Deal includes $US300 billion fund, immediate end to oil sanctions
Updated ,first published
Washington: The United States will immediately waive restrictions on Iran’s oil exports and eventually lift all sanctions, as well as help create a $300 billion ($425 billion) development fund for Iran under President Donald Trump’s deal to end the war.
The report also says Iran and Oman will meet with other Gulf states to “determine the future management and maritime services of the Strait of Hormuz” and potentially transfer authority over the vital waterway to the two countries that have agreed to impose tolls.
The full text of the agreement, which had been kept secret for days, was revealed during a phone call by US officials with journalists on Wednesday (US time), as Trump declared the success of the war at a press conference at the G7 in France.
According to the agreement, Iran “reaffirms that it will not supply or develop nuclear weapons.” The United States and Iran will hold further talks on how to destroy Iran’s highly enriched uranium, which would at least involve down-blending the material on site under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“We’re going to push for more than that,” said a senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to explain the deal. “But for them to accept this is a huge, huge win for the United States.”
Military operations “on all fronts, including Lebanon” will be halted and both sides will “refrain from using or threatening force against each other” while ensuring Lebanon’s “territorial integrity and sovereignty”.
The United States will immediately lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports and completely lift the blockade within 30 days. Meanwhile, Iran will “use its best efforts to make arrangements” to ensure free, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz “for only 60 days”.
The agreement states that the long-term management of the strait will be subject to dialogue between Iran and Oman, as well as the Gulf countries that border the waterway.
Defending this clause, the senior US official said that Iranians will aggressively defend their rights during negotiations on the long-term future of the strait, but Gulf countries will never accept any regulation that does not allow free access.
Under the agreement, the United States agreed with its regional partners to “develop a definitive, mutually agreed-upon plan for the reconstruction and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran of at least US$300 billion.”
A senior US official said the clause does not require the US to “pay a single penny to the Iranians”. Instead, the United States will legislate the lifting of sanctions that will allow Gulf countries to invest in Iran, citing the example of the United Arab Emirates building a power plant. “That’s all he said.”
The agreement also provides that upon signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), the US Treasury will immediately issue waivers for the export of Iranian crude oil, petroleum products and derivatives, and all related services.
The senior US official said this was a prudent move because it would end the status quo in which Iran continues to sell oil to China, but at an “absurd” “huge discount”.
Beyond this, the United States also agreed to “remove all sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran” in accordance with the program to be agreed upon in the final agreement.
The United States has committed to fully unfreeze Iran’s funds and assets upon implementation of the agreement, in accordance with procedures to be established as part of the final agreement.
Senior U.S. officials have emphasized that Iran’s access to billions of dollars of frozen funds and assets depends on Tehran complying with the agreement and acting like destroying highly enriched uranium.
Asked how the United States would evaluate Iran’s compliance, one official said there is now much more interaction between the two countries. “We’ll work together and see if we can do some things to build trust.”
Speaking from the G7 in France, Trump said the agreement achieved “everything we set out to achieve and much more.” This included reiterating Iran’s long-standing claim that it is not seeking nuclear weapons.
The US president praised the “excellent” stock market and noted that every time he announced progress towards a peace deal, indexes rose and fell when there was bad news. He said avoiding a worldwide depression motivated him to sign the agreement.
“What I didn’t want to see was I didn’t want to see economic disaster. If you had kept this up, this could have happened,” Trump said.
But he also liked the idea of restarting the war.
“It’s a memorandum of understanding. If it’s not done in 60 days, no problem, we’ll go back to bombing. I don’t want to do it because that’s great, but we might have to do it.”
Trump said the agreement would be signed soon: “Tomorrow (Thursday), maybe the next day.”
Republican senator Lindsey Graham, the Iran hawk who urged Trump to start the war, cautiously supported the agreement after speaking with White House special envoy Steve Witkoff, stating that the deal would reopen the strait.
Time will tell whether Iran will agree to an acceptable and verifiable final deal, but he said there is little downside to trying.
But other Republicans, who have lost Trump’s support, criticized the deal. Louisiana senator Bill Cassidy, who lost the primary to a Trump-backed candidate, called it “the worst foreign policy mistake in decades” and said former president Ronald Reagan was rolling in his grave.
Cassidy told
“Before the war, the strait was open, Iran was being crushed by sanctions, and 13 soldiers were still alive. Now 13 Americans are dead, families have paid billions of dollars at the pump, sanctions will be lifted and the bombings will stop.”
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political correspondent in Canberra.Connect with: X or email.
