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Iran live updates: Israel won't leave Lebanon after US-Iran MOU, minister says
Trump said Sunday that the understanding with Iran will be signed Friday.
President Donald Trump announced "major combat operations" against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israeli strikes targeting military, government and infrastructure sites.
Following the announcement of a two-week ceasefire, initial U.S.-Iran talks in Pakistan in April failed to reach a peace deal. Trump later announced the open-ended extension of the ceasefire and the continuation of a U.S. blockade until negotiations concluded.
On Sunday, Trump announced that the U.S. and Iran had reached a "great deal," which he said would be signed on Friday.
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Trump says 'it depends' if he will attend signing ceremony on Friday
During a press spray with French President Emmanuel Macron at the G7, President Donald Trump said the text of the memorandum of understanding would be released “pretty soon,” but sometime after Friday.
“This is a very powerful document, and I want it to be released. So, probably pretty soon. I would say, after-- sometime after Friday, because the Strait opens. It’s open now, but it opens completely,” Trump said.
This comes as a senior administration official said Monday that the MOU would be released in the next 24 to 48 hours.
Trump also said “it depends” if he will attend the signing ceremony in Geneva on Friday, but he said Vice President JD Vance would be there.
Macron, in his opening remarks, praised the agreement between the U.S. and Iran, saying it was a “very important” step toward peace and rebuilding the global economy, which took a hit because of the war.
-ABC News’ Fritz Farrow
'By Friday, everything will be fully open,' administration official says of Strait of Hormuz
Senior administration officials said Monday that the Strait of Hormuz should be fully open by Friday.
"In terms of returning traffic, I mean, we've been maybe getting as much as 25 ships through a day, you know. Now that we're through, I think they'll probably go to, you know, maybe 40 to 50 pretty quickly," an official said. "... By Friday, everything will be fully open. I think it will adjust very, very quickly, and I think obviously the prioritization will be on the heavy tankers, you know, the gas, the oils. I think that will actually flow very quickly."
“Just to be clear here, it takes a little bit of time, because you know you have mines in the Straits," the official continued. "But you will see significant increase in traffic in the Strait of Hormuz actually starting already, and that will ramp up slowly over time to the point where I think a week from now, two weeks from now, we probably won't return to normal in two weeks, but we will see a significant increase in Strait traffic.”
The official made clear that the memorandum of understanding ensured the Strait of Hormuz be “toll-free for 60 days,” with the expectation that it will become part of the “final agreement, as well.”
President Donald Trump, during a press spray with French President Emmanuel Macron at the G7, told reporters that the Strait of Hormuz is “already partially open” and said “on Friday, it will be completely opened.”
-ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart
Trump, Vance were both signatories on MOU
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance were both signatories on the memorandum of understanding signed with Iran, and the MOU will be released in the next 24 to 48 hours, a senior administration official confirmed during a background call with reporters. Trump said the text of the MOU would be released “sometime after Friday.”
An administration official said the "technical discussions" will continue in the weeks ahead during the 60-day negotiation period.
The administration officials also said the MOU does not reduce the U.S. force posture in the region.
"The plan is to keep the current force posture during the succeeding negotiation force,” an official said. “Our expectation is that we continue to make progress. We ramped up a lot of forces into the region to prepare for the operation that started in February. We hope to draw them down, but we're not doing that yet. We want to see again that the Iranians do what they promise they're going to tell us that they're going to do, and the agreement contemplates the reduction in military forces in the region upon the agreement of a final deal.”
-ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart
Hezbollah weighs in on US-Iran deal
Hezbollah has released a statement calling the deal between Iran and the U.S. -- and Lebanon's inclusion in the deal -- a "great achievement."
Hezbollah said the deal is a "prelude" to "the full liberation of our land, the return of our prisoners to their homeland and families, the return of all residents -- especially the residents of the frontline confrontation villages -- to their villages and homes, and the reconstruction" of the areas destroyed by Israeli forces.
Hezbollah also repeated that this deal should not resemble the 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, during which Israel remained on Lebanese territory and continued airstrikes in Lebanon.
Hezbollah said it "will not accept any aggression that violates its country's sovereignty or spills the blood of its people."