Michael Hernandez
17 April 2026•Update: 18 April 2026
Iran has agreed to suspend its nuclear program indefinitely, and will not receive any of its funds frozen by the US, President Donald Trump said Friday.
Trump told Bloomberg News that direct talks with Iran over a permanent end to the war will "probably" take place this weekend, but did not specify who would be leading the US delegation. The US president said he "may" travel to Pakistan to sign an agreement.
“Most of the main points are finalized. It’ll go pretty quickly,” Trump said during a brief telephone interview with the news outlet.
A previous round of discussions held last weekend ended without an agreement, despite hours of negotiations. A two-week ceasefire brokered by Pakistan is slated to expire early next week.
Asked if the moratorium on Iran's nuclear program would expire after 20 years, Trump maintained that it would not be conditioned on a timeframe. "No years, unlimited,” he said.
Details of the agreement being negotiated have yet to be confirmed.
The interview came hours after the Axios news website reported that Trump is mulling unfreezing $20 billion in blocked Iranian funding in return for Tehran handing over its uranium stockpile. Trump denied that it was under consideration, saying "no" when asked if he was considering the action on any Iranian funds at all.
Turning to a Lebanon-Israel ceasefire that he helped broker, Trump said the US would work on building it into a lasting agreement.
“We’re going to get along hopefully with everybody, and we’re going to straighten out Lebanon,” the president said. “We’re not going to be bombing the hell out of Lebanon, not going to let anybody do that."
Trump said during a separate interview with CBS News that Iran has "agreed to everything," and will work with the US on the removal of its enriched uranium. US troops will not be used in the operation, he said, maintaing, however, that "our people" will carry it out.
"No. No troops," he said. "We'll go down and get it with them, and then we'll take it. We'll be getting it together because by that time, we'll have an agreement and there's no need for fighting when there's an agreement. Nice right? That's better. We would have done it the other way if we had to."
"Our people, together with the Iranians, are going to work together to go get it. And then we'll take it to the United States," he added.