Trump’s Iran deal: the art of the fail? – The Latest
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What are the key elements of Trump's Iran deal?
This is The Guardian.
You can see America giving ground, red lines disappearing in the dust every time Trump spoke.
We have taken their money, 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.
There was a lot of admissions in there about how he had no option but to pull back. In terms of what was achieved in this specific war, very, very little indeed.
From The Guardian's Today in Focus, this is The Latest with me, Noshin Iqbal. Patrick Winter, welcome back to The Latest. Thank you. You're The Guardian's diplomatic editor and you're here to talk us through the deal that US has struck with Iran, signed in very sort of glitzy fashion by Trump at the Palace of Versailles off the back of the G7 summit, which is an interesting choice.
Yes, it is. I mean, I think only a man of total historical ignorance, i.e. Donald Trump, would agree to sign a document like this in Versailles, because Versailles is a sort of byword for national humiliation for the Germans after the First World War. And I'm sure that... It was also a moment of triumph for the French, and I'm sure that the French President Emmanuel Macron will have fully understood the significance of the signature at Versailles.
It's cheeky.
Yes.
Quite cheeky.
It has a sense of humour about it all. But I don't actually think the whole document does represent in any way the kind of surrender that obviously happened with the Germans in 1918. But it was just amusing that it was there.
Well, let's talk about the detail, because in the agreements there was discussion of, well, there's a movement on Iran's nuclear program, there was discussion of sanctions relief, to what happens on the Strait of Hormuz once the talks are over. But Patrick, from everything I'm reading, tell me I'm wrong, but from everything I'm reading, this looks like a terrible deal for Trump. You know, the US appears to have no real wins, and it has made many more concessions than were even in play before the war began.
Yeah, I think that's right. I mean, there are aspects to which I think one has to reserve judgment because so much has been deferred and one doesn't know how the ultimate outcome of the talks, particularly the nuclear talks, which are the main point of deferral, how those will end up. But it's absolutely true that in order to get the Strait of Hormuz reopened, which obviously was open before the war, he's paying quite a high price. There is a a requirement now that sanctions are lifted on all of Iran's oil exports, and it may be necessary for that to work, that banking and transport and other sanctions waivers have to be implemented as well. In addition, there is this $350 billion fund. I mean, it's true that Trump says that the Americans won't contribute more than 10 cents to this fund.
This is the reconstruction fund for Iran.
Funded by?
Well, that is one of the mysteries because he says that America won't fund it. But the document does say that America will create it. I think it's actually one of the mysteries in the document because I don't see there's a great willingness amongst Gulf states to pour money into Iran at present because they're still recovering from the fact that Iran bombed them throughout the war. And there's a real element of distrust between the two sides. So it may sound a good figure and it may sound dramatic, but I'm not sure how. important it is. On the Strait, though it is being reopened, it's only being reopened for 60 days on the basis that it will be free navigation. And then there's a section that was inserted quite late in the negotiations in which it says that Oman and Iran together will decide whether there is a way in which they can charge a sort of maritime service fee
So like a toll to traverse the Strait?
As ever, it depends on how compulsory this fee payment is, because a toll is obviously something that is totally compulsory. Whether in fact there would be a service that you would voluntarily seek to buy is obviously in question.
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