Trump denies $300m payment to Iran

US Vice President JD Vance said on Monday that the Trump administration expects Israel to eventually support the US-Iran agreement, even as differences remain with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the deal.

In an interview with NBC’s “Nightly News,” Vance said the agreement would ultimately improve Israel’s security and expressed confidence that Israeli leaders would “buy in” as implementation progresses.

“I think fundamentally the United States, we have our interests,” Vance added. “We also have aligned interests, but also sometimes we’re going to disagree on issues from time to time, and I think that’s totally reasonable.”

CIA Director John Ratcliffe told President Donald Trump and senior US officials that intelligence assessments raise serious doubts about Iran’s willingness to make the nuclear concessions sought by Washington in any final agreement, according to three sources familiar with the discussions, Axios reported on Monday.

"The concerns, raised during internal meetings ahead of the announcement of the US-Iran memorandum of understanding, reflect broader skepticism within parts of Trump’s national security team about whether Tehran will comply with the deal’s requirements," the report said.

Ratcliffe and Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly told colleagues they doubted Iran would agree to the nuclear steps required under the US proposal, according to two of the sources, the report added.

Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday he would take an uncompromising stance against Iran if he returns to office, warning Tehran that it must be prevented from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Speaking on Piers Morgan’s program, Bennett said Iran poses a global threat and added that its leadership must be stopped from obtaining nuclear capabilities.

“There will soon be a new government in Israel. Hopefully I will lead that government, and I want to tell the Iranian regime: I am going to be your worst nightmare ever. I won’t relent until we free the people and ensure you have no nuclear weapon. You have no hope," he said.

Iran would reaffirm that it would not seek to develop nuclear weapons under a reported US-Iran agreement, while Washington and Tehran would hold talks on how to dispose of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, according to the Financial Times.

The reported framework says all uranium would be diluted on site under International Atomic Energy Agency supervision as a minimum commitment, with further technical details still to be negotiated, the report added.

The hardline outlet Raja News on Monday criticized senior Iranian officials over their response to the reported US-Iran agreement, adding they were using praise of the leadership as a political “shield” to deflect accountability for the deal.

In a post on X, the outlet said Vice President Mohammad-Reza Aref and President Masoud Pezeshkian had framed the agreement as the result of guidance from Iran’s leadership and portrayed it as a national victory, drawing comparisons with similar messaging after the 2015 nuclear deal.

“Still hours after the announcement of the understanding between Iran and the United States, the familiar project of ‘using the leadership as a shield’ to justify the agreement and evade accountability has been launched by government officials,” Raja News wrote.