After US President Donald Trump claimed that a peace deal was being finalised with Iran to end the war in the Middle East, Iran denied the claim, saying that the US has made fresh demands. After stating on Thursday (11th June) that the US would hit Iran “very hard”, Trump later said that an agreement was being finalised with Iran and that he had cancelled the strikes on Iran. He further said that the agreement would likely be signed in Europe, and the date and time for it will be announced shortly.
“We have a deal that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, which was the whole purpose of what we had to go through to get this. So, it’s a very big thing,” Trump said, speaking to reporters. He said that the Strait of Hormuz would also open as soon as the deal is signed.
The US President said that dialogue with Iran had reached “the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved,” adding that he “cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening.” He said that he spoke to leaders in the Middle East, including his Gulf allies and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and claimed that “the whole Middle East is very happy.”
However, Trump’s claims were denied a day later, on Friday (12th June), by Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, who described the reports about the agreement as “speculative” and said that “nothing has been finalised”.
Baqaei said that Tehran “had not reached a final conclusion on the agreement” to end the war, accusing the U.S. of putting new demands. “…most of the text of the agreement was finalised, but the problem began when the US side made new demands and changed its positions…” Baqaei said.
Regarding the peace agreement, a statement from the office of the Israeli Prime Minister confirmed a conversation had taken place but added that Israel “is not a party to the memorandum of understanding”. The statement said that PM Netanyahu appreciated Trump’s commitment to work towards a final agreement that included “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”.
Notably, Trump has spoken about a peace deal being discussed with Iran many times since the war started in February this year. A ceasefire was agreed in the US-Israel-Iran war in April; however, the countries kept launching strikes.
