During Thursday's Cabinet meeting, President Trump explained the "very big present" for Iran he said the US had received Tuesday. The president said Iran had agreed to let Pakistan-flagged oil tankers pass through the Strait of Hormuz as a gesture of good faith, the Telegraph reports. He said Iranian officials told the US, "To show you the fact that we're real and solid and we're there, we're going to let you have eight boats of oil, eight boats, eight big boats of oil." He added: "I guess they were right, and they were real ... It ended up being 10 boats."
Reuters reports that Trump "baffled some observers" Tuesday when he spoke of a gift from Iran. "They gave us a present and the present arrived today, and it was a very big present, worth a tremendous amount of money," he said.
- Former national security adviser John Bolton said Wednesday that Trump had probably been talking about oil, the Hill reports."I think it is a tanker loaded with Iranian oil that they let out. And the reason Trump thinks it's a present is because he thinks it'll have some downward pressure on global oil prices."
- "If it does, I don't know the size of the tanker, but it's cents on the gallon in terms of price at the pump," Bolton said, adding that what remains unknown about "Iranian oil that the Treasury Department has lifted sanctions on is whether the purchasers of that oil are going to reimburse the government of Iran, meaning financing Iran in its efforts to kill our service members."
Trump insisted during the Cabinet meeting that there are "very substantial talks going on with respect to Iran," though Tehran has denied that direct talks are underway, CNBC reports. Earlier Thursday, he said Iran is "begging to make a deal," but warned that they "better get serious soon."
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