US details agreement with Iran as Trump departs G7 summit
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
By LEO SANDS, ERICA L. GREEN, ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS and JEANNA SMIALEK
The terms of the preliminary agreement between the United States and Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, outline a $300 billon plan for Iran’s reconstruction and lift restrictions on the country’s oil exports, according to details described by a senior U.S. official Wednesday.
But the agreement, whose terms had been unclear since its announcement Sunday, would push talks about Iran’s nuclear program — President Donald Trump’s oft-stated priority — into a 60-day negotiation period that could be extended by “mutual consent.”
The details were released as Trump, speaking on the final day of the Group of 7 summit in France, said at a news conference that the deal could be signed as soon as Thursday or Friday, but asserted the right to attack Iran again if he decides it was not abiding by it.
The preliminary deal also calls for the end of military operations in Lebanon, where Israel has been waging a campaign against Hezbollah, although Israel has said it is not a party to the deal. On the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran effectively closed at the war’s start, sending oil prices surging, the agreement said Oman and Iran would hold talks over its administration.
The terms were read out loud by a senior U.S. official on condition of anonymity during a conference call with reporters, under ground rules set by the White House. Iranian state media released an identical draft later Wednesday.
The text said that Iran “reaffirms that it shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons,” a point Trump stressed in a wide-ranging news conference at the G7. Trump repeatedly said he was ready to attack Iran again if necessary during the summit. “If it doesn’t get done in 60 days, that’s all right; we’ll go back to bombing,” he said in his closing remarks. But hours later, on his way to dinner at Palace of Versailles, he told reporters that he did not consider it a hard deadline.
The text said the United States would seek “to make fully available for use the frozen or restricted funds and assets” of Iran upon implementation of the deal. It goes on to say the U.S. government “undertakes to terminate all types of sanctions” against Iran, including those imposed by the United Nations Security Council, “in an agreed-upon schedule as part of the final deal.”
Describing the $300 billion for reconstruction, Trump said in his news conference that the United States would not directly pay funds to Iran, but that the country would be able to sell oil and access billions in the reconstruction plan “only if they’re doing things right.”
“We’re not doing anything; we’re not putting up money,” he said, adding, “if people want to invest, they can invest.”
Trump also said that the United States would work on a “parallel effort with the Gulf nations to address nonnuclear issues,” such as Iran’s conventional ballistic missiles.
“They have to have some because other people have some; you’ve got to have some,” Trump said. He added, “What am I going to do? I’m going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but they can’t have them?”
Trump also admonished Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel over Israel’s campaign against the militant group Hezbollah, an Iranian ally, in Lebanon.
“I’m not saying they shouldn’t protect themselves. I’m saying when two drones are shot into the desert and drop harmlessly, you don’t have to knock down buildings in Beirut,” he said. “They could behave better, and frankly they could do a better job.”
Trump made clear that he was concerned by the war’s economic fallout, saying he wanted to avoid “catastrophe” that could be caused by a prolonged conflict. “The one president I did not want to be was the late great Herbert Hoover,” he said, referring to the president who oversaw the stock market crash of the Great Depression.
Hours earlier, the G7 leaders issued the joint statement praising Trump’s leadership in securing the deal with Iran, as they gathered for the second full day of the summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, a resort town on the shores of Lake Geneva.
But amid uncertainty about what the deal entails, the leaders also noted that there must be “a robust and comprehensive diplomatic follow-on agreement” to the memorandum that top officials from the U.S. and Iran were expected to sign in Switzerland on Friday.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
— School strike in Iran: Asked about accountability for the school strike that Iranian officials said killed 175 people, most of them children, Trump said it was still under investigation. “Nobody did that on purpose,” he said. “Mistakes are made. War is nasty.”
— Russian invasion of Ukraine: Trump switched between apparent interest and indifference regarding the war, which is now in its fifth year. He said he’d had “very good talks” with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, a day after suggesting that the U.S. had “nothing to do” with the war.
— Hot mics: Small talk between mingling leaders has been picked up on hot mics, recording snippets of conversations that ranged from geopolitics and trade to the leaders’ personal lives.
— Diplomatic strategies: European leaders appear to have concluded that the best way to deal with Trump is to court him. After a year dominated by rancor and the occasional sharp elbow, many turned at this week’s summit to conciliatory words and charm.