An agreement has been reached on the Strait of Hormuz, but on nuclear matters, the American president and Iran are passing the ball back and forth regarding the fate of enriched uranium stocks.
A hope for peace. Donald Trump assured on Friday 17th April that an agreement with Iran was a strong possibility. “We are very close. It looks like it’s going to be very positive for everyone. And we are about to reach an agreement,” he said during a brief phone call from Las Vegas. When asked why he had not yet announced an agreement after these optimistic messages, Donald Trump replied that he wanted confirmation. “I want it to be in writing,” he said.
Previously, the president had praised on his Truth Social network the announcement by Iran of the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial maritime route for global trade and controlled by Tehran. “Thank you!” he wrote in a message following this announcement, before specifying that the American blockade on Iranian ports would remain in effect until an agreement with Iran “is completed 100%.”
He also stated that Iran had agreed to “never again close the Strait of Hormuz.” “It will no longer be used as a weapon against the world!” he rejoiced. In addition, Tehran “has removed, or is in the process of removing, all its naval mines” in the strait, “with the help of the United States,” said the American president, without providing details.
Furthermore, according to him, the United States will receive “all the Iranian nuclear dust”, the term he uses to refer to enriched uranium stocks, without any money being exchanged “in any way” for it. Iran denied having agreed to the transfer of its enriched uranium stocks, following Donald Trump’s statements on the subject which is at the heart of the disputes between the two enemy countries. “Iranian enriched uranium will not be transferred anywhere. Just as Iranian soil is sacred to us, this issue is of great importance to us,” said the spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esma’il Bagha’i, as cited by state television.
“We will go together with Iran” to recover the enriched uranium, Donald Trump affirmed during an event of the conservative organization Turning Point in Arizona, before adding: “We will go get it, we will bring it back to the United States soon.”
At least, it is the first time since the beginning of the Israeli-American strikes on Iran, on February 28, that the guns are silent on all fronts of the war. Many displaced people took advantage on Friday to return to their homes in Lebanon, in the south of the country or in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, ignoring warnings from the Israeli government.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel had “not yet finished” the work to disarm Hezbollah. The Israeli army remains present in Lebanon in a 10 km deep strip from the border.
But Donald Trump, who secured this ten-day ceasefire, raised the tone towards his ally: “Israel will no longer bombard Lebanon,” he said. “They are FORBIDDEN to do so by the United States. That’s enough!!!”
