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On Sunday evening, President Donald Trump announced that a “deal” had been reached between the United States and Iran, supposedly bringing a lasting end to hostilities in the unauthorized war he launched in late February.
“The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social website.
“I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade,” Trump added at the end of his message. “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”
Oil markets did indeed react positively to the news, with prices dropping dramatically after the news broke.
In a follow-up message, Trump suggested that the deal to end the joint U.S.-Israel war against Iran was not yet agreed upon — and that it would be finalized later in the week, at which point the waterway would officially be reopened. Even then, the president admitted, mines within the strait would have to be removed, meaning oil transfers wouldn’t be completely safe at that time.
The deal was announced just hours after Israel launched a strike on civilian areas of Beirut, potentially upsetting the dealmaking process. Shortly after that attack occurred, Trump said it “should not have happened.”
Iran has long insisted that any final peace deal must include the suspension of hostilities in Lebanon, which Israel began after its war on Iran earlier this year.
In a joint statement by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Defense Minister Israel Katz, it was suggested that Israel would continue to occupy parts of Lebanon, and that hostilities in the country could continue, despite the deal with Iran and despite statements from Trump.
“Israel is not subordinate to the United States, and we are an independent and sovereign state,” Ben-Gvir said.
Areas of Lebanon “will be cleared of local residents and all terrorist infrastructure, above and below ground — including the houses in the contact villages that served as terrorist outposts — will be destroyed,” Katz stated.
Details of the “peace deal” announced by Trump began to emerge later on Sunday night, indicating that it is not a permanent deal but rather a ceasefire agreement lasting 60 days. Iranian leaders stated that any disruption to the agreement could instantly end the deal.
“This memorandum of understanding does not mean trusting the enemy. We will monitor the implementation of U.S. commitments,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi reportedly said, as reported by the Tasnim news agency.
Iranian media is reporting other details of the deal, including that it features forcing Israel to withdraw from Lebanon and that the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz will occur under conditions that are set by Iran and Oman — details that Trump left out in his announcements. The deal also reportedly includes an agreement for the U.S. and Israel to provide $300 billion for the reconstruction of infrastructure destroyed during the war, Iran is claiming.
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Both sides have differing viewpoints about Iran’s nuclear program. While officials in the Trump administration maintain that, at some point, the U.S. will remove nuclear material from the country as part of the deal, Iranian leaders have not verified that commitment, stating instead that more conversations will take place on the matter during the 60-day period.
“It’s worth mentioning in every news story that this deal is substantially worse for the U.S., and far more lucrative for Iran, than the Obama nuclear deal Trump blew up almost a decade ago,” journalist Garrett M. Graff wrote in a Bluesky post.
Some government officials suggest that the announced “deal” is more of an off-ramp for Trump than an actual “victory.”
“The plan is the same as it was months ago when the White House kept leaking that the president was going to ‘declare victory.’ We won if we just say we did,” a senior U.S. official told Zeteo. “Just keep saying: ‘Donald Trump won, America won, Donald Trump won.’ If we say it enough times, it’ll come true, won’t it?”
Even Vice President JD Vance stated on Monday that the deal wasn’t “complete,” as Trump had insisted in his first Truth Social post.
“There are a lot of very important details to figure out,” Vance said in an interview on CNBC.
Other observers, while hopeful that an end to hostilities will stick, also panned the purported deal.
“A deal – any deal – is the best possible option on the table. … Yet we shouldn’t get carried away and treat this framework as an unmitigated success for the United States,” said foreign policy expert Daniel R. DePetris in a column for MS NOW. “The U.S. fought a war of choice for six weeks, then paused it for a few months, only to end it (for now) by kicking the hard problems down the road to a later date.”
“A return to a version of the status quo was a far cry from the original aims” of the war, a Washington Post report on the deal stated.
“There are a lot of spoilers out there. … Israel may, in fact, take its own course,” which could disrupt the deal, retired U.S. General Mark Kimmitt told Al Jazeera.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also issued a statement reacting to the announcement of the deal.
“Trump’s war of choice was misguided and detrimental to American interests. It has inflicted real costs on Americans, partners and allies, global markets, and countless innocent civilians,” Meeks noted.
“The administration’s turn toward diplomacy is welcome. … [But] any final agreement must be durable, enforceable, transparent, and subject to rigorous oversight by Congress,” Meeks added.
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