President Donald Trump abruptly canceled military strikes on Iran. The President claimed negotiators had secured a deal to end months of war between the two nations. The announcement is a huge reversal, as only hours earlier, he had warned the US would strike Iran “very hard.”
Donald Trump claims deal to end Iran war reached, cancels strikes
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Donald Trump described the supposed breakthrough with Iran as a “great settlement” reached by his negotiating team. The deal, he said, was “subject to finalization of documents, which should get done over the next few days,” with a signing ceremony “probably” taking place somewhere in Europe.
At the core of the claimed agreement is Iran’s nuclear program. “We have a deal that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, which was the whole purpose of what we had to go through to get this. So, it’s a very big thing,” Trump told journalists. He added that the Strait of Hormuz, effectively closed during the conflict and choking off a critical route for global oil and liquefied natural gas, would reopen “as soon as we have it signed.”
Donald Trump projected confidence that final documentation was near. The papers are in “pretty final shape,” he said, and the process should conclude “pretty quickly.” He also stated that he had spoken with regional leaders, including Gulf allies and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and asserted that “the whole Middle East is very happy.”
Tehran’s response, however, painted a different picture. Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told state TV that reports of a concluded agreement were “speculative” and insisted “nothing has been finalized.” Baghaei acknowledged that the majority of the text for a memorandum had been “finalized” but accused Washington of introducing “excessive demands” and “new requests.” He maintained Iran would not “depart from its red lines.”
(Source: BBC)
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory.
