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United States President Donald Trump has said that the signing of a memorandum of understanding starting the process of ending the US-Israel conflict with Iran may still fall through.
Speaking to reporters from the Group of Seven (G7) Summit in Evian, France on Wednesday, Trump was tight-lipped when asked how confident he was that the signing scheduled for Friday would go ahead. In various statements throughout the day, Trump said Washington would resume bombing if Iran “doesn’t act”.
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“Practicing is great. I’ve done it my whole life,” Trump said at a news conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “I’ve been involved in deals that were 100 percent but it’s not happening. I’ve been involved in deals that I had no chance of doing, and it happens, and it happens easily.”
“So, you don’t know about trade, do you? But you will soon,” Trump said. “I think it will happen”.
Soon after, speaking in a separate speech, Mr. Trump said that the signing could happen sooner than he had previously announced, “tomorrow (Thursday), maybe the next day”, he said.
Trump and his senior officials have sent mixed signals about the end of the deal, which the US and Iran have said will end hostilities on both sides, remove US military restrictions, and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The two sides have also agreed that the initial agreement will only serve as a 60-day opening for further negotiations, including the future of Iran’s nuclear program, its support for proxies in the region, and the future management of the Strait of Hormuz.
US officials have maintained that the MOU was signed earlier on Sunday, indicating that the terms of the agreement have not changed.
Although each side released the statement, a US official read the 14 points he made to the press.
The official said that although the MOU was signed electronically on Sunday, both sides were free to go ahead with the final signing on Friday.
The US official said that in addition to reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lifting the US military blockade of Iranian ports, the US will immediately impose sanctions on Iran’s oil industry.
The deal also includes Iran’s nuclear program, reiterating Iran’s long-standing commitment that it will not seek a nuclear weapon while saying both countries will maintain their “standards,” the official said.
Discussions on Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium and the future of its nuclear program will take place within 60 days, it said.
The agreement also said that the US and its partners in the region will create “a plan that has agreed to 300 billion dollars for the reconstruction and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the reconstruction of Iran”.
The full lifting of sanctions on Iran and the removal of billions of dollars in Iranian assets will continue on an unspecified schedule after the signing of the deal.
Asked about the $300bn reconstruction plan on Friday, Mr Trump said it would continue “if (Iran) is doing well”.
Trump also pointed out the difference between freeing Iran’s economy and giving them money.
“We’ve taken a lot of their money, and we have their money … it’s not our money, it’s their money, and we turned it off at one point,” he said.
“I think we have to give back, you know. If we don’t give back, nobody’s going to come back in dollars,” he said.
‘We’re trying to find out’
The secrecy surrounding the deal has been criticized by all sides of US politics.
“A month of negotiations with Iran produced a page-and-a-half deal that no one is allowed to look at,” Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat, said in a tweet on Wednesday.
“As a member of the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, I need to see the actual text to believe we have an agreement, not a tweet,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican, said members of Trump’s party are pressuring the White House to release an official statement.
“We are trying to find out,” Thune told reporters on Tuesday.
Mr. Negar Mortazavi, director of the Center for International Policy, pointed out the “important political issues related to the release of the statement”.
“Washington and Tehran have publicly emphasized different aspects of the deal, while critics on both sides are scrutinizing its content,” Mortavavi told Al Jazeera.
“Releasing the document before it is signed and before the main points are finalized would create political opposition and make the process difficult,” he said.
For his part, the Vice President of the US, JD Vance, speaking to CBS News on Wednesday, said that it is Iran and regional mediators, not Washington, who want a gradual expansion.
“Yes, there are some, frankly, protocols that I don’t understand,” Vance said when asked about the secret.
“We’re trying to force them to release it today, because we want to tell the American people what’s in the deal,” he said.
Trump says Iran’s leadership ‘smart’
Mr. Trump, meanwhile, used a speech at the G7 on Wednesday to praise the MOU as a successful strategy, promising that the negotiations will deliver a nuclear agreement with Iran that surpasses the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that was reached under the administration of former President Barack Obama.
The deal forced Tehran to scale back its nuclear program and agree to unprecedented international sanctions relief. Trump unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2015.
Mr. Trump said that the US-Israeli war had indeed brought about “regime change” in Iran, even though he agreed with experts that not only was the country’s government still in place, but several of its new leaders were firmly entrenched in their hard line.
Trump described the new group of leaders as “very smart”.
“I think they’re very underrated, and … I think they’re very good,” he said.
Turning to Israel, Trump also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Lebanon, where the Israeli military has continued its offensive that threatens to derail the fledgling US-Iran deal.
However, he praised the ongoing cooperation between the two countries.
He added that Washington had sent a “copy” of the MOU to Israel.
