President Donald Trump on Monday rejected Sen. Chris Coons‘s (D-DE) claim that the White House is preparing to offer Iran a deal similar to former President Barack Obama’s controversial nuclear agreement with the regime. 

On Sunday, Coons cited “press accounts” as he suggested Trump was “moving towards negotiation offering around a deal that looks somewhat similar” to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Obama signed with Iran in 2015. Trump pulled the United States out of the JCPOA during his first term in office, as it was criticized, particularly by Republicans, for failing to sufficiently curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Steep U.S. sanctions remain in place against the regime, amounting to “arguably the most extensive and comprehensive set of sanctions that the United States maintains on any country.” 

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Early Monday morning, Trump responded to Coons’s remarks in a fiery post to Truth Social, saying he was not offering Iran “anything.” The president further rebutted claims that U.S. officials are engaged in peace negotiations with Iran, writing that the White House is not “even talking to them” since the Pentagon “totally obliterated” the regime’s nuclear facilities during recent military airstrikes on three nuclear sites. 

“Tell phony Democrat Senator Chris Coons that I am not offering Iran ANYTHING, unlike Obama, who paid them $Billions under the stupid road to a Nuclear Weapon JCPOA (which would now be expired!), nor am I even talking to them since we totally OBLITERATED their Nuclear Facilities,” Trump said. 

Trump’s words came after a Fox New interview during which Coons said, “I’ll just note that President Trump, by press accounts, is now moving toward negotiation and offering Iran a deal that looks somewhat similar to the Iran deal that was offered by Obama: tens of billions of dollars of incentives and reduced sanctions in exchange for abandoning their nuclear program.” 

Trump had floated lifting sanctions on Tehran last week but pulled back after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei released an inflammatory anti-U.S. statement on Thursday.

Previous administrations had long sought to address concerns about Iran’s nuclear programs, including through the JCPOA agreement Obama signed with the regime in 2015, which called for sanctions against Tehran to be phased out in exchange for agreements to dismantle critical infrastructure, halt new research, restrict enrichment capabilities, and allow international monitoring. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the JCPOA in 2018, citing concerns, including that the agreement didn’t sufficiently hold Iran accountable to outside inspectors or force the country to reduce its uranium enrichment program, which can be used to make a nuclear bomb. Trump has been steadfast in his commitment to prevent Iran from continuing its uranium enrichment program.

Israel is one of the chief critics of the JCPOA, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying earlier this month that Iran viewed Trump as “enemy number one” due in part to his role in overhauling Obama’s agreement. Citing an Iranian plot to assassinate Trump before he won reelection last year, Netanyahu said Iran “wants to kill him” because Trump “never took the path that others took to try to bargain with them in a way that is weak.”

“He’s a decisive leader,” Netanyahu said of Trump during a Fox News interview as he praised the president for refusing to give Iran “basically a pathway [through the JCPOA] to enrich uranium, which means a pathway to the bomb, padding it with billions and billions of dollars.”

“He took up this fake agreement and basically tore it up,” Netanyahu continued. “He made it very clear, including now, ‘You cannot have a nuclear weapon, which means you cannot enrich uranium.’ He’s been very forceful, so for them, he’s enemy number one.”

Before the U.S. carried out military strikes targeting three Iranian nuclear facilities earlier this month, Trump had pressed Tehran to come to the table and negotiate an end to its nuclear program. 

After the strikes, which the president said “obliterated” the trio of facilities, Trump said that meetings between the two countries had been scheduled. Although he didn’t “feel very strongly about it” because the Iranian nuclear program has been destroyed, Trump floated the possibility of signing “an agreement” during a Wednesday news conference at the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands. 

His comments came shortly after special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said that his interactions with the Iranians had been “promising” and that the U.S. was “hopeful that we can have a long-term peace agreement that resurrects Iran.”

However, when pressed on Trump’s remarks about talks with Iran on Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt walked back the president’s comments, saying no such gathering was on the docket.

“We are in touch, and if there is a meeting, we will let you know, as we always do,” she told reporters. 

And the following day, the president confirmed that while he had considered removing sanctions against Tehran, plans to do so were off the table due to a new inflammatory statement from Khamenei released Thursday, suggesting the U.S. had achieved nothing from its military strikes on the regime’s nuclear facilities. 

“During the last few days, I was working on the possible removal of sanctions, and other things, which would have given a much better chance to Iran at a full, fast, and complete recovery – The sanctions are BITING!” Trump said on Friday.

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“But no, instead I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more. Iran has to get back into the World Order flow, or things will only get worse for them,” he continued. “They are always so angry, hostile, and unhappy, and look at what it has gotten them – A burned out, blown up Country, with no future, a decimated Military, a horrible Economy, and DEATH all around them. They have no hope, and it will only get worse!” 

His comments came amid media reports that claimed the Trump administration had discussed helping Iran access as much as $30 billion to build a civilian energy-producing nuclear program. The sanctions relief, provided Iran committed to zero enrichment of uranium, included allowing Iranian authorities to access $6 billion sitting in restricted foreign bank accounts, CBS News reported.