Trump hails Iran deal, says PM Modi welcomed it

Evian, June 17 (IANS) US President Donald Trump on Wednesday hailed the agreement reached with Iran as a historic breakthrough, saying it had ended the current conflict, secured the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and ensured that Tehran would never obtain a nuclear weapon.

Speaking at a news conference at the conclusion of the G7 summit in Evian, Trump said world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had welcomed the accord and viewed it as a step towards greater stability in the Middle East.

“On Sunday, we reached an agreement with Iran that achieves everything we set out to accomplish — everything and much more,” Trump said. “Ending the current conflict, reopening the Strait of Hormuz and preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, that’s what it was all about.”

Trump said discussions over the agreement dominated conversations with leaders attending the summit.

“Prime Minister Modi was here, we had a long talk, he’s a great guy,” Trump said. “They are thrilled that we made a deal, every one of them.”

The President said no leader had urged him to continue military operations against Iran.

“There’s not one nation that came to us and said, please, sir, keep dropping bombs on them,” he said.

Trump argued that diplomacy had achieved what prolonged military action could not.

“If we didn’t do this deal, we could have dropped more bombs for another three weeks, two weeks, four weeks, two years,” he said. “You would never have the Hormuz Strait open.”

He repeatedly described the reopening of the strategic waterway as one of the agreement’s most important outcomes, saying commercial shipping was already increasing.

“Maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has already increased very substantially,” Trump said. “And the normal flow of energy will resume in the coming days.”

The President said the agreement was expected to be signed shortly.

“So the deal we reached with Iran on Sunday will be signed shortly, tomorrow, maybe the next day,” he said.

Trump stressed that the most important provision was Iran’s commitment never to possess a nuclear weapon.

“Importantly, Iran has agreed that it will neither produce nor procure a nuclear weapon,” he said.

He added that the agreement explicitly covered both the development and acquisition of nuclear weapons.

“They will never have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “It doesn’t say they’ll have one in five years or 10 years or 20 years.”

At the same time, Trump warned that military action could resume if Tehran failed to honour the understanding.

“If they don’t honor the agreement or some things aren’t even mentioned in the agreements, it’s a memorandum of understanding,” he said. “If they don’t honor that, we’ll probably go back to bombing them until they honor it.”

Trump credited years of pressure on Iran for creating the conditions that led to the accord. He repeatedly pointed to the US strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani during his first term.

“Nobody was tougher than me. Nobody hit Soleimani,” he said.

The President also thanked regional partners for their role in facilitating diplomacy.

“I want to thank our partners in both Pakistan and Qatar. These people work so hard,” Trump said.

He also praised leaders in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, describing them as important partners during the process.

Looking beyond the nuclear issue, Trump said Washington and Gulf nations would discuss other security concerns.

“We’ll be working on a parallel effort with the Gulf nations to address non-nuclear issues such as the conventional ballistic missiles,” he said. “And we’ll talk also about the terrorist proxies.”

Trump said he hoped the agreement would become the foundation for a broader regional settlement.

“As I expressed to the world leaders here this week, it’s my hope that the peace agreement will be the beginning of a much larger deal all across the Middle East,” he said.

–IANS

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