Outlines of a deal emerge with major concessions to Iran
WASHINGTON— President Trump’s optimistic claims about an imminent peace deal to end the war with Iran were met with deep skepticism in the Middle East on Friday; here, Iranian and Israeli officials questioned the possibility of a permanent agreement that would satisfy all parties.
As Trump presses for a quick end to the conflict, the outlines of a deal begin to emerge that would give Iran a major strategic victory — and a financial windfall — and allow the Islamic Republic to use its control of the Strait of Hormuz to extract significant concessions from the United States and its ally Israel.
In a series of social media posts and interviews with reporters, Trump said the strait was “wide openHe promised that Tehran would never attempt to control it again. But Iranian officials and state media said conditions remained regarding passage through the waterway, including the implementation of tolls and coordination with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iranian diplomats have issued threats that the closure could resume at any time and warned that restrictions would return unless the United States agreed to lift the blockade of its ports. Trump said on Friday that the blockade would continue.
A senior aide to the Iranian president described Trump’s statements about the outlines of the agreement as “baseless” and said, “The conditional and limited reopening of part of the Strait of Hormuz is solely an initiative by Iran, an initiative that creates liability and serves to test the other side’s firm commitments.”
“If they go back on their word,” he added, “they will face dire consequences.”
In an overture to Iran, Trump said Israel would be “prohibited” from launching additional military strikes on Lebanon, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government is trying to prevent Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy militia, from rearming as a potential threat to communities in Israel’s north.
However, in his speech in Hebrew, Netanyahu said only that Israel had accepted the temporary ceasefire, while Cabinet members warned that the Israeli Defense Forces’ operations in southern Lebanon were not yet over. A senior ally of the prime minister at a right-wing Israeli news outlet warned that Trump was “caving in” to Iran in the talks.
It was a day full of public messaging from a president who is historically unpopular with the American public and wants to end a war that has caused a spike in gas prices that could prevent his party from advancing into this year’s midterm elections.
But the president’s Republican allies have begun warning him that a deal that favors Tehran could incur political costs.
Trump had to deny this claim action report On Friday, he said his negotiating team had offered to release $20 billion in frozen Iranian assets in exchange for Tehran agreeing to hand over its fissile material buried in rubble after a US bombing raid last year.
That amount would be more than 10 times the nuclear deal President Obama announced to Iran in 2015, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which has been the subject of harsh Republican criticism in the decade since.
“I have every confidence that President Trump will not allow Iran to be enriched with tens of billions of dollars as it holds the world hostage and creates turmoil in the region,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a strong supporter of the war. “There is no JCPOA on President Trump’s watch.”
Still, Trump has said in a series of interviews that a deal could be reached within days, ending talks that lasted less than two weeks.
He claimed that Tehran had agreed to permanently end its uranium enrichment; This, if true, would mark a dramatic reversal for the Islamic Republic from decades of developing its nuclear program and from just 10 days ago when Iranian diplomats rejected a US proposal for a 20-year pause on domestic enrichment in favor of a five-year moratorium.
He said Iran had agreed never to produce nuclear weapons — a promise Tehran has made repeatedly, including under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s religious decree and the 2015 agreement — while continuing nuclear activities deemed by the international community to exceed civilian needs.
And he has repeatedly stated that he accepts having Iran’s enriched uranium removed from the country to the United States or a third party. Iranian state media reported Friday afternoon that a proposal to extract the country’s highly enriched uranium had been “rejected.”
Iran’s agreement to allow safe passage of commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz is linked to the ceasefire in Lebanon, which the Israeli Cabinet approved for a period of only 10 days. Israeli officials have said that regardless of whether the agreement continues or is extended, their army will not withdraw from its current positions in southern Lebanon, leaving Israeli forces open to potential attacks by Hezbollah militants who are not constrained by a ceasefire brokered by the Lebanese government.
Hezbollah officials said the Lebanese people have the “right to resist” Israel’s occupation of their land. The group added that whether the clashes will continue “will be determined by how developments unfold.”
An Iranian official threw cold water on the prospect of reaching a comprehensive peace deal in the coming days, telling Reuters that a temporary extension of the current ceasefire, which expires on Tuesday, “will create space for further talks on lifting sanctions against Iran and compensation for war damages.”
“In return, Iran will assure the international community of the peaceful nature of its nuclear program,” the official said, adding that “any other narrative about ongoing talks is a misrepresentation of the situation.”
Trump told reporters on Friday that the talks would continue through the weekend.
While Trump claimed there were “not many significant differences” left, he said the US would maintain the blockade until negotiations were concluded and formalized.
“Once the agreement is signed, the blockade ends,” the president told reporters in Phoenix.
Times writer Ana Ceballos contributed to this report.
