{"id":164892,"date":"2026-06-17T16:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T16:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/164892\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T16:18:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T16:18:17","slug":"why-trumps-iran-deal-is-little-more-than-a-shopping-list-of-capitulations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/164892\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Trump\u2019s Iran deal is little more than a shopping list of capitulations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cI\u2019m the boss,\u201d Donald Trump quipped <\/a>as he swaggered into the G7<\/a> meeting of Western leaders in the French Alps on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Nervous laughter acknowledged the truth in those words. <\/p>\n

But part of this bravado rings hollow against the backdrop of the \u201cGreat Deal\u201d with Iran<\/a> that the US<\/a> president has claimed will bring peace<\/a> and security to the entire Middle East. <\/p>\n

On his Truth Social platform, Trump<\/a> described himself as the first US<\/a> president in history to make peace with Iran<\/a>. Amid growing unpopularity of the sprawling war back in the US, he has repeatedly declared victory. <\/p>\n

But the 14-point plan<\/a>, which although yet to be confirmed has been leaked to numerous news outlets, reads more like a shopping list of capitulations than an agreement where the US has made Iran<\/a> \u201cpay the price\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"U.S.U.S. President Donald Trump during the G7 Summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, June 17, 2026 (Reuters)<\/p>\n

There are also gaping holes where some of the trickiest sticking points have not been addressed. <\/p>\n

Most glaringly absent are details of who will control the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, the vital waterway that Iran has strangled, causing the biggest disruptions to energy supplies in modern history. <\/p>\n

Also missing from the leaked plan is any mention of Israel and the future of its military occupation of swathes of Lebanon.<\/p>\n

The memorandum of understanding is set to be formally signed in Switzerland on Friday, triggering a 60-day window to negotiate the final terms.<\/p>\n

The first article of the deal focuses on \u201can immediate and permanent end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon\u201d. <\/p>\n

Yet there is no mention of Israel\u2019s ongoing military occupation, and its evacuation orders that cover more than a fifth of Lebanese territory: the most significant obstacle to any hope of ending hostilities there.<\/p>\n

The agreement says the US will lift the naval blockade on Iran within a maximum of 30 days and eventually withdraw all its forces from the surrounding region.<\/p>\n

The US has also committed to lifting all unilateral US sanctions<\/a>, both primary and secondary on Iran, despite the fact that Trump<\/a> has repeatedly blasted <\/a>former president Barack Obama for doing that. <\/p>\n

This would take place according to a timetable to be agreed as part of the final settlement. <\/p>\n

\"IsraeliIsraeli Merkava tanks driving along a road past destroyed buildings in southern Lebanon on June 17, 2026 (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

In the interim, until sanctions are lifted, the US Treasury Department has apparently agreed to issue waivers for exports of Iranian crude oil, petrochemical products and their derivatives<\/a>, \u201cas well as all related services, including banking, insurance and transportation\u201d. <\/p>\n

That would be huge. <\/p>\n

In Article Eleven, Iran\u2019s frozen and restricted funds and assets, believed to amount to billions of dollars, will also be released and \u201cmade fully available\u201d as negotiations progress towards a final agreement.<\/p>\n

There is also a $300 billion rehabilitation fund to rebuild Iran (although unnamed US officials have since told Reuters that none of the cash would come from US government grants and it was effectively a private investment fund). <\/p>\n

In exchange for all this, Iran \u201creiterates\u201d that it will never produce nuclear weapons<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Reiterates is an interesting choice of word. Iran has always denied US claims that it was planning to build a nuclear weapon, so this hardly feels like a major concession.<\/p>\n

Article Eight also states that the fate of Iran\u2019s enriched material, or \u201cnuclear dust\u201d as Trump<\/a> likes to call it, will only be addressed in the final agreement. <\/p>\n

\"\"(Reuters)<\/p>\n

That marks a step back from Trump\u2019s previous promises that the material would be immediately destroyed (possibly even in the US). <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Article Nine says that, pending a final agreement: \u201cIran will maintain the status quo on its nuclear programme, and the United States will not impose new sanctions on Iran or strengthen its forces in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maintaining the status quo is far from the decisive victory, or the \u201ccrushing\u201d of Iran, that Trump has repeatedly boasted about.<\/p>\n

The least clear section concerns the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>. Iran has agreed to \u201ctake steps\u201d to restore shipping volumes to pre-war levels within 30 days, including de-mining it. <\/p>\n

But despite Trump\u2019s public insistence that it will be \u201ctoll-free\u201d, there is no mention either way of Iran\u2019s insistence on continuing to charge fees to vessels passing through it. <\/p>\n

Iranian semi-official state media – citing unnamed officials – have suggested the leaked document, which emerged from both US and Iranian sources, isn\u2019t quite accurate. <\/p>\n

Both sides will be keen to spin the deal as a win for them.<\/p>\n

\"VesselsVessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 15 (Reuters)<\/p>\n

But the essential battlegrounds remain unresolved. And there is a noisy, unpredictable third player in the mix.<\/p>\n

Israel is struggling with Lebanon\u2019s inclusion in the ceasefire. Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> – on a collision course with his most lucrative ally in the US – has made clear he does not consider himself bound by the agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe struggle has not ended,\u201d he said in a defiant address on Wednesday, vowing that Israeli troops would remain in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n

With so much yet to be agreed upon – including the formal release of an agreed text – the nagging question still remains. <\/p>\n

What has this war, at a cost of billions to the the world, actually achieved?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[12474,12475,5084,34,12473,36],"class_list":["post-164892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-bestof","tag-essential","tag-horizontal","tag-iran","tag-topix","tag-war"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116766356704145390","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164892","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=164892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}