Preventing Iran Nuclear Weapon Remains Top Priority, Trump Says

United States President Donald Trump has restated that preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon is and will always be his administration’s number one goal, as the 60-day deadline tied to the Islamabad memorandum of understanding expired on Monday with both sides still far apart on the core issues driving the conflict.

“The number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday morning.

The statement is notable for directly contradicting remarks made by Vice President JD Vance last week, in which Vance said the administration’s top priority was lowering gas prices for American consumers, with preventing Iran from going nuclear ranking only as the second priority.

Trump’s post on Monday appeared designed to reassert the nuclear issue as the central objective of US policy, with no acknowledgement of the contradiction.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei separately declared on Monday that the 60-day window for negotiations under the memorandum of understanding was no longer relevant, accusing Washington of having breached the agreement and thus preventing talks from beginning.

“The 60-day discussion is no longer relevant,” Baghaei said. He said the period had been intended for both sides to negotiate on Iran’s nuclear programme and the lifting of sanctions, but that American violations had made that process impossible.

On the Strait of Hormuz, Iran said it had reached an agreement with Oman on a navigation map for the waterway but that the final text of the arrangement was still being drafted.

Tehran has said the strait will not fully reopen until the United States lifts its naval blockade and sanctions, withdraws forces from the region, pays war reparations and releases frozen Iranian assets.

Two drones launched from Iranian territory also struck the office of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s prime minister in northern Iraq on Monday, the region’s security agency said, in what appeared to be a fresh escalation even as diplomatic contacts continued through Omani and Pakistani intermediaries.