US releases text of Iran peace plan as Trump says deal averts ‘worldwide depression’

The Trump administration has released the text of its 14-point agreement with Iran, claiming it delivered a “major win” for the United States – even as it made significant political and financial concessions to Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and prevent a “worldwide depression”.In extraordinary remarks on Wednesday, Donald Trump went from threatening Iran with a new wave of attacks to suggesting that Iran had basic rights to enrich uranium for civilian use, that he would not pressure Tehran to abandon its ballistic missiles program and that the US was “going to have to give back” billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets.Those remarks, as well as the full text of the agreement – which was hailed by Hezbollah as a “great victory” by Hezbollah’s chief Naim Qassem – are likely to fuel anger in Israel and among hardliners in the Republican Party who had urged Trump not to make a deal with Tehran.Defending the deal, Trump said no US president had ever been as tough on Iran as him, and “there is nothing as smart as the market – and the market loves it”.Trump said that “the alternative would be a worldwide depression”, arguing that if he had not struck a deal, “the strait [of Hormuz] would never have been opened. They don’t like floating billion-dollar ships up and down the strait when their rockets are flying overhead and there are mines all over the place.”Senior administration officials, meanwhile, said the deal would help prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, pointing to an agreement to discuss down-blending its 440kg stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which could be further enriched for use in a nuclear weapon. Trump has said he was open to the stockpile being diluted inside Iran under the supervision of the IAEA.“At a minimum, the enriched stockpile will be destroyed by down-blending,” said the senior administration official who read the text of the agreement. “We will push for more than that, but the fact that they’re conceding to that is a major, major win for the United States of America.”Trump said the deal to end the months-long conflict, which has cost thousands of lives and devastated the world economy, would formally be signed “shortly”, adding it could take place on Thursday or Friday.Iran had suggested that the deal could be signed by Trump and Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian, in what would mark the highest-level meeting between the two country’s leaders since the diplomatic break of the 1980s. Initially, vice-president JD Vance was expected to sign the deal at a formal ceremony in Geneva on Friday.The Trump administration had delayed the release of the full text of the memorandum of understanding (MOU), which is essentially a 60-day ceasefire agreement, in order to hold more comprehensive nuclear and permanent peace talks with Iran. The 14-point plan was dictated to journalists during a background briefing by senior administration officials as Trump spoke at the end of the G7.The deal would provide important financial incentives to Iran, including the immediate lifting of a US naval blockade on Iranian ports and the issuance of waivers for Iranian crude to be shipped abroad, as well as the potential lifting of all international sanctions against Iran, the unfreezing of billions of dollars in Iranian assets, and plans to develop a $300bn (£224bn) reconstruction fund for Iran funded by regional partners in the Gulf.Trump angrily rejected suggestions that the US would be contributing to the $300bn investment fund for Iran, instead saying payouts by Gulf states were likely to be conditional on Iran’s good behaviour.“Anyone who wants to can invest. What do you expect me to say: no one is allowed to invest? But we’re not investing; we’re not putting up even 10 cents,” he said.The ceasefire deal included Lebanon, a key Iranian demand, which would restrain Israel from conducting military operations in the country, according to a senior administration official. It also included a clause ensuring the “territorial integrity” of Lebanon, although an administration official when asked did not confirm that meant Israel would be forced to withdraw from the swath of the country it has occupied as a “buffer zone” against Hezbollah.In return, Iran would allow the toll-free passage of ships for 60 days through the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for 20% of the world’s global oil supply, would agreed to restrain its foreign allies including Hezbollah in Lebanon, and “reaffirms that it shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons”, with plans to hold nuclear talks including the down-blending of some 440kg of highly-enriched uranium that is near weapons-grade.Trump backed a G7 leaders’ joint statement that welcomes the deal but says a follow-on agreement is necessary to rein in Iran’s ballistic missile programme, an issue not directly addressed in the memorandum of understanding that is due to be signed on Friday by Iran and the US.“They have to have some, because other people have some,” Trump said. “You got to have some.”“What am I going to do? Am I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but they can’t have them?” he added, referring to previous discussions with advisers on Iran’s missile arsenal.France’s president Emmanuel Macron called it a “very good deal”, adding that US allies in the G7 support it “because it’s an agreement that puts a stop to a situation of great instability that had terrible consequences for our economies”.But the G7 proposal for further talks involving European leaders about Iran’s ballistic missiles and support for proxy forces is bound to be rejected by Iran. Tehran has been negotiating exclusively with the US and regards Europe as largely irrelevant.Iran is also likely to reject France and Britain’s plan for a taskforce to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, a proposal endorsed in the G7 leaders’ statement.The G7 leaders said the agreement provided “an historic opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring any nuclear weapon and tackling the threats related to its regional and ballistic activities. We support and are ready to contribute to its implementation.”Reaffirming the right of transit passage without restrictions or tolls as a bedrock of international trade, the leaders said: “The multinational, independent and defensive initiative led by France and the UK can play an important role to facilitate the resumption of maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.”Trump also sounded a conciliatory note on returning frozen assets to Iran, a stipulation of the Obama administration’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that he had attacked in 2015.“We have taken a lot of their money,” Trump told reporters. “It’s not our money, it’s their money, and we froze it at a certain point in time. I guess we’re going to have to give it back, you know, if we didn’t give it back, nobody would ever invest in the dollar again.”Trump claimed the price of oil per barrel had fallen to $72 – Brent crude dipped below $80 on Tuesday – and would soon fall below the level it had been at before the war.