Trump expects Strait of Hormuz to 'completely' reopen on Friday – 毎日新聞
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Japan’s National Daily Since 1922
(Mainichi Japan)
GENEVA (Kyodo) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that he has already signed a preliminary peace deal with Iran and expects the Strait of Hormuz to be “completely” reopened to commercial shipping on Friday.
“I think a lot of great things are going to happen in the Middle East,” Trump said while sitting with his host, French President Emmanuel Macron, at the outset of their bilateral meeting in Evian-les-Bains before the start of a Group of Seven summit.
“Very importantly, the oil is plummeting down, and the stock market is shooting up like a rocket today,” said Trump, who along with Israel started the war against Iran in late February.
But a senior U.S. official, who spoke to the press around the time when Trump was making his opening remarks, said it is unlikely that the strait will return to normal traffic in two weeks.
Trump said the text of the so-called memorandum of understanding with Iran will be released “probably pretty soon” after Friday, when the two countries plan to hold a ceremony in Switzerland to formalize the deal.
Under the memorandum, Trump added that the strait, a critical global shipping lane, will be toll-free and he will not consider easing sanctions on Iran until it does what it is supposed to do.
A day after announcing the agreement to halt hostilities, reopen the maritime route and lift the U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports, Trump reiterated that “the main thing is that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.”
According to the senior official, the memorandum has been signed by Trump, U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who heads Tehran’s negotiations with Washington.
The official also said the memorandum explicitly states the narrow waterway will be open for 60 days without tolls, with the United States hoping that will become part of the final agreement with Iran.
Vance said in an interview with ABC News that the initial agreement was digitally signed on Sunday.
Following the agreement, the United States and Iran are set to enter 60 days of “technical” negotiations, in which the fate of Tehran’s nuclear development program and many other details will be discussed.
Vance will continue to lead the Trump administration’s negotiating team.
The official said the U.S. military will maintain its current force posture in the Middle East during the talks with Iran.
“We ramped up a lot of forces into the region to prepare for the operation that started in February. We hope to draw them down, but we’re not doing that yet,” the official said, as Washington needs to ensure “the Iranians do what they promise.”
Trump said Vance would represent the United States at the formal ceremony expected to take place in Geneva, where the president landed Monday afternoon before moving to the French spa town near the Swiss border for the G7 summit.
“JD is coming for it,” said Trump, who will take part in the summit through Wednesday. “I’ll probably be gone by then.”
A different U.S. official, who also spoke to the press on condition of anonymity, said more details of the memorandum will likely be made public within the next 24 to 48 hours.
As Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz disrupted global energy and commodity markets, sending U.S. gas prices soaring and raising inflation fears ahead of November’s midterm elections, restoring free passage through the waterway was a top priority for the Trump administration in its negotiations with Tehran.
Before the war, around 20 percent of the world’s oil supplies passed through the chokepoint between Iran and Oman.
Iranian officials have said Tehran would not impose tolls on ships transiting the strait, but they continue to insist it will collect fees for maritime safety and environmental protection.
(By Takuya Karube)
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