President Donald Trump announced Sunday night that a deal with Iran “is now complete” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz — though he did not reveal any other details and Iran still has yet to confirm the completion of any agreement.
“The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete,” Trump wrote Sunday on Truth Social. “I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”
He later clarified that the strait would reopen Friday when a deal is set to be signed at a ceremony in Switzerland.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the contents of the agreement.
Trending
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has served as a mediator between the two sides, confirmed that a deal had been reached, adding that any final agreement still awaits “technical talks” between both sides.
The announcement of a deal came after a weekend of mixed messages in which top Trump administration officials declined to confirm the timing of a deal, despite repeated assurances from the president that it would be signed by both sides Sunday.
Complicating the president’s efforts was a renewed barrage of airstrikes that Israel launched Sunday on Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon. Trump quickly condemned the attack.
“This morning’s attack on Beirut should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Let’s not blow it!”
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, an ally of Iran, began striking Israel soon after the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began, and Israel has launched significant attacks in Lebanon since. Iran says any peace deal must cover Lebanon, but the Trump administration has struggled to develop a clear policy toward the country. Sharif said a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon was a key plank in Sunday’s deal.
Earlier Sunday, a senior Iranian official shared details about the pending peace deal with Reuters, claiming that in exchange for Iran immediately reopening the Strait of Hormuz and agreeing not to expand its nuclear program or acquire a nuclear weapon, the U.S. will deliver economic relief to the country in the form of $25 billion in frozen assets.
A White House source familiar with the deal told NOTUS that the framework reported by Reuters “isn’t accurate” but did not provide additional details.
Trump has repeatedly stated that keeping Iran from having a nuclear weapon is one of the United States’ main goals — though Iran has maintained for decades that it has no plans to build or acquire any such weapons.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the former supreme leader of Iran who was killed at the start of the war in a joint U.S.-Israeli operation, issued a fatwa, or religious decree, against nuclear weapons in 2003. Although the agreement was not binding, it expanded upon the previous Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s stance on nuclear weapons during Iran’s war with Iraq in the 1980s.
Citing the mixed messages from high-level Trump administration officials — and the dozens of previous times Trump has suggested that a deal would be inked soon — Democrats on Sunday shared their skepticism about the impending deal.
In cable news interviews Sunday morning, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) criticized Trump for withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018. President Barack Obama finalized the JCPOA in 2015, but it was never codified by Congress, which allowed Trump to unilaterally abandon the agreement.
Obama’s deal delivered sanctions relief to Iranians in exchange for a massive reduction in Iran’s nuclear program.
In a preview of an exclusive interview with ABC set to air Wednesday, Obama defended the JCPOA and hit Trump for abandoning the framework that he said worked for the U.S. for “a long stretch of time.”
“It is doubtful that any agreement that arises is going to be significantly different or a significant improvement from the deal that we had in the first place,” Obama said in the interview.
Author
