WASHINGTON, June 11 – U.S. President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen once a major peace agreement with Iran is finalized, which he expects could happen within days.
“We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran,” Trump informed reporters during an Oval Office briefing.
“The strait will officially open as soon as we sign, which could be soon, very soon, maybe over the weekend in Europe,” the president stated.
Trump revealed he had recently conducted phone conversations with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with leadership from Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and other regional allies. He indicated plans to speak with Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan in the near future.
According to the president, the agreement addresses concerns about Iran’s nuclear weapons development program.
“Most importantly 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 was a very big thing,” Trump explained.
Earlier Thursday, Trump halted planned military strikes against Iran, stating that “final points” of a preliminary peace agreement had received approval and that details regarding a signing ceremony would be revealed soon.
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency indicated Tehran appears likely to accept the terms, though no official response has been provided. The strike cancellation occurred just hours after the president had announced U.S. forces would conduct a third straight night of attacks on Iran.
Throughout recent weeks since mid-March, Trump has consistently indicated that a resolution to end the Iranian conflict was approaching. Both nations have exchanged military strikes this week, putting pressure on a ceasefire that was declared in April.
