WASHINGTON, D.C.\u00a0\u2014 President Donald Trump says a new agreement with Iran is already easing tensions in the Persian Gulf and reopening one of the world\u2019s most critical shipping routes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The president announced this morning that vessels have started moving through the Strait of Hormuz again after the U.S. and Iran virtually signed a memorandum of understanding\u00a0on Sunday. It comes more than\u00a0100 days\u00a0after the U.S. and Israel first launched strikes against Iran.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s signed. The deal\u2019s all signed,\u201d said Trump\u00a0on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From\u00a0the G7 summit\u00a0in France, Trump said the\u00a0Strait of\u00a0Hormuz\u00a0is partially open now, while crews work to remove sea mines deployed during the conflict.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re doing a little hunting for a couple of mines that they\u2019ve already found, but it\u2019s essentially ships are starting to go out now,\u201d Trump said, adding that he expects the Strait\u00a0to be fully reopened by Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The agreement\u00a0establishes\u00a0a timeline for talks on long-standing disputes and serves as both a ceasefire and a roadmap toward formally ending hostilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Certainly, it appears like one of the most positive strides\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0seen between the two countries in months.\u00a0That\u00a0being said, there\u00a0are still major questions about exactly what is in the\u00a0agreement\u00a0and what it means for Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIran has pledged not to develop a nuclear weapon, but we\u2019re still not exactly sure what is going to happen with their nuclear program. It does seem like\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0going to be able to\u00a0retain\u00a0some\u00a0low level\u00a0enriched uranium for peaceful purposes. But the\u00a0real big\u00a0questions\u00a0that they\u00a0have to\u00a0negotiate in the coming four weeks or so is going to be how do we figure out where\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0going to happen,\u00a0who\u2019s\u00a0going to be\u00a0monitoring\u00a0it? And where\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0going to be stored,\u201d said Dr. Todd Belt,\u00a0professor\u00a0and director of the Political Management Master\u2019s Program at George Washington University.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI want it to be released because it\u2019s a very powerful document,\u201d said President Trump Monday about the text of the agreement. \u201cIt\u2019s not like the Obama document which was just a terrible document. This is a very powerful document, and I want it to be released,\u00a0so\u00a0probably pretty soon. I would say sometime after Friday.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Financial markets responded quickly on Monday. Oil prices dropped to their lowest levels in three months as concerns over global supply eased. If all goes well, analysts say it could take a few months \u2014\u00a0likely early\u00a0fall \u2014 before gas prices dip back down to pre-war levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n
President Trump said an in-person signing ceremony will be held in Geneva on Friday.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0unclear whether the president will attend.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, D.C.\u00a0\u2014 President Donald Trump says a new agreement with Iran is already easing tensions in the Persian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[22102,102,101,22101,2594,22103],"class_list":["post-161875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-strait-of-hormuz","tag-bureau","tag-hormuz","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-u-s-capitol","tag-washington-d-c","tag-washington-d-c-bureau"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116756856330199140","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}