US President Donald Trump claimed that a peace deal aimed at ending the conflict with Iran could be signed on Sunday. However, Iran has remained silent and not echoed the same stance about the agreement. It has played down Trump’s timeline. Officials in Tehran said a deal is not expected to be signed immediately but acknowledged that an agreement could be reached in the coming days if ongoing negotiations continue to move forward.
The US president, in a social media post, indicated that he believes the signing will be a major diplomatic breakthrough, and a wall, he says, to preventing Iran from ever having a nuclear weapon, something he suggests Iran is no longer even interested in.
He called the agreement a “wall to no nuclear weapon” and said Tehran will agree to never acquire a weapon, “whether through purchase, development, or any other form of procurement”. He added that once the first stage is signed, the Strait of Hormuz will be “open to all”.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday that the agreement consisted of 14 points, of which the first is the lifting of the US blockade of Iranian ports. He said the MoU calls for an end to hostilities across all fronts, including Lebanon, and an agreement not to initiate war or use force.
Frozen Iranian assets will be released upon the MoU’s signing, he added. Araghchi further said that the nuclear issue will be discussed at a second stage, and that Iran’s position is that its enriched uranium should be diluted inside the country. He mentioned that the second phase of negotiations will also focus on the removal of US sanctions
Elsewhere in Lebanon, Saturday dawn brought in some drones and missiles attacking its Southern cities. The dawn air strikes in the town of Deir ez-Zahrani, killed two people in the district of Nabatieh.
The mayor of a town called Rihan in the district of Jezzine was killed this morning. And one person was killed in a cemetery just south of the city of Tyre.
Meanwhile, Iranian media reported that the funeral ceremonies for the country’s late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will begin in Tehran on July 4. His burial is expected to take place in the holy city of Mashhad on July 9.