Middle East crisis live: Iran says no final peace agreement reached, after Trump claims deal could be signed soon
US president says ‘great settlement’ reached but Iranian spokesman says there has been no final conclusion Full report: Trump claims US and Iran on verge
US president says ‘great settlement’ reached but Iranian spokesman says there has been no final conclusion Full report: Trump claims US and Iran on verge of signing peace agreement Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East. Iran’s foreign ministry has contradicted claims from Donald Trump that a peace deal between Washington and Tehran could be signed as soon as this weekend. Trump said he was cancelling a third day of US airstrikes and bombings that he had earlier said would happen because “discussions” with Iran “have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved”. He also said on social media: “Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail, approved by all parties involved, including the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, and others.” Israel, however, said it was “ not a party to” what prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office described as an emerging memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran.
But the office said Netanyahu had spoken with Trump and that the final agreement at the conclusion of negotiations would include the removal of enriched material, the dismantling of enrichment infrastructure, limits on missile production, and the cessation of Iran’s support for its terrorist proxies in the region – measures that have been red lines for Iran in the past. The strait of Hormuz would open “as soon as we sign” the documents of the “great settlement” reached with Iran, Trump said. “The whole Middle East is happy.” Iranian media said the country’s forces had stopped a “violating tanker” from entering the strait of Hormuz. The report from the Fars news agency – closely linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards – came shortly after the sound of explosions were reportedly heard near the port city of Bandar Abbas.
Trump had earlier posted on social media that the US would seize Iran’s Kharg Island “in the not too distant future”, but later said the seizure would be off the table “if we sign this agreement”. The price of oil rose after Trump threatened a “very hard” attack on Iran, but plunged hours later after he said he was cancelling the strikes. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 1.9% to $86.08 a barrel, on top of a 2.6% drop overnight, and Brent dropped 1.5% to $89.08 a barrel, having fallen nearly 3% overnight. Asian stocks joined a global rally, with South Korea’s Kospi surging 7.4% and Japan’s Nikkei up 2.7%. A strike wounded 10 staff members of a hospital in the Lebanese city of Tyre on Thursday, the facility’s director told the AFP news agency, as Israeli raids continued in the country’s south.
The BriefWire