尽管特朗普总统一再宣称，美国对伊朗关键浓缩和研究场所的军事打击“完全摧毁了”该国的核设施，但情报界和他的政府中的其他官员悄悄坚持认为，达成外交解决方案和以往一样至关重要。
周二，多名官员告诉美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)，一份初步情报报告评估称，上周末对伊朗设施的袭击没有完全摧毁该国的核计划，很可能只是将该计划推迟了几个月。
在袭击发生后，欧洲盟友也一直试图向特朗普政府官员提出重启核外交的理由，一名熟悉对话的消息人士称，国务卿马尔科·卢比奥已经承认仍然需要外交解决方案。
但在公开场合，特朗普政府就与伊朗重启谈判的紧迫性发出了含混不清的信息。
“伊朗不会拥有核武器，”总统周二告诉记者。“我认为这是他们现在最不想做的事情。”
特朗普总统前往海牙参加北约领导人峰会时，在他的社交媒体平台Truth Social上发布消息称，中国将被允许从伊朗购买石油。
特朗普政府内部的官员没有回答总统是否表示他将取消对伊朗的任何制裁的问题，但分析师预测，这些言论可能标志着针对该国的贸易限制措施的执法不严。
周二，华盛顿面向公众的官员也明显拒绝将美国对伊朗的做法描述为“最大压力”——这是政府经常重复使用的一个短语，指的是总统决定在2018年与该国达成奥巴马时代的核协议后对该政权发动的制裁运动。
消息人士称，特朗普的中东特使史蒂夫·维特科夫(Steve Witkoff)在与以色列的冲突中一直与伊朗保持联系，但迄今为止，美国官员尚未推动再次面对面会谈的计划。
负责中东事务的前副助理国防部长达纳·斯特鲁尔(Dana Stroul)说，“必须尽快开始恢复外交”。
“永远不会有军事行动，无论是以色列的行动还是美国的军事行动，能够彻底消除伊朗的计划，”2020年至2023年间担任五角大楼中东事务最高官员的斯特劳尔说。“我们已经知道浓缩铀储备被转移了。我们不知道它在哪里，我们知道伊朗的一些核设施已经受损，但没有消除。”
国际原子能机构总干事拉斐尔·格罗斯周一表示，他认为伊朗的浓缩铀已经转移，但他表示，核监督机构目前对此没有任何说明。
当被问及重启核谈判的紧迫性时，国务院发言人塔米·布鲁斯表示，总统“确信”伊朗无法获得核武器。
“伊朗不能拥有核武器，”她说。“现在的理解是，他们不会有一个。”
“我们如何从这里向前迈进取决于美国总统，”布鲁斯补充说。
今年春天，伊朗和美国就德黑兰核项目举行了五轮间接会谈，当时美国国务院不称之为“谈判”。
现任华盛顿近东政策研究所(Washington Institute for Near East Policy)研究主任和高级研究员的斯特鲁尔表示，如果双方再次走到一起，会谈将再次取决于总统的关键要求，即伊朗承诺不在自己的土地上进行铀浓缩。
“问题是特朗普政府是否会加倍努力，要求伊朗放弃所有国内铀浓缩活动，并完成核设施的拆除，”她说。“这可能会在国际原子能机构的支持下发生，这就是总干事拉斐尔·格罗斯要求尽快进入德黑兰的原因。”
伊朗的公开声明一直专注于描绘该政权的实力，而不是外交，因为该国官员已经表示，它将迅速恢复其受损的核计划。
据伊朗国家媒体报道，伊朗核主管穆罕默德·伊斯拉米(Mohammad Eslami)周二表示，“该计划是为了防止生产和服务过程中的中断”。
捍卫民主基金会(Foundation for Defense of Democracy)的防扩散和生物防御项目副主任安德烈亚·斯特里克勒(Andrea Strickler)表示，伊朗的誓言是特朗普政府加大外交努力的原因。
“为了禁止伊朗‘更好地重建’其核威胁，华盛顿应该寻求与要求其全面、永久拆除核武器的政权谈判解决，”她说，并强调一项协议“必须交出所有剩余的秘密资产，如浓缩铀、离心机和设施。”
格罗斯一再表示，国际原子能机构不知道铀的下落，这引起了核扩散专家的担忧。
战略与国际研究中心国际安全项目核问题项目副主任兼研究员约瑟夫·罗杰斯(Joseph Rodgers)说，“虽然伊朗浓缩铀的能力已经严重下降，但这种浓度已经达到60%的材料的存在意味着武器化的重大障碍已经被克服。”
罗杰斯继续说:“高浓缩铀储备的位置不为人知的时间越长，扩散危机的可能性就越大。”
副总统JD Vance周日在接受美国广播公司新闻频道(ABC News)的乔恩·卡尔(Jon Karl)采访时表示，特朗普政府将与伊朗“合作”，以“对那些燃料采取一些措施”，但不清楚在这方面是否取得了任何进展。
万斯和包括国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯在内的其他美国官员表示，美国一直在通过中间人与伊朗保持沟通。赫格塞斯周日表示，“公共和私人信息”正“直接传递给伊朗人，让他们有机会来到谈判桌前。”
斯特鲁尔说，周末对伊朗核设施的打击标志着华盛顿对伊朗核计划态度的“决定性转变”，“德黑兰政权现在必须明白”...美国人愿意以一种进攻的方式在游戏中投入严肃的内容。”
“伊朗在外交上很脆弱，”她说，认为美国不再对伊朗采取“遏制”姿态，总统有能力“要求伊朗核计划基础设施的拆除工作完成，并坚持要求该政权放弃未来在国内进行铀浓缩的任何愿望。”
Trump's 'obliteration' strike claims undercut urgency of negotiations with Iran
While President Trump has repeatedly declared that the United States' military strikes on key Iranian enrichment and research sites "totally obliterated" the country's nuclear facility, the intelligence community and other officials within his administration have quietly insisted that reaching a diplomatic solution was just as critical as ever.
On Tuesday, multiple officials told ABC News that an initial intelligence report assessed that the attack on Iranian facilities over the weekend did not completely destroy the country's nuclear program and likely only set it back by months.
In the wake of the strikes, European allies have also been attempting to make the case for renewed nuclear diplomacy to Trump administration officials, and a source familiar with the conversations says Secretary of State Marco Rubio has acknowledged that there's still a need for a diplomatic solution.
But publicly, the Trump administration has sent mixed messages on the urgency behind renewed negotiations with Iran.
"Iran's not going to have a nuclear weapon," the president told reporters on Tuesday. "I think it's the last thing on their mind right now."
As he travelled to The Hague for a summit of NATO leaders, President Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, that China would be permitted to purchase oil from Iran.
Officials within the Trump administration didn't answer questions on whether the president was indicating he would lift any sanctions on Iran, but analysts predicted the comments could signal a shift toward lax enforcement of the trade restrictions targeting the country.
On Tuesday, public-facing officials in Washington also notably declined to describe the U.S. approach to Iran as "maximum pressure"-- the often-repeated phrase used by the administration to refer to the sanctions campaign waged against the regime following the president's decision to leave an Obama-era nuclear deal with the country in 2018.
Sources say Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, has been in contact with Iran throughout the conflict with Israel, but so far, U.S. officials have not pushed plans for another face-to-face meeting.
"A return to diplomacy must start as soon as possible," said Dana Stroul, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East.
"There was never going to be military operations, either Israeli operations or US military operations, that could completely eliminate Iran's program," said Stroul, who was the Pentagon's top Middle East official between 2020 and 2023. "And we already know that the stockpile of enriched uranium was moved. We don't know where it is, and we know that some of Iran's nuclear facilities have been damaged but not eliminated."
Rafael Grossi, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, indicated on Monday that he believes Iran's enriched uranium has been moved -- but said that the nuclear watchdog currently has no accounting of it.
When asked about the urgency of restarting nuclear negotiations, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce stated the president was "confident" Iran could not obtain a nuclear weapon.
"Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon," she said. "And the understanding is now they're not going to have one."
"How we move forward from here is up to the president of the United States," Bruce added.
Iran and the U.S., in the spring of this year, held five rounds of indirect talks, which the State Department at the time did not call "negotiations," related to Tehran's nuclear program.
If the sides came together again, talks would again hinge on the president's key demand that Iran vow not to enrich uranium on its own soil, said Stroul, who is now the director of research and a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
"The question is whether the Trump administration is going to double down and demand that Iran give up all domestic enrichment and complete the dismantling of its facilities," she said. "And that presumably would happen under the auspices of the IAEA, which is why the Director General, Rafael Grossi, is asking to get into Tehran as fast as possible."
Public statements from Iran have been focused on portraying the regime's strength rather than diplomacy, as the country's officials have signaled it will swiftly restore its damaged nuclear program.
"The plan is to prevent interruptions in the process of production and services," Iran's nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami said Tuesday, according to the country's state media.
Andrea Strickler, the deputy director of the nonproliferation and biodefense program at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, says Iran's vow is reason for the Trump administration to double down on diplomacy.
"To prohibit Iran from 'building back better' its nuclear threat, Washington should seek a negotiated solution with the regime requiring its full, permanent nuclear dismantlement," she said, emphasizing that a deal "must turn over all remaining secret assets like enriched uranium, centrifuges, and facilities."
Grossi's repeated comments that the IAEA is unaware of the uranium's whereabouts have raised concerns among proliferation experts.
"While Iran's ability to enrich uranium has been severely degraded, the existence of this already 60 percent enriched material means that a significant barrier to weaponization has already been overcome," said Joseph Rodgers, deputy director and fellow with the Project on Nuclear Issues in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"The longer the location of this highly enriched uranium stockpile remains unknown, the greater the potential for a proliferation crisis," Rodgers continued.
Vice President JD Vance indicated in an interview with ABC News' Jon Karl on Sunday that the Trump administration would "work with" Iran to "do something with that fuel," but it's unclear if any progress has been made on that front.
Vance and other U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have said the U.S. has continued to communicate with Iran via intermediaries. Hegseth said Sunday, "both public and private messages" were being "directly delivered to the Iranians, giving them every opportunity to come to the table."
Stroul said the weekend strikes on Iran's nuclear sites "marked a decisive shift" in Washington's approach to Iran's nuclear program, and that "the regime in Tehran has to understand now...that the Americans are willing to put serious skin in the game in an offensive way."
"Iran is vulnerable diplomatically," she said, arguing the US no longer has a "containment" posture toward Iran and that the president is in a position to "demand the completion of the dismantling of the infrastructure of Iran's nuclear program, and to insist that the regime give up any future desire to enrich uranium domestically."
