Iran latest: Trump threatens all hell will rain down if Tehran gets nukes

Commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz could take weeks to resume, the world's largest tanker operator has said, despite Donald Trump's insistence the vital waterway is already “partially opened†to traffic.

Jotaro Tamura, CEO of Japan's Mitsui OSK Lines, told the FT that it was not enough for shipping companies to see a “simple agreement between the relevant companies†to resume shipping and assuage down global energy prices.

“Given the experiences in the last couple of months, I think it's reasonable to assume that it may take at least a couple of weeks or if not a month,” Tamura said, before Trump announced a preliminary arrangement with Iran.

The framework deal between the US and Iran was already under pressure on Monday as Israel suggested it would stay in Lebanon despite the reported agreement stipulating the conflict would be ended on all fronts.

Trump was in France on Tuesday for the second day of the G7 summit with the leaders of France, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy and Japan. Meetings will focus on ending the Middle East crisis, and security for Europe.

In comments to reporters at the G7 conference today, Donald Trump attacked Israel's record on Lebanon and warned the issue could undermine his efforts to end the war with Iran.

“Israel is fighting Hezbollah too long and too many people are being killed,†he said.

“And you don't have to knock down an apartment house every time you're looking for somebody. Because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses. And they're not all Hezbollah, I can tell you.â€

Trump said he was “not happy†with how Israel “has handled themselves†with regard to Lebanon and Hezbollah.

“They should have been able to do the job faster. It just goes on forever. And when that happens, it throws a negative light on the big deal, and that's the deal with Iran.â€

Trump suggested Syria's Ahmed al-Sharaa would be able to better lead the fight against Hezbollah.

“I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah. Because to be honest with you, I think they'd do a better job of doing it.â€

Sharaa, he said, has “protected everything that I've asked forâ€.

“And if Israel can't do the job without killing everyone else, he'll do the job. Syria will do the job.â€

Trump said that while he has a “great relationship†with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, he “has to be more responsible†on Lebanon.

As Donald Trump crows about peace in the region, ominous signs are coming from Israel and Hezbollah, writes chief international correspondent Bel Trew:

Donald Trump told reporters at the G7 summit on Tuesday that he has a “great relationship†with Israel's Netanyahu, but that he “has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanonâ€.

“I didn't like that he did an attack … that was too much,†he said, after Israel struck Beirut over the weekend, straining the nascent framework for a deal to end the war.

“Without the US, there would be no Israel … because no other president was willing to do what I did,†he said.

Trump assessed that Israel has been fighting Hezbollah for “too long†and suggested the conflict with the Iran-backed group should be left to Syria to deal with.

Trump is now championing his approach to Iran over former president Obama's JCPOA ‘nuclear deal'.

Casting the 2015 Obama deal as ‘dumb', he says under his administration, the US will not be spending any money on a deal with Iran.

And Barack Obama said this week that he expects an eventual deal with Iran, if it materialises, will largely resemble the deal Trump scrapped in 2018.

Trump goes on to argue that his decision to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities last summer was worthwhile, attacking contemporary reporting that said the attacks were ineffective.

Israel reportedly briefed Trump in December that Iran was already feared to be rebuilding the sites struck just 6 months earlier.

An early Pentagon assessment last year concluded that the strikes in June on the facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan had likely only set Iran's nuclear programme back by a matter of months.

A tentative deal to end the Iran war has sparked immediate questions about how quickly consumers might see relief from soaring prices on everything from gasoline to groceries and airline tickets. However, experts caution that any significant drop in costs is unlikely to materialize swiftly.

Even as oil begins to flow again from the Middle East, economists and industry analysts predict a considerable delay before the effects are felt at fuel pumps, supermarkets, and other retail outlets.

“It is not clear, despite three months of war, that anything has been achieved that makes the American consumer better off,” said Brett House, an economist at Columbia Business School.

Addressing reporters now at the G7 summit in France, Donald Trump says he “never cared about regime changeâ€.

He says that the US believes the agreement as it stands is “a fair deal†and disputes reports the US will invest any money in Iran.

Iran will never have a nuclear weapon under the deal, he says. Iran has long maintained it will not pursue a nuclear weapon, and that its programme exists only for peaceful purposes.