Speaking at the G7, US president Donald Trump has said the strait of Hormuz will be open by Friday. that the full text of the peace deal will be released in a “formal setting”.
Trump also said he expects the “second stage” of the deal “to go quickly”.
He added that the main outcome from the MOU is that Iran will “never have a nucelar weapon”. that he will go over the deal with the media “in a couple of days”.
He earlier told reporters this morning that he had a “great relationship” with Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,. said he “has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon”.
“Without me there would be no Israel. because no other president was willing to do what I did,” he told reporters.
Israeli drone strikes targeted three vehicles in southern Lebanon on Tuesday. killing at least four people and wounding others, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.
Two people were killed in a double-tap strike. with a drone hitting a car in the village of Mayfadoun followed by a second strike after people had gathered at the scene.
Another drone strike on the town of Shoukin killed two other people, the agency said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the reported strikes.
John Thune. the US Senate majority leader, has reportedly asked the Trump administration for the text of the MOU with Iran.
However, he says he has had no response so far, Punchbowl News’s Andrew Desiderio.
Thune also asked for a briefing.
China’s top diplomat told his Pakistani counterpart on Tuesday that the next phase of negotiations between the United States. Iran – which Pakistan has helped mediate – will be “more difficult”.
In a phone conversation ahead of the planned signing on Friday of a US-Iran memorandum of understanding to end their war. Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi told Pakistan’s Ishaq Dar that “it is foreseeable that, compared with the first stage, the second stage of negotiations will be more difficult”.
Wang added that the United Nations Security Council “should also play a greater role” in supporting these talks. according to a statement from Beijing’s foreign ministry.
“The current consensus is far from the final destination, rather it is a new starting point,” Wang said.
“Achieving lasting peace in the Middle East. Gulf region still requires unremitting efforts from all parties,” Wang said, adding that China was willing to work with Pakistan to promote peace.
A US-Iran deal aimed at ending the Middle East war will be signed at Switzerland’s mountainside Burgenstock resort on Friday. the Swiss foreign ministry confirmed to AFP.
The site, located near Lucerne in central Switzerland, is difficult to access and therefore easily secured. It “was proposed by the Pakistani. Qatari mediators, as well as by the US and Iran”, Switzerland’s foreign ministry said.
It had previously been reported that the signing would take place in Geneva.
An Iranian deputy foreign minister on Tuesday said the two-month US naval blockade on Iranian ports had been lifted ahead of the planned formal signing of a deal ending the war.
“The lifting of the blockade was something we had emphasised from the outset. It has now begun,. the blockade has been lifted prior to the formal signing” scheduled for Friday, said Iranian deputy foreign minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi, according to the government’s website.
Yesterday’s bilateral talks between Donald Trump. French president Emmanuel Macron were “a bit tense”, a European Union official has told NBC News.
“Trump is being his usual self, nice sometimes. not so nice sometimes,” the official said, adding that the US president was dismissive of EU support following the Iran framework agreement - saying he didn’t need Europe’s help.
Trump and Macron are due to dine tomorrow at the Palace of Versailles. This was the “‘shiny’ object he needed to come to France”, the EU official said of Trump,. “whether this will keep him happy remains to be seen”.
Hezbollah, the Iranian backed Lebanese militant group. political party, said it has received assurances from Iran that Tehran will not sign a final nuclear deal with the US unless Israel withdraws from Lebanon, Hezbollah’s media relations office has told the Reuters news agency.
Trump said that he would send the deal with Iran to the US Congress for a review. “I like the idea. send it to Congress please,” he said at the start of a meeting with the UAE president Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on the sidelines of the G7 summit. “I mean who wouldn’t approve it.”
The absence of the details of the memorandum of understanding with Iran has led to bipartisan scrutiny on Capitol Hill about what the agreement might contain. how favourable the terms are to the US.
Republicans on Capitol Hill say they want Trump to provide more information. with some expressing skepticism that the deal can deter Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon. James Lankford. a Republican senator, said: “If you want a deal to last, it can’t be an executive agreement.” “We’ve got to have a vote of Congress to be able to solidify (it) long term.”
“I think it’s going to go pretty quickly,” Trump told reporters about the next phase of negotiations with Iran. stipulated with a 60-day deadline.
“Iran wants to get it done. They have to get back to business,. the relationship is now normalised, so I think it’s going to go pretty quickly,” Trump told reporters during his meeting with Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates, on the sidelines of the G7.
“Could go faster, could take longer too, but it could go fast.“
Speaking at the G7, US president Donald Trump has said the strait of Hormuz will be open by Friday. that the full text of the peace deal will be released in a “formal setting”.
Trump also said he expects the “second stage” of the deal “to go quickly”.
He added that the main outcome from the MOU is that Iran will “never have a nucelar weapon”. that he will go over the deal with the media “in a couple of days”.
He earlier told reporters this morning that he had a “great relationship” with Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,. said he “has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon”.
“Without me there would be no Israel. because no other president was willing to do what I did,” he told reporters.
Iranian state television said that Iranian oil tankers. other vessels had resumed shipping following a deal with Washington, in what appeared to be an easing of a US naval blockade.
“Three Iranian oil tankers are currently sailing in the northern Indian Ocean,. two others carrying essential goods and livestock feed are en route and sailing towards southern ports,” said a state television reporter from a site in the strait of Hormuz.
He added that “the operation to lift the naval blockade has been implemented”. in reference to the US measure in place since April.
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