries, because we’ve done a lot, I think they’d make a contribution,” Trump said.

Separately, the president said Iran had agreed to turn over its highly enriched uranium. Trump has insisted repeatedly that Iran can’t be allowed to make a nuclear weapon.