US President Donald Trump said yesterday that an agreement with Iran is scheduled to be signed on Sunday, noting that the Strait of Hormuz will be opened immediately after that.
He wrote in a post on his social platform, “Truth Social,”: “The agreement is scheduled to be signed today (Sunday), and immediately after the signing, the Strait of Hormuz will be opened to everyone.”
Trump indicated in his post that the United States will work to get rid of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium.
He said: “At the appropriate time, when the situation calms down, we will enter and extract the nuclear dust buried deep under the sunken granite mountains, thanks to our beautiful B-2 bombers and their brilliant pilots. We will reduce it and destroy it, whether in Iran or the United States.”
Trump’s post also included a warning to Iran of the need to move forward with implementing the potential agreement, or face dire consequences. He said: “We look forward to working with Iran and the entire Middle East in the distant future. We hope the process goes quickly, easily and smoothly. If that doesn’t happen, we have the perfect alternative, and we hope we won’t have to use it again!
The US President added in his post: “Our relationship with Iran is completely different and better than previous administrations.”
The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had indicated earlier yesterday that the agreement would not be signed on Sunday, according to what was reported by official media.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei told the agency: “We have to wait to find out the exact date for the signing. “It will not happen tomorrow” (Sunday), and it is likely that this will happen in “the coming days.”
Earlier yesterday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, whose government mediated between Iran and the United States to end the war between them, had expected the understanding between the two sides to be completed within 24 hours.
For his part, a senior American official yesterday described the agreement being reached with Iran as strong. He said in an interview with news agencies: “We believe that we have reached a strong agreement with Iran.”
Sources from all parties to the talks stated that the proposed memorandum of understanding calls for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lifting the US naval blockade of Iranian ports. Negotiations will be held later on the Iranian nuclear program, which was Trump’s declared pretext for waging war.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters on Friday that the agreement meets Trump’s basic goals and puts negotiations in a “very good position.” The terms of the draft agreement reported to Reuters by multiple sources indicate that the United States will begin releasing billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets and will grant exemptions from sanctions imposed on its oil exports in exchange for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian nuclear program will be addressed during a 60-day period of talks.
The US official said that the agreement would ultimately lead to the dismantling of the Iranian nuclear program, with the destruction and removal of the highly enriched uranium stockpile. But Minister Araqchi said that Iran, which sources reported has not agreed to dismantle its nuclear program, wants to keep uranium in a diluted form.
