THE US will pay Iran “at least $300 billion” and end “all types of sanctions” levied against the country as part of Donald Trump’s proposed peace deal.
The US president has said that a “memorandum of understanding” between the US and Iran could put an end to the war which he and Israel began in February with a series of airstrikes on Iranian infrastructure and the assassination of its supreme leader.
Bloomberg has published the 14-point memorandum which could end the war in full, and it includes:
- An “immediate and permanent end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon”.
- An immediate end to the US naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz.
- The removal of mines or other obstacles from the strait by Iran.
- A plan for “the rehabilitation and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran, while ensuring financing of at least $300 billion”.
- A US commitment to ending “all types of sanctions currently facing the Islamic Republic of Iran, including resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and all unilateral US sanctions, both primary and secondary”.
- The US to issue “waivers for exports of Iranian crude oil, petrochemical products and their derivatives, and all related services, including banking, insurance, transportation, and the like”.
- Any frozen Iranian funds or bank accounts to be made available for the use of the Iranian government.
- A commitment from Iran never to produce nuclear weaponry, but it can maintain the “status quo on its nuclear program”.
- And a 60-day deadline to reach a final agreement, “extendable by mutual consent”.
Israel is not mentioned in the memorandum and the country has insisted that the agreement will not oblige it to withdraw from Lebanon, which it has invaded and occupied.
However, Iran’s foreign minister has said the tentative deal to end the war would require Israel to withdraw from Lebanon – which threatens to put an end to the US deal before it’s even begun.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said: “Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they occupied during this war, the war has not fully come to an end.”
A US official however said the deal did not call for an Israeli withdrawal. And Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel would remain in Lebanon “as long as necessary”.
US president Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he’s “not happy with the way Israel has handled themselves with Lebanon and with Hezbollah”.
“It just goes on forever,” he said of Israel’s strategy. “And when that happens, it throws a negative light on the big deal. And that’s the deal with Iran.”
Trump also criticised Israel’s military tactics, which often see it launch strikes residential areas or civilian buildings and later claim it was a legitimate target.
"Too many people have been killed,” Trump said. “You don't have to knock down an apartment house every time you're looking for somebody, because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses, and they're not all Hezbollah.”
Trump also threw the deal into doubt after saying the US would not “invest” funds in Iran, despite the deal outlining a $330bn pot for the country.
Nevertheless, Switzerland’s foreign ministry said a signing ceremony for a deal between the US and Iran will take place on Friday at the Bürgenstock resort near the city of Luzern. Officials said the location was proposed by Pakistani and Qatari mediators, along with the US and Iran.
