Donald Trump said Monday that the Strait of Hormuz would be “completely open” on Friday, the day of the signing ceremony of the framework of agreement found between the United States and Iran to end the war in the Middle East.
“Ships, some loaded with oil, are starting to leave the strait,” rejoiced the American president on his Truth Social network. “Ships around the world, start the engines. Let the oil flow!”
Iranian media announced in the evening that three oil tankers and two cargo ships carrying goods had crossed the area which was until then subject to the American naval blockade.
According to a senior American official, the framework agreement has already been signed electronically by Donald Trump, his vice-president JD Vance, and the speaker of the Iranian Parliament and Tehran’s main negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
The text of the agreement has not been made public, leaving doubts about points of divergence between the two parties after laborious negotiations to end the conflict.
It “will bring peace to the region”, promised Donald Trump, who said upon his arrival Monday at the G7 summit in Evian, France, that he would like to make it public “because it is a very powerful document”.
He suggested that it could be on Friday, after his signing in Geneva, which will mark the opening of a sixty-day period to conclude a final agreement.
“We have a history of commitments not kept, not applied, abandoned, all this is present in our mind”, in the process of negotiation and implementation of the agreement, declared, more circumspectly, the head of Iranian diplomacy Abbas Araghchi on state television.
“At the same time, we are doing everything possible to create economic opportunities for our country through this process,” he added.
– No “trust” –
The first information on the content of the agreement mainly came from Tehran and the Iranian media. According to Iranian diplomacy, it provides for “the immediate and definitive end of the war and military operations on the various fronts, including in Lebanon”.
In the very strategic Strait of Hormuz, Iran should charge fees linked to ship services, rather than introducing a toll which the United States did not want, according to the same source.
Iranian diplomacy also assured that “the American side was committed” to releasing Iranian funds frozen abroad and to paying reparations for the damage caused by the war. No assets under American sanction have been released so far, according to a senior American official.
The United States must also guarantee that Israel puts an end to the war in Lebanon, said Iranian diplomatic spokesperson Esmaïl Baghaï, saying that his country did not “trust” either of the two countries.
Clashes between Israel and pro-Iranian Hezbollah in Lebanon appeared to have stopped, but an Israeli strike killed one person in the south at midday. Then Hezbollah announced that it had “repulsed”, using rockets and drones, an Israeli force which was trying to advance.
The Israeli army will remain in Lebanon “as long as necessary”, as in Syria and Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Monday evening.
While the agreement concluded between Tehran and Washington is widely perceived as a failure for Israel by society and a large part of the political class, the Israeli Prime Minister affirmed that the war against Iran had saved his country from the threat of “nuclear destruction”.
– Sigh of relief –
The announcement of an agreement aimed at ending the war, triggered on February 28 by American-Israeli strikes and which left thousands dead, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, caused world markets to breathe a sigh of relief and oil prices to fall by almost 5% on Monday, the barrel of Brent standing at $83.17.
The inhabitants of the region seemed mixed. “The Iranian people have gained nothing from this agreement,” reacts Arya, 38, an English teacher in Tehran. “People are not going to return to their previous lives. The main lesson of this war for the Iranian people is that Trump is not their ally.”
In Lebanon, some displaced people were timidly considering a return to the south to areas not occupied by Israel. “Even if there are only ruins left, we will pitch a tent there and we will stay there,” assures Hana al-Jamma, saying “thanks to Iran”.
The sixty days of negotiations which are to open will focus on four subjects, according to the Iranian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs: the lifting of sanctions against Iran, nuclear power, the “reconstruction” and “economic development” of the country, as well as “the establishment of a monitoring mechanism” of the commitments made.
Iran will seek “for the final agreement to be supported by a resolution of the United Nations Security Council”, specified its diplomacy.
In statements to the New York Times, Donald Trump indicated that one aspect of the negotiations would concern Iran’s acceptance of a twenty-year moratorium on uranium enrichment, suggesting that he could compromise over fifteen years.
published on June 16 at 12:59 a.m., AFP
