(Central News Agency, Washington, 14th, comprehensive foreign news reports) The United States and Iran have reached a preliminary agreement and will sign it in Geneva on the 19th to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the naval blockade. U.S. President Trump praised the leaders of Russia and China for their efforts to mediate, and also described Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as a "difficult guy."
The Wall Street Journal pointed out that Iran and the United States both announced a preliminary agreement on June 14, bringing an end to the nearly four-month conflict that triggered global political and economic turmoil. The agreement includes Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz and the United States ending its naval blockade. The two sides will launch a 60-day negotiation on Iran's nuclear program. Iran must abide by the agreement in exchange for unfreezing funds and lifting economic sanctions.
Strait of Hormuz resumes 60-day nuclear negotiations to pave the way for final agreement
The preliminary deal will kick off 60 days of negotiations over Iran's controversial nuclear program and pave the way for a final deal. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on the 14th, Trump said that the preliminary agreement included Iran's commitment not to acquire nuclear weapons, but he did not mention this in his social media post that night. Trump said he was not in a hurry to take enriched uranium from Iran for one or two months.
In addition, Trump also showed that he did not care much about changing the Iranian regime, saying, "As for regime change, I never care about regime change. The other party is already the third group of people we have dealt with (with Iran), and they are by far the most rational group."
The Washington Post pointed out that the US-Israel war on Iran on February 28 was launched by the Trump administration in close coordination with Israel, without prior consultation with European allies. Netanyahu successfully persuaded Trump in the weeks before the war that it was time to overthrow the Iranian regime. However, as the war situation did not go as the United States expected, Trump first criticized European allies for not extending a helping hand. Later, he became increasingly dissatisfied with Netanyahu and began to criticize him a lot.
The New York Times pointed out that Trump said that if Iran cannot reach a final agreement with the United States to resolve the nuclear issue, he will launch a new military attack on Tehran, or make the United States the master of the Middle East and collect 20% of local profits (which should refer to oil, gas and shipping profits).
Trump praises Russia and China for brokering peace, calls Netanyahu "difficult"
Trump gave a 28-minute telephone interview to the New York Times on his 80th birthday on the 14th at the White House. The New York Times said that in the background, family members could be heard gathering at a dinner party to celebrate. In the phone call, Trump praised Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin for helping to promote peace between the United States and Iran, and criticized Netanyahu for almost breaking the agreement.
When talking about Netanyahu, Trump said: "He is a very difficult guy (a very difficult guy). Frankly speaking, he should be very grateful to us for making this happen. Because if Iran had nuclear weapons, Israel wouldn't even be able to hold out for two hours."
Commentators including The New York Times believe that the preliminary agreement between the United States and Iran is only to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 60 days, and then deal with the Iranian nuclear issue and launch regional dialogue to discuss future arrangements. However, Iran did not block the strait before the war and was even willing to hand over enriched uranium. Therefore, Trump is actually celebrating a return to the pre-war status quo.
The final outcome of the Iranian nuclear issue still needs to be resolved, and there is no way to escape from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement structure.
U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance said in an interview with Fox News that the preliminary agreement between the United States and Iran is a major success for the United States because the Iranian leadership has agreed not to possess nuclear weapons forever.
Trump compared this U.S.-Iran agreement with the "Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action" (JCPOA, commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal) reached during the Obama administration in 2015, claiming that this agreement will ensure that Tehran "cannot develop or purchase nuclear weapons."
However, Iran had already made a commitment not to acquire nuclear weapons when it ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1970, and it was reiterated in the 2015 nuclear agreement.
Trump said the two sides were still discussing whether Iran would agree to stop uranium enrichment for 20 years, and hinted that he might accept a change to 15 years. He emphasized that Iran will permanently only be able to enrich at low concentrations in the future, and that the relevant concentrations "will never be used for military purposes." However, in fact, the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement already had the same requirement.
