File image.
United States President Donald Trump said on May 29 that he is entering the White House Situation Room to make a “final determination,” ostensibly referring to the memorandum of understanding (MoU) to extend the ceasefire with Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
A day earlier, the White House said that the U.S. and Iran negotiators had reached an agreement on an MoU but that Trump still needed to provide his final approval. However, the Islamic Republic denied approving it.
“Iran must agree that they will never have a nuclear weapon or bomb. The Hormuz Strait must be immediately open, no tolls, for unrestricted shipping traffic, in both directions,” Trump said in a Truth Social post, referencing reported terms of the MoU, which were confirmed by the White House.
“All water mines (bombs), if any, will be terminated (we have removed, through detonation, numerous such mines with our great underwater mine sweepers. Iran will complete the immediate removal and/or detonation of any mines that are left, which will not be many!)” he continued.
“Ships caught in the Strait due to our amazing and unprecedented naval blockade, which will now be lifted, may start the process of ‘heading home!’” Trump added.
The blockade is supposed to be lifted once the MoU was signed, according to the terms leaked to the press and confirmed by the White House. Iran may have, however, demanded the blockade be lifted in advance.
While the MoU stipulates that the sides will hold subsequent negotiations during the 60-day ceasefire extension on Iran’s nuclear program, including its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, Trump again insisted that this “nuclear dust” will be “unearthed” and destroyed by the U.S. in close coordination with Iran and the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency.
“No money will be exchanged, until further notice,” Trump said, apparently referring to the sanctions relief Iran is supposed to receive from the U.S. as part of the MoU once it is signed.
“Other items, of far less importance, have been agreed to. I will be meeting now, in the Situation Room, to make a final determination,” he added.
Responding, an Iranian official told the semi-official Fars News Agency that Trump’s latest remarks were a “mixture of truth and lies.”
“Trump claimed that Iran was obligated to open the Strait of Hormuz without tolls, even though no such clause appears in the text of the agreement,” the agency quoted the official.
On Trump’s assertion that Washington and Tehran would coordinate on destroying Iran’s enriched uranium, the source added: “Well-informed sources emphasized that not only does this not appear in the memorandum of understanding, but this claim is fundamentally baseless.”
A less direct response came from Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi who told his Omani counterpart that reaching a deal with the U.S. depended on Washington dropping its “excessive demands.”
“The Iranian minister of foreign affairs… indicated that arriving at a final agreement depended on ending the American party’s attitude based on excessive demands and shifting and contradictory positions,” the ministry said in a summary of a call between the ministers.
While it is clear that major issues remain stuck between the U.S. and Iran, the MoU is meant to provide the time to resolve these issues.
Still, such a deal carries a serious risk of a return to fighting after the planned 60-day ceasefire, as the chances of the two sides actually agreeing on things like the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, and control over the Strait of Hormuz are actually very slim.
There is also the fact that the MoU will not be signed by Israel. No matter what guarantees the U.S. will offer, Israel could still find some pretext to attack Iran on its own.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence
NOW hosted at southfront.press
Previously, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.org.
The .org domain name had been blocked by the US (NATO) (https://southfront.press/southfront-org-blocked-by-u-s-controlled-global-internet-supervisor/) globally, outlawed and without any explanation
Back before that, from 2013 to 2015, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.com
fuck trump and the military industrial complex!
pm back where it was before 2 weeks ago with naked shorts yet again failing to shrink the price… and oil prices keep going up, while the shrinking critical american reserve keeps going down!… 0range custer getting nervous going into july 4th losing his bets… while a ben”j”y bearing gifts with a vhs cassette if he doesn’t start wwiii! our reality unless or until americans and i$raelis come together to make it stop before it’s too late…
… depressions you can survive and start over when you make the worst financial decisions that you own and can’t blame on others no matter how hard you try… nuclear holocausts that involve the launching of several thousand non-conventional weapons (once triggered)…. -not so much!