Jun 24, 2026

Kansas Senator Marshall clarifies goals as peace talks with Iran persist

Posted Jun 24, 2026 12:00 PM

By MATT PIKE

Kansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall has some things he wants to see come out of the talks between President Donald Trump and Iran as the two work towards clarifying the deal to end the war.

Negotiations have been ongoing ton the memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States to clarify what exactly it means and how to get the deal completely done. Marshall says as he thinks about the memorandum, he focuses on four goals.

"Number one is no nukes, next no forever wars, number three keep the Strait open, and number four is affordable gas and groceries for Americans," Marshall told reporters on a Zoom conference. "So as long as you stay focused on that, the memorandum of understanding made sense to me as well."

Marshall though in discussions with Vice President JD Vance, Jared Kushner, and Steve Witkoff, he's been able to fill in the gaps more on the memorandum of understanding and what is not being said to the public.

Marshall says he feels like with the memorandum of understanding the United States has gotten as far as it can with Iran without putting boots on the ground, which he would like to avoid.

"I would describe the situation as they're going down three different roads, three different paths that we're working on," Marshall explains. "Number one would be the nuclear situation, number two is dealing with Lebanon, and then number three is everything else, and I think it's so important that in this everything else, whether it's what do we do with sanctions? What type of arms does Iran get to keep? We want local participation."

"We want those Gulf Coast nations, those Persian Gulf nations to be involved, that we have defanged Iran and now those other countries can take over being the policeman, we don't have to be the policeman of the world."

Marshall says he is very hopeful and talks are further along than he anticipated but says he understands the United States may have to, at the end of the day, bomb Iran back. His hope though is that won't happen and that within the 60 days given with the memorandum of understanding the deal can be completed.

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