US President Donald Trump said Monday that ships were again moving through the Strait of Hormuz and the vital oil route would be “completely open” by Friday, after Washington and Tehran announced a deal to end the Middle East war.
Although the agreement theoretically covers the entire region, including the front between Hezbollah and Israel, the Israeli army launched an airstrike on southern Lebanon on Monday, killing one person, according to Lebanese state media.
Shortly after arriving in the French city of Evian for the G7 summit, Trump stated that Hormuz would be “completely open” on Friday. Sitting alongside his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, he added that he did not need “a lot of help” from the international community to reopen the strait.
The US, Iran and mediator Pakistan said the peace agreement was to be signed Friday in Switzerland.
A senior US administration official, however, said Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf had already signed the text electronically.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said the deal brought an “immediate end” to the war, with talks on a “final agreement” to be held within two months.
His country’s military hailed the accord as a victory, claiming it had “humiliated” the US and Israel, while President Masoud Pezeshkian called it “a great achievement” for the region.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi struck a cautious tone, saying, “We have a history of broken commitments… a history of agreements being torn up. All of this is present in our minds.”
The deal follows weeks of fraught negotiations and threats of renewed hostilities, but its details remain unclear.
Baqaei said Washington had “committed” to releasing frozen Iranian funds abroad and compensating Tehran for wartime damage.
Iran’s Mehr news agency had reported the US would release $12 billion in frozen assets before negotiations begin.
Baqaei also said Tehran would seek UN Security Council ratification after negotiating a final agreement on its nuclear program.
That could prove contentious as Washington presses to end Iran’s nuclear ambitions and address its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, said to have been buried by US strikes last year.
Trump told The New York Times the US was still negotiating whether Iran would suspend enrichment for 20 years, hinting he might settle for 15.
On the Lebanese front, Baqaei also said Washington must ensure that Israel stops fighting in Lebanon under the agreement.
Lebanese state media later reported the first deadly strike since the announcement, saying the Israeli attack in the south killed one person.
Hezbollah, which thanked Iran for insisting Lebanon be included in the deal, said it had repelled an Israeli force trying to “advance” in southern Lebanon.
In his first comments after the announcement of the agreement between Washington and Tehran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country’s forces would remain in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza “as long as necessary”.
He said the war with Iran had spared Israel from the Islamic republic’s threat of “nuclear annihilation”, while Israeli figures across the political spectrum criticized the deal.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun welcomed the agreement during a call with Araghchi, saying he hoped it would be a “positive step towards reducing tensions”.
Araqchi also spoke with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who heads the Amal Movement, an ally of Hezbollah, according to a statement issued by Berri’s office. (AFP)
Although the agreement theoretically covers the entire region, including the front between Hezbollah and Israel, the Israeli army launched an airstrike on a car in southern Lebanon on Monday, killing one person, according to Lebanese state media. AFP
