Donald Trump has held a press conference as the United
States and Tehran have signed a memorandum of understanding to end the war in
Iran.
Moments after the media briefing, held at the G7 summit in
the French Alps, the official text of the agreement was released.
The 14-point agreement had already been widely circulated
and indicated sanctions relief for Iran and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz
was part of the deal.
During the press conference, Mr Trump threatened to resume
attacks if Iran failed to honour its commitments.
He was asked about the role of US Vice-President JD Vance,
how he would sell this deal as a win to the American people and why his
position on Iran's ballistic missile program had changed.
Here are the key takeaways from his comments.
JD Vance gets a mention
After a wideranging press meeting, where he was flanked by
advisers including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Howard Lutnick, Mr Trump
was asked why, at that point, he was not "sticking around" for the
official signing ceremony, where Mr Vance was expected to appear.
"I might … but it might not be the kind of document I
should be signing," he said.
It was at the very end of questioning, and Mr Trump was
asked if this was a way to ensure the political stakes remained higher for the
vice-president.
"This way, if it works out, I'm going to take the
credit. If it doesn't work out, I'm blaming JD. You better be careful,
JD," he said.
"He's going to turn his plane around and get the hell
out of here."
Mr Vance has attended peace talks with Iranian
representatives in Islamabad. And at one point, he was left waiting to depart
Washington DC when there was no confirmation Tehran's team would show up in
Pakistan.
As details of the 14-point deal emerged over the weekend, it
was Mr Vance who was on the interview circuit in the US, and seemingly intended
to be the White House face of the deal.
In the hours since, video has been released of Mr Trump
signing the memorandum of understanding (MOU) at Versailles.
Trump issues new, violent threats
Mr Trump used the press conference to issue stark warnings
about what might happen if Tehran did not hold up its end.
He reiterated this MOU was not final and he could resume
bombing if he felt dissatisfied with Iran's adoption of it.
"If they don't honour that, we'll probably go back to
bombing them until they honour it," he said.
"We're going to bomb the hell out of them if they
violate the agreement. I don't want them to. I want them to honour the
agreement.
"In war, terrible things happen."
Mr Trump was also asked at the G7 summit if the MOU wording
was final.
"No, it's not final. It's a memorandum of
understanding. And if I don't like it, we'll go back to shooting at them,
dropping bombs on their head," he said.
"If they don't behave, we'll go right back to dropping
bombs right smack in the middle of their head."
MOU compared to Iran nuclear deal
In the comments made overnight, Mr Trump said that his deal
with Iran was better than the one former US president Barack Obama signed with
Tehran in 2015.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which is
commonly referred to as the Iran Nuclear Deal, was a landmark agreement
designed to ensure "Iran's nuclear programme will be exclusively
peaceful".
Mr Trump has long been critical of the Iran Nuclear Deal.
Overnight, he again called it "one of the worst deals".
The US president is of the belief the JCPOA "would have
put [Iran] on the road to a nuclear weapon" but experts do not agree.
"Donald Trump believed he could achieve a better deal
than the JCPOA, which he tore up in 2018, but what he has achieved now is
nowhere near what JCPOA had put in place," Shahram Akbarzadeh, a professor
of Middle East politics at Deakin University, told the ABC.
"JCPOA had put in place a detailed mechanism of control
and monitoring over Iran's nuclear program, making sure that uranium enrichment
was within the 3.6 per cent limit.
"So what we have at the moment is not even talking
about Iran's nuclear program or talking about Iran's missile program or its
support for proxies. All we are talking about and all we have achieved right
now is simply a cessation of hostilities for the opening of the Strait of
Hormuz, and that is nowhere near what JCPOA had achieved."
Mr Obama told ABC America over the weekend that he doubted
that the new deal would be "significantly different" from the one his
administration negotiated.
The MOU does say that over the next 60 days of negotiations,
the future of Iran's nuclear program will be one of the main points of
discussion as the parties work towards a final peace agreement.
Iran has long denied claims it is working towards a nuclear
weapon and, in the MOU, it again confirms its commitment to the Nuclear
Non-proliferation Treaty.
Confusion over missile program
At the outset of the war, Mr Trump suggested one of the
goals of Operation Epic Fury was regime change in Iran.
Former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in
the opening strikes, but the Islamic Republic remains.
Overnight, Mr Trump said he believed the people now running
Iran, were "very smart".
"They have a new group of leaders and actually I think
they're smarter," he said.
"I think they're very smart. I think they are far less
radicalised."
Analysts have told the ABC the group wielding power inside
Iran right now is made up of current and former leaders of the military and
security apparatus.
At the outbreak of the war, Mr Trump had also said a goal was to destroy Iran's ballistic missile capability, but overnight, his comments seemed to suggest that had changed.
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Iran's missile program is not mentioned in the MOU.
Mr Trump was asked why it was now acceptable to him that
Iran keep some of that capability.
"What are they keeping? They have less than other
nations now," he said.
On the tarmac in Paris, after the G7 summit, Mr Trump was
again asked about Iran's missile program and in those comments he said it would
be "unfair" for Tehran to not have access to the weapons if other
countries had them.
"I'm saying that if other countries have them,
it's a little bit unfair for them not to have some," Mr Trump told
reporters.
"If Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and they all have some, I
would say in relative proportion, I think it's OK."
This is considered to be a departure from what the United
States has previously said about Iran's ballistic missile program, including
comments earlier in the war.
Trump says US has four weeks of oil
A reporter asked the US president: "A wise man once
said in January 2020, Iran never won a war but never lost a negotiation."
Mr Trump asked: "Who said that?"
The reporter replied: "Donald Trump … so how do you go
back to the United States and convince a sceptical American public this deal is
a win?"
In his long-winded response, Mr Trump took aim at the press,
but also revealed the US could run out of oil reserves in four weeks.
"If I went out and continued to bomb them … I'd get bad
press. There's nothing I can do," he said.
"But what this does is it allows the ships to go. If we
keep bombing, those ships won't be going."
Mr Trump then discussed the value of the oil held up in the
Strait of Hormuz and said: "Also, we run out of reserves in four
weeks."
"You know, there are reserves all over the world, and
we would really run out, and there'll be a time when you wouldn't be able to
get it."
The MOU is only meant to be a temporary document, and over
the next few months, negotiations on some of the biggest stumbling blocks
between the US and Iran will continue.
Iran's foreign ministry has confirmed the 60-day negotiation
period begins today.
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