Washington, United States. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he had called off new U.S. military strikes on Iran after “final points” of an initial peace deal were approved, adding that details of a signing ceremony would be announced shortly. Iran did not immediately respond to the announcement.
Trump announcement and Iranian response
Trump’s statement came hours after he said the U.S. military would attack Iran for a third consecutive night. On social media, he said, “Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail, approved by all parties involved.”
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that Tehran had not approved the text of any agreement.
Negotiations and ceasefire
Since mid-March, Trump has repeatedly said that a deal with Iran to end the war was close. Iranian and Western sources said earlier on Thursday that efforts to reach an interim agreement to end hostilities had intensified.
A fragile ceasefire has been in place since early April. Three Iranian sources said a political understanding had been reached, but some issues still needed to be discussed in detail.
Outstanding issues in the proposed deal
According to the Iranian sources, unresolved matters include a mechanism for the release of tens of billions of dollars in Iranian oil revenues frozen in foreign banks.
The sources said the deal would temporarily ease Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz and end a U.S. blockade on Iranian ports. Questions related to Tehran’s nuclear development program and its stockpile of highly enriched uranium would be left for future talks.
Political considerations in Washington
It remained unclear whether such a deal would satisfy critics within Trump’s Republican Party, who say that any agreement must close Tehran’s path to developing a nuclear weapon.
Analysts have said Trump is concerned that any deal could be compared with the 2015 agreement that he criticized as overly lenient. Trump withdrew the United States from that accord in 2018 during his first term.
