Trump: US and Iran to sign peace deal on Sunday
US president declares that the Strait of Hormuz Strait will be ‘OPEN TO ALL’ immediately after the deal is signed
Donald Trump has said the US and Iran will sign a deal on Sunday to end the war in the Middle East and “immediately” open the Strait of Hormuz.
The US president claimed that Tehran had agreed to give up its ambition to build a nuclear weapon, and that US forces would seize Iran’s nuclear material at an “appropriate time”.
In a warning to the Islamic Republic’s leaders, however, he said that if the peace deal did not go smoothly, the US had “the ultimate alternative, hopefully never to be used again”.
After weeks of stalled negotiations on the terms for an initial memorandum of understanding, both the US and Iran had signalled in recent days they were nearing an agreement.
But tensions persisted as the US said it downed multiple Iranian drones targeting commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz early on Saturday – the latest in a series of skirmishes in the region that have threatened to collapse talks.
“The Deal is scheduled to get signed tomorrow, and immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL,” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Saturday evening.
Pakistan’s prime minister had said earlier on Saturday that the two sides would sign a deal within 24 hours. Shehbaz Sharif, whose government has mediated between Washington and Tehran, said an electronic signing would be followed by further technical talks next week.
Leaders in Iran “no longer want a Nuclear Weapon, nor will they have one, either through purchase, development, or any other form of procurement,” Trump claimed, adding a dig at former president Barack Obama: “Our relationship with Iran is a much different and better one than previous Administrations have had.”
“At the appropriate time, when all is calm, we will go in and get the Nuclear Dust,” he said, referring to Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium.
“We look forward to working with Iran, and the entire Middle East, long into the future. Hopefully, this process will all work out quickly, easily, and smoothly. If it doesn’t, we have the ultimate alternative, hopefully never to be used again!”
Mr Trump’s statement ran counter to Iran’s foreign ministry which indicated earlier in the day that the deal would not be signed on Sunday, according to state media reports.
Iran said it could sign the framework for a peace deal, but said the country’s negotiating team would not be visiting Pakistan or Geneva, which is hosting the G7 summit on Monday and Tuesday, in the days ahead.
The two parties have released starkly conflicting information about the contents of the deal as they seek to show they have emerged from the war with the upper hand.
A US official who spoke to reporters declined to be drawn on the timing, but said: “It’s a great deal and a very strong deal.”
Tehran has insisted on its right to enrich uranium and maintain control over the Strait of Hormuz, which appear sharply at odds with Washington’s long-standing red lines.
The strait is a key maritime trade route carrying oil and gas from the Gulf to markets worldwide, but Tehran has blockaded the waterway since the outbreak of war, insisting that vessels obtain permission from its armed forces before passing through.
The US military has responded with its own blockade of Iranian ports in an attempt to choke off the country’s energy exports and starve it of revenue.
Mr Trump has repeatedly insisted a deal is near, only for the wrangling to drag on. On Friday, the president denied that the peace deal being finalisedfavoured Iran.
“The terms that Iran leaked out to the Fake News have NOTHING to do with the terms that were agreed to, in writing,” he said in a post on his Truth Social network.
Meanwhile, Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, wrote in a social media post on Friday: “The Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding has never been closer.”
He said that while changes in the deal were still possible, the tentative agreement showed his country had emerged stronger from the conflict.
Hours after those remarks, US forces shot down multiple Iranian one-way attack drones heading toward the Strait of Hormuz.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, meanwhile, welcomed Mr Trump’s latest attempt to end the Iran war in a phone call with the president.
[Source: Daily Telegraph]
