US, Iran release text as presidents sign deal to end Middle East war

The United States and Iran have released the text of an interim agreement signed by their presidents to end the ongoing war, as U.S. President Donald Trump warned that Washington could resume military action and target Iranian officials if Tehran failed to comply with the deal’s terms.

Trump, attending the G7 with other leaders in France on Wednesday, also withdrew at least one of his stated rationales for attacking Iran in the first place, saying it would be “unfair” for Tehran not to have ballistic missiles, having previously ‌vowed to obliterate them.

Speaking at a press conference, Trump said: “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.”

He also called Iranians “smart people” as U.S. and Iranian negotiators work on a permanent truce over the coming 60 days, which Trump said he hoped would usher in peace in the Middle East and lower oil prices.

Earlier, he had said: “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, OK?”

Iran’s leaders did not address the new threats while celebrating the ​moment, releasing photographs of what is believed to be the first agreement signed by both a U.S. and Iranian president since the Islamic Republic’s founding in 1979.

“Everything we sought to achieve through military action, we obtained several times over through negotiation; it ​was not even comparable,” Iran’s lead negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said about the agreement, which includes the unfreezing of billions of dollars in Iranian assets.

The 14-point agreement extends a ceasefire announced in April by another 60 days, including in Lebanon, to allow the two sides to negotiate a final truce.

Both Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian have digitally signed the memorandum in English and Farsi, U.S. and Iran ​officials said, with Iran’s foreign ministry saying the agreement was already in effect as of Wednesday.

Trump signed just before a grand dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles, the site of the signing of the eponymous treaty that formally ended World War One.

The memorandum includes an immediate end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, the full resumption of maritime traffic “with no charge” in the Strait of Hormuz, the lifting of a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, the waiving of U.S. sanctions on Iran, the unfreezing of its assets, and a $300 billion investment fund for the Islamic Republic’s post-war reconstruction.

Iran also undertakes not to ​build nuclear weapons, reaffirming a vow it had made for decades.

Oil prices drop below $80 after US, Iran sign ceasefire agreement

It also agreed to the on-site “down-blending” of its stockpile of enriched uranium under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, although Trump had wanted to take it out of the country, which Iran has rejected.

Despite his combative rhetoric, Trump appears ‌to have achieved ⁠little of what he said he wanted in going to war, while Iran appears much closer to sanctions relief worth billions of dollars than before it was attacked.

Iran’s theocratic government remains in place, its stockpile of highly enriched uranium has not been surrendered, its ballistic missile capabilities have not been destroyed and it has not ended its support for anti-Israel militias like Hezbollah in Lebanon.

G7 leaders hailed the agreement at their summit, held in the French town of Evian-les-Bains, an hour’s drive along the shore of Lake Geneva from where the U.S. has said a formal signing ceremony for the ​U.S.-Iran agreement was due to be held across the Swiss border on ​Friday.

But Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei cast doubt on ⁠this, telling IRIB’s News Network that, because the two presidents had already signed, “No signing ceremony will be held in Switzerland.”

The U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran ⁠on February 28, assassinating the 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and military leaders on the first day.

The attack quickly spiralled into a regional conflict that has killed more than 7,000 people, mostly in Iran and Lebanon; driven up energy prices; renewed inflationary pressures; and sparked concerns about a ​major food supply crisis in developing countries.