(AFP) – US President Donald Trump said he was meeting in the White House Situation Room on Friday to make a final decision on whether or not to strike a peace deal with Iran. Trump said Washington would lift its naval blockade of Iran but insisted Tehran must open the Strait of Hormuz and agree never to have nuclear weapons. Iranian sources told the Fars news agency that Trump’s comments on the deal were a “mixture of truth, lies.”
“I will be meeting now, in the Situation Room, to make a final determination,” Trump said in a lengthy post on his Truth Social network, referring to the top-security bunker in the White House. Trump’s post covered a number of the key sticking points in the talks between US and Iranian negotiators, but it was not immediately clear from his message which had been agreed.
In the post, Trump said that Iran “will complete the immediate removal” of mines in the strait and that the US naval blockade of Iranian ports “will now be lifted,” allowing oil and other tankers to start moving. But it was not clear if Iran had agreed to this or whether the US blockade had actually been lifted ahead of Trump making his decision.
“Iran must agree that they will never have a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb. The Hormuz Strait must be immediately open, no tolls, for unrestricted shipping traffic, in both directions,” he said. Trump also specified that enriched uranium stockpiles in Iran “will be unearthed by the United States… in close coordination and conjunction with the Islamic Republic of Iran, plus the International Atomic Energy Agency, and DESTROYED.”
Reports have suggested that Iran has demanded financial compensation for the war including the release of assets previously frozen by the US, and that the White House has floated the idea of investments. But Trump said “no money will be exchanged, until further notice.” The US president added that only “items, of far less importance, have been agreed to.”
US officials said on Thursday that negotiators from both sides had reached a deal on a 60-day extension of the ceasefire in the Middle East war but that Trump had not yet signed off on it. The United States and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28, and Trump announced a ceasefire on April 7 although there have been several exchanges of fire in recent days. – Danny KEMP
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