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The G7 leaders have welcomed the announcement of a deal between the US and Iran as a “breakthrough” and an “opportunity” to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

The leaders said they support the deal and “are ready to contribute to its implementation”.

They called for passage through the Strait of Hormuz without “restrictions or tolls” and said they strongly support a “robust and comprehensive diplomatic follow-on agreement” to the deal to “bring peace and security for all in the region”.

On Lebanon, the G7 leaders expressed support for “an immediate robust ceasefire” and for the Lebanese state’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah.

On Palestine, they pledged to “accelerate humanitarian and reconstruction efforts [in Gaza] and the swift implementation of relevant political and security measures,” while also calling for an end to the “violence in the West Bank”.

The US vice president has continued a string of media interviews about the US-Iran agreement, again appearing on Fox News to say Iran could experience “real benefits”, but only if “they fundamentally transform themselves”.

“The agreement is actually very simple. It says one: Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon; two: the Straits of Hormuz are open; and number three: there are all of these benefits contemplated that the Iranians can get, if they behave,” Vance said.

“If they stop funding terrorism, if they stop supporting the rebuilding of the nuclear arms programme, they actually can get some real benefits. If they don’t do any of that stuff, they don’t get anything,” he said.

“The United States wins either way,” Vance added.

Neither the US nor Iran have released the full text of the agreement, but Bloomberg News and Al Arabiya have published what they say is the 14-point draft.

According to the US and Saudi outlets:

• The deal declares an “immediate and permanent end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon”, with both sides undertaking that “from now on, they will not launch any hostile action against each other”.
• The US will lift the naval blockade on Iranian ports and “undertakes to withdraw its forces from the surrounding areas within 30 days after the final agreement”.
• Iran will “immediately take steps” to allow transit in the Strait of Hormuz.
• The US and its regional partners will create a “comprehensive plan” for the “rehabilitation and economic development” of Iran, and ensure financing of at least $300bn.
• The US commits to ending “all types of sanctions” on Iran, including those by the UN Security Council, “on a schedule to be agreed upon as part of the final agreement”.
• Iran “reiterates that it will never produce nuclear weapons” and the fate of its enriched material and other issues will be addressed in a final agreement.
• The US will issue waivers for Iranian oil exports until the date of the lifting of sanctions.
• The US undertakes, “in light of the progress of negotiations towards a final agreement”, to release frozen Iranian funds and assets.

The US has been supportive of Israel for nearly eight decades, with only the mildest of tensions between the president and prime minister in the last 15 years or so.

Bipartisan congressional support for Israel has been more robust until this year, with fractures never before seen within the Democratic and Republican parties.

Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a former special assistant to US President Ronald Reagan, says Washington has to try to bring Israel under control to end its attacks on Lebanon.

But that will not be easy, “given the influence that Israel has in the United States, as well as the relationship between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu”, he said.

Trump appeared focused on ending attacks on Beirut, he said, while Iran is also looking at southern Lebanon, where hundreds of thousands of people have been forced from their homes. And unless there is “real pressure on Israel”, Netanyahu can dismiss calls for the attacks on southern Lebanon to end.

“The US has leverage,” Bandow said, noting Washington’s provision of both financial aid and military aid to Israel.

“If Israel wants to conduct a war in Lebanon and elsewhere over an extended period of time, it needs that US support. But no US president has ever been willing to deny Israel for any period of time, weapons and money, and the Congress probably would not go along with it,” he said.

“So, if Trump does not apply real pressure, if he can’t find a way to do so, it’s going to turn out to be theatrics. And the Iranians are not likely to find that satisfactory. It could blow up the agreement.”

A third tanker operated by the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), carrying 1 million barrels of Iranian crude, has sailed past the US Navy’s blockade line in the Gulf of Oman, according to TankerTrackers.

In a post on X, the maritime tracking service said the Sonia I “exited the blockade line” at 01:11 GMT.

According to TankerTrackers, two NITC tankers – the Diona and Hero 2 – carrying a total of 3.8 million barrels of Iranian oil, exited the blockade line on Tuesday, while another tanker, Stream, was sailing towards Iranian ports.

Iran has said the memorandum of understanding it agreed upon with the US entails an immediate end to Washington’s two-month-old naval blockade on Iranian ports.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called for a firm commitment to a ceasefire in the war, urging all parties to work towards laying the foundation of a “sustainable security architecture in the region”, the state news agency Xinhua reports.

Speaking at a news conference for the release of a white paper on China’s vision for global governance, Wang warned of mounting instability in the international order.

“New challenges in quick succession bring intertwining global crises,” he said, adding: “The ship of civilisation has entered dangerous waters with hidden reefs and violent storms.”

Wang said disputes are revealing deep-seated conflicts with “black swan and grey rhino events”, referring to unexpected crises and overlooked but visible threats emerging continually.

He also called for greater representation for the Global South in international decision-making, saying: “Countries, whether large or small, strong or weak, developed or developing, are equal members of the international community.”

Some statements:

• The G7 leaders said the deal provides a “historic opportunity to prevent” Iran from acquiring any nuclear weapons and to address its regional and ballistic activities.
• They reaffirmed “the right of transit passage without restrictions or tolls is the bedrock of international trade” and said France and the UK can “play an important role to facilitate the resumption of maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz”.
• They committed themselves to “accelerate the diversification of energy supply routes in order to reduce global vulnerability to the Strait of Hormuz”.
• They also expressed support for the Lebanese government’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah.
• They said they will “accelerate humanitarian and reconstruction efforts” in Gaza and called for an end to violence in the occupied West Bank.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who says he has seen the MoU agreed by the US and Iran, calls it a “well-structured” and “positive” agreement that he “absolutely” supports.

Speaking to CNN on the sidelines of the G7 summit, Carney said, “We’re very pleased with the deal that’s been struck,” adding that it is a “game-changer”.

“It sets the groundwork to ensure Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon,” he continued. “It sets the groundwork for a reintegration over time of the economies in the region. It sets the groundwork for a solution in Lebanon, which we discussed today. So it’s positive.”

Carney also told CNN the deal provides Iran with “a big financial incentive” if it meets its commitments in the coming months, such as opening the Strait of Hormuz and negotiating the transfer of its enriched uranium.

Ali Akbar Dareini, a researcher at the Tehran-based Center for Strategic Studies, says Iran has not only survived the conflict with the US but also handed Washington a “strategic failure”.

“Survival is the biggest achievement, but Iran’s achievements are not limited to surviving this war of aggression by two nuclear powers, one of them the world’s biggest military and economic power,” he says.

“Iran exposed the limits of US power,” he said.

“The Americans could not even protect their own military assets, let alone their Arab allies. Everybody understood that American military bases exist to protect Israel, not the Arabs.”

Dareini added that Iran demonstrated a degree of national solidarity that carried its own strategic weight.

“This war showed everybody how Iranians rallied around the national flag. Iran demonstrated national solidarity and demonstrated the core of Iran’s strategic culture, that is, not giving in to foreign bullying and aggression.”

The MoU reached with Washington is itself proof of the US failure, he said. “They hoped they could finish Iran in 72 hours. They failed. This is a strategic failure for the United States and a strategic victory for Iran.”

Iran has managed to demonstrate meaningful leverage during the war, but the damage it has sustained is heavy, according to Mehran Kamrava, professor of government at Georgetown University Qatar.

“Iran has managed to give both the United States and Israel a bloody nose, and it has managed to demonstrate that it has multiple sources of leverage in the Strait of Hormuz, across the Persian Gulf and by hitting American bases.” he said.

“Historically, great powers have never been able to attack a weaker state and declare victory whether it was the Americans in Vietnam, the Soviets in Afghanistan, the Americans in Iraq or the Russians in Ukraine,” he said.

“But I don’t think Vietnam, Afghanistan or Ukraine could declare victory either,” he said.

That’s because “the greater power inflicts significant economic and infrastructural damage, and I think it would be hard to deny that Iran has suffered greatly as a result of this war”.

The UK-based human rights group says the Israeli army’s mass forced displacement orders in Lebanon amount to “war crimes” under international law.

“In parts of southern Lebanon, the Israeli military’s forced displacement of civilians and prevention of their return amounts to unlawful transfer – which is a war crime,” the group said in a statement.

The Israeli army has “radically expanded” its use of such orders, displacing hundreds of thousands of people across Lebanon, it added.

“Instead of forcibly uprooting communities and designating entire swathes of Lebanese land as ‘no-go zones’ for civilians, Israeli forces must immediately withdraw from Lebanese territory,” said Kristine Beckerle, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

The Israeli military declared about 4.6 percent of Lebanon as a “no-go zone” on November 28, 2024, a day after a previous ceasefire took effect, it noted.

In 2026, just three days after an April 17 ceasefire announcement, the restricted area was expanded to about six percent of the country, and designated a “Forward Defense” zone, with residents ordered not to return to multiple villages previously home to tens of thousands of civilians.

Lebanese officials say Israel, which has been carrying out a massive offensive in the country since March 2, has killed more than 3,800 people, wounded 11,850 others, and displaced more than one million.

Claims the US-Israeli war has extinguished any hope for democracy in Iran misreads how the country is actually governed, an analyst says.

“The people of Iran have made it very clear that they would like to have a full say as to who is going to be their leadership,” Roxane Farmanfarmaian, a professor in international politics at the University of Cambridge, says.

“Nowhere in the Iranian uprisings or demonstrations have they ever called on the United States or Israel to define their new government or their democratic process.”

The composition of Iran’s current leadership is evidence of a more complex political reality than Western capitals acknowledge, she said.

“The process in Iran is not entirely undemocratic. It’s very interesting, if you look at the leadership running the country at the moment, it represents various different institutions. You have the speaker of parliament who was elected. You have those elected as part of the reformist party. You have a new supreme leader,” Farmanfarmaian noted.

“There are combinations of people in power working together, which represents quite an interesting example of collective decision-making.”

Israel will likely continue to seize and occupy southern Lebanon by whatever means necessary, says Wolfgang Pusztai, a former Austrian defense attaché and current military analyst.

“Israel will certainly continue to expand its control in southern Lebanon to ensure its ‘security’. But on the other hand, Israel does not have an interest in its population coming under fire every day,” he said..

Given the importance of the Strait of Hormuz to the Iranian economy, it’s unlikely Tehran would retaliate against any Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon, said Pusztai.

Meanwhile, the current US-Iran agreement presents an opportunity for President Trump to achieve his immediate goal, namely reopening Hormuz, he added.

“What this means is that right now the outcome looks more successful for Tehran than for Washington. The strait is open, there is no commitment on the side of Tehran regarding its nuclear program, there is no commitment on ballistic missile performance, and there is no debate about the program,” he said.

“So right now, Donald Trump has something that looks like a deal, but success depends entirely on the results of the negotiations that follow.”

Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar says Pakistan will help 30 Iranian nationals return home, including eight fishermen rescued at sea and 22 crew members from a vessel recently “interdicted by US authorities”.

According to Dar, the eight fishermen were rescued by the British vessel MMA Valour when their boat was stranded while the 22 crew members were on board the vessel Lenore/Davina.

They are all expected to return to Iran via Karachi “in the coming days”, he said.

“Pakistan remains committed to humanitarian cooperation and to extending every possible assistance to our Iranian brothers,” Dar said.

Lebanon was among the top priorities for the Iranians when they started negotiations with the Trump administration, according to Mohammad Eslami from Tehran University.

“Once the Iranians not only retaliated against the Israeli attacks on Dahiyeh and Beirut, but also pre-emptively attacked Israeli territory, they showed right from the outset they are determined and very serious about supporting Lebanon, the Lebanese people, the Lebanese government and the resistance factions in Lebanon,” he said.

Eslami says what’s happening in Israel is “a very serious effort to sabotage the diplomatic settlement between Tehran and Washington”.

“Right now, the Iranians are conducting some kind of assessment of the future of the crisis if the Americans cannot fulfill their promises, according to the memorandum of understanding, and if the Israelis want to continue their attacks on Lebanon. I think that if they do attack, it will not be just once but more.”

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson says Beijing will help with “recovery and reconstruction” efforts in the two countries.

“China is deeply saddened by the humanitarian disaster” caused by the wars in Iran and Lebanon, Lin Jian told reporters in the capital.

“Considering the real situation in the relevant countries, China has decided to offer humanitarian aid to Iran and Lebanon … to further assist the people there in recovery and reconstruction as well as improving their economy and livelihood,” Lin said.

It is the second time since the US and Israel initiated a war against Iran on February 28 that Beijing has offered aid to Tehran. China previously sent aid to Iran in March.

The move comes as the US and Iran agreed on a Pakistan-mediated memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war. A signing ceremony is to be held on Friday in Switzerland.

Araghchi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have talked by phone to discuss the preliminary agreement with the United States.

The Iranian diplomat briefed Lavrov on the details of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) and stressed the need for a “complete stop” to Israeli aggression against Lebanon.

Lavrov welcomed the finalization of the text and affirmed Russia’s full support for its implementation, Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim News Agency reported.

The ministers called on the international community and the UN Security Council to support the MoU and emphasized the need for continued diplomacy to establish peace and stability.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has spoken by phone with his Egyptian counterpart, Badr Abdelatty, according to Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry.

“The two leaders exchanged views on the recent understandings reached between the United States and Iran and the forthcoming signing of the Memorandum of Understanding in Burgenstock, Switzerland, on Friday,” it said.

Trump says there’s a 99.99 percent chance that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.

He made the remarks as he and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi addressed reporters at the G7 summit in France with comments focusing on the US-Iran negotiations.

“What is really happy is the [stock] market that has gone wild. It’s gone through the roof. And oil has tumbled down,” the US president said. “That speaks louder than words.”

Speaking alongside Trump, el-Sisi conveys “great appreciation” for the US-Iran deal.

He said Egypt is waiting for a final deal to be declared “so that we can react appropriately and state our positive views and perspectives”.

Asked if the agreement is “final”, Trump replies, “No, it’s not final.”

He added: “It’s a memorandum of understanding. And if I don’t like it, we’ll go back to shooting at them, dropping bombs on their head.”

“If I don’t like it, if they don’t behave, we’ll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head.”

Trump says news reports that the US-Iran deal includes provisions for $300bn in reconstruction funds for Tehran are false.

“We’re not putting up 10 cents,” Trump said. “We are not investing, and we do not have a fund.”

Trump said he’s not asking Gulf countries to invest in Iran but “if they do it, fine.”

“I would say they won’t be doing it for a while until they find out the behavior [of the Iranians],” he added.

The US president has accused his predecessor Barack Obama of “bribing” Iran with a planeload of money to agree to the 2015 nuclear agreement.

“The JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] done by Obama – he handed them $1.7bn in cash, green cash from banks, into a Boeing 757 and flew it into Iran. And they stood at the plane – I have pictures of it – ‘Oh, my God, look at this money he’s giving us,’” Trump told reporters in France at the G7 summit.

“He tried to bribe his way out. I didn’t try to do that. … You know what the Iranians did? They laughed at Obama and said he’s a stupid son of a b****.”

Trump, who is in France for the G7 summit, has just spoken to the media alongside his Egyptian counterpart, el-Sisi.

Here are some of his main points regarding the situation with Iran:

• The MoU with Iran is not a final agreement and the US will “go back to shooting at them” and “dropping bombs” if he doesn’t like the way it works out.
• The markets are “very happy” with the Iran deal.
• The US will not invest in Iran and has not asked Gulf countries to do so, but “it’s fine” if Gulf countries decide to do so at some point.
• He will speak more about the situation with Iran at a news conference later today.

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, says the US-Iran agreement is “very bad” for Israel, the United States and Gulf nations.

In comments to Israel’s Channel 14, Danon said that by trying to end the negotiating process as quickly as possible, President Trump allowed Iran to “improve” its position.

“But we have to wait. There is no decision yet – only a framework for the continuation [of negotiations],” he said.

Leaving room for interpretation in the text of the agreement was a deliberate move that has allowed both parties to reach an interim deal, an analyst says.

“If they wanted to have a rigid text with only one understanding, they couldn’t achieve any agreement on the text at all,” Mohamed Eslami of Tehran University says.

It’s not only the Lebanon issue that has left open the door for interpretation to both parties but also Iranian assets and the future management of the Strait of Hormuz.

“The text is deliberately designed to allow both parties to frame it domestically as a victory. It is not only for the Americans but also for the Iranians.”

“There are many more topics to be discussed during 60 or 30 days of very, very hard negotiations. This is the beginning of a marathon for both parties. If they cannot agree on the core issues, this interim deal will not work,” Eslami added.

Mohamed Yusef Ali, the defense minister of Somaliland, has dismissed news reports that Israel is in negotiations to open a military base there.

Speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Tel Aviv, Yusef Ali told Reuters that Israel is training ⁠Somaliland’s military and police ⁠but denied “rumours” about a military base.

Israel ⁠recognized Somaliland as an independent state in December, a move ‌Somalia rejected and called a “deliberate attack” on ‌its ‌sovereignty. This week, Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi visited Israel and opened an embassy in Jerusalem.

Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli ambassador and consul general in New York, says Trump’s public criticism of Netanyahu is “100 percent genuine” and stems from a belief the Israeli leader oversold the Iran war and has tried to undermine the US’s ceasefire with Iran.

“Trump is disappointed, disillusioned and, in fact, angry and livid that Netanyahu sold him on a war with false premises – that the regime in Iran would collapse, that there would be a popular uprising,” said Pinkas.

In addition, Trump “seems to perceive that Netanyahu is trying his best to derail and undermine the agreement with Iran via Israeli attacks in Lebanon”, Pinkas added.

“Those two things led to [Trump’s] outbursts and use of profanity against Netanyahu. This is not just a show, this is real.”

Chancellor Friedrich Merz has reiterated Germany’s intention to help support the Iran-US framework agreement, which could include a military mission in the Strait of Hormuz.

France and the UK are leading the efforts to start a mission to secure the critical waterway, while German Foreign Minister Wadephul previously expressed his country’s interest in participating in such an operation.

Germany’s government would need to secure a parliamentary mandate for any military mission.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France, Merz said there were “a series of preconditions that are not yet fulfilled, so there is no immediate hurry”.

He noted that there are still two weeks of parliamentary sessions before the legislature’s summer break starts in July and said that “there is no time pressure at the moment.”

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun says Lebanon is conducting its own independent negotiations for a ceasefire and any settlement with Israel will be made by the state.

Aoun said in a post on X, “the assurances we have received and what we emphasize is that Lebanon’s course is independent in the negotiations.”

He added Beirut is “certainly in favor of a ceasefire and with any state that helps us including Iran among them”.

“The negotiation is being conducted by the Lebanese state, which is sovereign in its decisions and no one takes its place, and any settlement will be made through us, not at our expense,” said Aoun.

Trump has reiterated his administration’s talking point that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.

“My deal is a wall to a nuclear weapon,” the president said.

“Nobody else did this but Trump,” he added. “Forty-seven years, Iran took advantage of the world … Nobody did anything.”

Trump has been asked by a reporter how confident he is that the US-Iran MoU will be formally signed on Friday, as he previously stated.

He offered a long-winded response but said he believes Iran wants to sign.

“You never know with deals. But you’re going to find out pretty soon. I think it’ll be done. They want to sign, they want to get back to a normal life,” the US president said.

Trump added the agreement is “a very strong one”.

“This isn’t just like a two-paragraph … this is a long, pretty detailed, memorandum that goes into a regular contract. I would think they would do it; if they don’t, that’s OK. We’ll have to start the process again.”

Asked whether he thinks Israel should halt its military campaign in Lebanon, Trump said: “No, I want Israel to be able to protect itself. But I do want [Israel] to use good judgment.”

French President Emmanuel Macron is holding a news conference at the G7.

“We have unanimously welcomed the very good agreement reached between the US and Iran, which was secured by President Trump,” Macron told reporters.

“This is an agreement that we support because it’s an agreement that ends a situation of great instability, the consequences of which for our economies were terrible.”

Addressing the situation in Lebanon, the French president says the G7 believes a ceasefire “has to be full and immediate – that’s absolutely necessary”.

The US-Iran deal must ensure that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon is defended, he said.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi have discussed the contents of the interim agreement, due to be formally signed by the US and Iran on Friday, in a phone call.

Araghchi “thanked Beijing for its support for the negotiation process as well as its support for the relevant memorandum of understanding”, according to a statement relayed by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency.

For his part, Yi “welcomed the memorandum of understanding … and praised the responsible and diplomatic approach of the Islamic Republic of Iran in resolving issues and advancing dialogue,” continued the statement.

Yi also “announced China’s readiness to facilitate its implementation, strengthen regional interactions and help resolve the ambiguities and challenges between the countries of the region”.

The two diplomats both “emphasised the need for the international community to support this memorandum of understanding” and the UN Security Council’s responsibility in ensuring it is implemented and adhered to in its entirety.

The French president has acknowledged that the MoU does not solve all the outstanding issues between Washington and Tehran immediately, but stressed that it is nevertheless “a good thing”.

“Does it solve everything right away? No,” Macron told reporters.

“But what was continuing the war? Having Hormuz closed for months; taking the risk of destroying oil and gas capacities, which would have destabilized everything for months – even years; continuing the loss of life and the unacceptable situation in Lebanon and the collapse of the entire region.

“We have a humanitarian, political and economic responsibility,” he said. “So this agreement that ends the fighting everywhere, from the Strait of Hormuz to Lebanon, is a good thing.”

Mohamad Elmasry, from the Doha Institute of Graduate Studies, says the Iran-US memorandum of understanding (MoU) is under threat because of the Israeli occupation of Lebanon.

“Lebanon is still I think going to risk the MoU and the broader peace because I don’t think Israel is going to relent in Lebanon,” Elmasry says. “Israel has an interest in undercutting the agreement, and honestly, they’re already trying to undermine it.”

Analysts have raised the prospect that Israel will do something to scupper the agreement between Washington and Tehran.

“The Israelis are framing this [Iran-US deal] up as a kind of violation against Israel’s freedom and security. So I do think those concerns are grounded in reality,” said Elmasry.

Russian specialists are expected to soon return to Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, according to the head of Russia’s state nuclear company.

The plant “remains our priority,” Rosatom’s Alexey Likhachev said in a statement carried by Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency.

“We welcome the efforts to reach a compromise on Iran’s nuclear program with the participation of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency],” he added, but said the agency must “take into account the interests of all parties”.

Bushehr came under repeated attacks by the US and Israel following their offensive against Iran, prompting the evacuation of nearly 200 Rosatom employees in April.

Hailing the MOU with Iran, the US president says he has discussed the “historic” agreement with many allies, including G7 nations.

“Many presidents and prime ministers … they are thrilled that we made a deal, every one of them,” Trump said.

“There’s not one nation that came to us and said, ‘Please sir, keep dropping bombs on them, please keep dropping bombs’. Stupid people say that.”

Trump has reiterated his comments from previous weeks: that his administration achieved “regime change” in Iran.

“I think they’re going to behave much differently,” he said of the country’s current leaders.

The US president added he could have continued the war, but “I didn’t want to see economic catastrophe”.

“Every time we talked about the possibility of peace, the market shot up like a rocket ship,” he said.

The US president says he’s prepared to “go back to bombing” Iran if the next stage of negotiations does not pan out the way he wants.

“If it doesn’t get done in 60 days, that’s all right, we go back to bombing,” Trump said. “But we might have to, because we’re never going to let them have a nuclear weapon.”

Trump has said the US and Iran will “most likely sign a deal – they want to sign a deal”.

The comment came moments after the US president said the deal was a “guarantee”.

He also said the MOU makes certain that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.

Trump has claimed the deal is not the result of several weeks of negotiations but rather stems from the US assassination of Qassem Soleimani, the former head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.

“This wasn’t a three-month deal. This was years in the making. You know why? Because I was the one who killed General Soleimani. And if I didn’t kill General Soleimani, we probably wouldn’t be talking right now about this deal.”

Soleimani was killed in a US attack on Baghdad International Airport in Iraq in January 2020, during Trump’s first term in office.

Describing Soleimani as “the boss of Iran” and a “mad genius”, Trump said he decided to “blow him up” after Israel said it would not do it.

“They didn’t want to do that attack. They were all set. The night before the attack, they informed me, they didn’t want to do it, so I had to make a decision. I made the decision to do it,” Trump claimed. “That was a joint venture between Israel and us.”

Speaking of Israel’s continuing invasion and bombardment in Lebanon, Trump has said, “They could do better with respect to Hezbollah.”

“I’m not saying they shouldn’t protect themselves,” the president said, but added, “You don’t have to knock down buildings in Beirut. They could behave better.”

Trump also praised Israel and Netanyahu for their partnership.

“And it won’t be from us. We don’t have to give them anything. But some people may want to invest,” Trump tells reporters.

The US president has faced political pressure domestically amid reports that the deal with Iran will lead to the release of the country’s frozen assets.

“They need investment,” said Trump, claiming the war caused “maybe two trillion dollars” in damages. “So, somebody’s going to have to help them out. There’s no guarantee about helping them out. It could be their neighbours will help them out a little bit, I don’t know.”

He added: “But we’re not investing any money.”

The US president has hailed “our partners in Pakistan and Qatar” before thanking the Gulf nations, including the United Arab Emirates.

“Mohamed at the UAE is an incredible warrior,” the president said, referring to Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed. “He was dropping bombs … I said, ‘Who the hell is dropping all those bombs?’ It was the UAE.”

The Gulf nations will engage in a process to address “the non-nuclear issues”, Trump said, including Iran’s ballistic missiles and proxies.

Asked about reports that the US-Iran MoU includes $300bn in reconstruction funds, Trump has said “We’re not doing anything.”

“We’re not putting up money in Iran, but if people want to invest, they can invest,” he said, repeating remarks from earlier in the day.

The $300bn, the president added, will only come to fruition “if they’re doing things right”, but did not elaborate.

Amid widespread condemnation of the US-Iran deal in Israel, Trump says he told Netanyahu that the agreement secures “the most important thing” the Israeli prime minister had been asking for – referring to Iran not having a nuclear weapon.

“I told Bibi: ‘Bibi, your biggest risk was that they’d drop a nuclear weapon into the middle of Israel. They’d only need one, and there’d be no more Israel,” Trump said, using the Israeli leader’s nickname.

“‘Think about it Bibi, you got the best – the most important thing you were asking for … So I think they’re happy.”

He said earlier that he sent a copy of the US-Iran memorandum of understanding to the Israeli government.

“The rest of them are underground, they can’t even get them out,” the US president says.

“They don’t want to be firing missiles right now. They’re going to have a hard time rebuilding,” he added.

When asked about the attack on a girls’ school in southern Iran’s Minab that killed 165 people, mostly children, at the beginning of the US-Israel war on Iran, the US president said, “Nobody did that on purpose.”

“As you know, it’s under investigation – it’s such a strange question to be asked,” he said, adding: “What about the thousands of soldiers they blew up?”

“Mistakes are made. War is nasty,” he said.

The US president has reiterated that he would attack Iran again if it does not comply with the MoU.

“I let them know – I said, ‘Look, if you don’t adhere to the agreement, I don’t want to do that – but we’re going to bomb the hell out of you,'” Trump said.

“And I don’t think that they’re going to veer from the agreement. What else am I going to do? Am I going to say I’m going to take you to court? ‘Let me take you to court, let me sue you.’

“No, we’re going to bomb the hell out of them if they violate the agreement. I don’t want them to. I want them to honour the agreement.”

Trump has addressed the offers from France and the UK to coordinate military efforts to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“We don’t need it,” he said. “By the way, they all want to do it. They want to be part of it now – not while the war is going on.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said earlier that France was prepared to lead an effort, alongside about 20 other countries, in the waterway.

Trump has thanked China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s ⁠Vladimir Putin for being “neutral” during the US-Israel war on Iran.

“I just want to thank them because they made it ⁠a lot better,” Trump said, adding that China was “terrific” and made efforts to help settle the conflict.

Osama Bin Javaid has explained that, if the version of the MoU read out by a senior US official is accurate, Iran’s leadership would be pleased “because it does [appear to] give in to quite a lot of their demands”.

“But as the US president has been saying, his priority was to make sure that he de-nuclearizes Iran,” Bin Javaid said.

“He’s been able to get them to agree to water down their fissile material. He’s got a commitment that they will not be enriching uranium and never build a [nuclear] bomb – and that, to Donald Trump, is the victory he was after.”

He added that the MoU appears to be very close to what Iran was asking for.

“We’ll have to wait and see until the final agreement is signed by the two sides,” he said. “Until they sign on the dotted line, we are not 100 percent sure that this is the final document.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei says that the interim agreement may be signed by Trump and his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, with the idea still under review.

“This idea is proposed and is still under consideration,” said Baghaei in a statement relayed by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Baghaei added that “there has been no change in Iran’s plans” to attend the official signing ceremony on Friday in Switzerland.

Tehran had previously said the US and Iran would be represented by JD Vance and the parliament speaker and top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, respectively.

Maximilian Hess, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, says “large amounts of oil and natural gas” should pass through the Strait of Hormuz “in due order” after the waterway reopens and de-mining is completed.

“That being said, this conflict has led to a significant reordering of both the political environment in that region, in the relationship [of regional countries] to Washington, and of course, with regards to wider global energy supplies,” Hess said.

He said Washington has “lost a lot of influence” in the relationships between Tehran and Arab countries in the Gulf, which came under Iranian drone and missile barrages throughout the war.

“We’ll see different approaches from different Gulf countries with regards to Tehran,” said Hess, adding that “the geostrategic chess board” taking shape now “is very much in the early stages”.

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem says that the memorandum of understanding reached between Iran and the US is a “big victory”.

“We congratulate the Iranian people, leadership and those who support freedom on this big victory, and we thank the Islamic Republic for linking the Lebanon front – the resistance, which has sacrificed a lot – and forcing Israel to stop its aggression,” Qassem said in a televised address.

“The goal was to bring down the Iranian regime, but the might of American tyranny was broken, and Washington’s colonialist project for Iran failed,” he said. “The goal of bringing down the Iranian regime and destroying the dignified life of revolutionary Iran failed, and the direction shifted.”

Qassem also said that Lebanon’s negotiations with Israel should be limited to “mutual security”, adding that the country’s main demand should be restoring its sovereignty.

“The ceiling for the negotiations with the Israeli enemy is mutual security … and any proposal under the banner of disarmament will not pass, as this is an Israeli recipe for taking everything and wrecking the country,” he said.

“Everything linked to organising our domestic situation, whether the issue of weapons or the economy, or the national security strategy or defence strategy … it all must be completely outside the negotiations. This we discuss internally. Therefore in any negotiation, the main demand must be Lebanon’s sovereignty,” said Qassem.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei says it will develop a mechanism for the Strait of Hormuz with Oman, adding that the two countries will exchange views with other countries when necessary.

Iran and Oman will “develop a management mechanism for the Strait of Hormuz” and will “cooperate and consult with other regional countries wherever necessary”, said Baghaei in a statement relayed by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.

“Regarding the Strait of Hormuz, it has been agreed that maritime traffic will be returned to normal within a specified time,” said Baghaei, adding, “This is our own responsibility, and only we will carry it out; there will be no need for participation or intervention from other parties.”

The MoU with Iran will be signed “within 48 hours”, Trump has said.

“It’s in final form,” the president told reporters before departing the G7 meeting.

When asked for the exact location of the event, he said, “We haven’t determined yet.”

When asked how long US military forces are expected to stay in the Gulf region, the US president said, “Probably a while.”

“I’d say a little while, see how it all goes,” he said.

When asked how he views the 60-day negotiation countdown with Iran, the US president has said it’s not a hard deadline.

“Just as long as they’re behaving, I really don’t care that much,” he said.

“If they don’t come through, is it a threat that we bomb? You can call it whatever you want, but it’ll probably happen,” he said.

Kamran Bokhari, a senior fellow at the Middle East Policy Council, says “Israel has two imperatives that are in conflict with one another” right now.

“One is to counter Iran and Hezbollah. On the other hand, it also needs to maintain a very close relationship with the United States,” he said. “With US and Israeli interests diverging in this current moment, that’s becoming a big challenge for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”

Bokhari said whether or not Netanyahu can convince the Trump administration not to offer “too many concessions to Iran” in the negotiation process is an open question. So too is whether or not the Israeli military will wind down its attacks in Lebanon, or halt them altogether.

“The Israelis are looking at this and saying, ‘Let’s see where this goes. It could very well be that when the 60-day negotiations begin and somewhere down the line this process collapses, that’s where we can swing back and say it’s time to go back to the military option’. I think that’s the Israeli calculus here.”

Tehran has its “finger on the trigger” amid ongoing distrust with the US, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf says.

“My pessimism and distrust of America is the greatest. Even if the agreement is final and it is approved by the Security Council resolution, it is still not trustworthy at all,” he said in comments carried by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.

“The distance between me and the field of diplomatic struggle is not far from the field of military struggle, and our hand is on the trigger,” he added.

Iran’s Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, parliament speaker and top negotiator:

The US “has made the potential of the Strait of Hormuz a reality for us”, he said.

“Iran has sovereign rights in the Strait of Hormuz, and naturally, we will charge for the services,” he added.

Prominent US Republican politicians have displayed mixed reactions to the reported text of the US-Iran agreement.

Lindsey Graham, a senator from South Carolina, wrote on X that he believed the deal was “beneficial to the United States, in as much as the Strait of Hormuz will begin to open” but appeared to offer some skepticism about long-term negotiations.

“Whether or not the United States can reach an acceptable, verifiable deal with Iran regarding its nuclear programme and other issues is yet to be determined, but I see little downside to trying,” he added.

Meanwhile, Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy – who recently lost his reelection bid to a Trump-backed rival – railed against the deal, saying “Iran’s nuclear ambitions were not curbed”.

“This is the worst foreign policy blunder in decades,” he added.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei has confirmed that the memorandum of understanding with the United States has been signed electronically.

Speaking to state broadcaster Press TV, Baghaei said the agreement had now been formally signed by both sides electronically.

Akiva Eldar, an Israeli political analyst, says Netanyahu has painted himself into a corner by aligning himself so closely with Trump.

“Actually saying no to President Trump and staying in Lebanon is a suicidal move for him,” he says, noting that the Israeli prime minister is looking at the current situation through the lens of the upcoming elections in Israel.

“Netanyahu is playing – politically and diplomatically – with his back to the wall,” Eldar said. “If he will accept the American diktat, it will [set] a precedent, because Netanyahu kept saying he was the only leader who could say no to the president of the United States.”

We’ve been reporting that Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, confirms that the MoU between his country and the US has been electronically signed.

Trump ⁠has signed ⁠the memorandum of ‌understanding to end the war on ⁠Iran, a White ⁠House official told Reuters.

The memo had ⁠been signed digitally ⁠on Sunday by Vice President JD ⁠Vance and Iran’s ⁠chief ⁠negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and witnessed by ‌Trump, the official said.

Ali Vaez, director of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group, says that “Iran has suffered tremendously in this war”.

“Its infrastructure has been damaged; its economy was already in dire straits, and after this war, it is going to have a really, really hard time recovering,” Vaez said. “This war had turned into a lose-lose dynamic for both sides, and this is why it is a wise decision to bring it to an end.”

However, he said the war was a strategic blunder for Washington and, in some ways, strengthened Tehran’s hand.

“It has to pay a price for it, no doubt about it. But a lot of the economic promises that the US is making to Iran, the $300bn fund for investment and the future of the country, would come at the cost of significant Iranian nuclear concessions; significant transparency measures.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil has confirmed that the mechanism for unfreezing blocked Iranian assets has been finalized in full consultation with the central bank, according to Iran’s Mehr news agency.

Baghaei emphasized that Tehran must have the absolute right to access and use its wealth at will, adding that the US is committed to removing all the existing obstacles.

Baghaei said the central bank had been fully involved in the process to ensure the technical mechanisms were sound, though he declined to specify the exact figures involved.