Donald Trump may believe the deal he has struck with Iran to end the war is a triumph, but that is not how it has been received by many critics of his handling of the war. While the US president insists that the deal will achieve his twin goals of reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending Tehran’s nuclear aspirations, questions are already being asked as to whether the 14-point Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that the American president signed amid the splendour of the Palace of Versailles will actually achieve those goals to everyone’s satisfaction.
On the nuclear issue, questions still remain about the fate of the estimated 400 kilogrammes of highly enriched uranium that remains in Iranian hands, while Trump’s claim that freedom of navigation will soon return to the blocked Strait of Hormuz is already being disputed in Tehran. Another perceived weakness of the memorandum is that it also fails to resolve the key sticking points of Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The concerns about just how effective the agreement Trump has agreed with Iran will be in practice have led many of his more vocal critics to question whether the deal is any better than the terms that were already on offer prior to the US and Israel launching their joint military offensive against Iran on 28 February.
Despite these very real concerns about what the eventual outcome of the final deal that will emerge from the next stage of negotiations, which are due to take place while a further 60–day ceasefire comes into effect, Trump insisted the MoU represented a significant breakthrough in efforts to end the long-running confrontation between the US and Iran, which dates back to Iran’s 1979 revolution.
Announcing the conclusion of negotiations on the MoU at a summit of G7 members at the French resort of Evian-les-Bains, Trump insisted that his allies “love” the preliminary pact, which he said would achieve all of the objectives the US had set out at the beginning of the war. He presented it as a “historic opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring any nuclear weapon”, as well as ending the conflict and ensuring the strait would reopen.
Despite reports that key figures within the Trump administration, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, have expressed concerns about the terms, Trump remained upbeat during a subsequent news conference. The agreement “achieves everything we set out to accomplish, everything and much more,” he said. “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon; they can’t develop it, buy it; they can never have a nuclear weapon,” he added.
