Tehran has not yet made a decision on the agreement announced by the US president to end the war, thus dampening the enthusiasm aroused by Donald Trump’s announcement, who had spoken of a signature already “this weekend”.
The President canceled the attacks he had threatened to launch during the night because “an excellent agreement” was reached between Washington and Tehran. “Once the documents are finalized, which should happen in the next few days, we will probably sign, perhaps in Europe,” he said from the Oval Office.
However, Iranian diplomats were quick to say that the regime has not yet decided to sign: “So far, Iran has not yet reached a final conclusion regarding the agreement,” said spokesman Esmail Baqaei.
Trump himself, moreover, had been rather vague on the real state of affairs, saying that he “believed he understood” that the Iranian supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, had approved what he defined as a “very solid framework agreement”. The fact that he did not provide details on the content of the agreement, other than that it guaranteed the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz after signing and the impossibility for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, leaves much room for interpretation.
Collapse of oil prices
A message released on This hope of a resolution to the conflict sent oil prices tumbling, with North Sea Brent, the global benchmark, falling 1.11% to $89.37 a barrel at around 2.30am GMT. Reassured, Asian markets also surged on Friday morning, with Tokyo’s Nikkei index up nearly 4% and Seoul’s Kospi rising sharply by more than 7%.
Yesterday Trump promised to hit Iran “hard”, threatening in particular to “conquer Kharg Island”, the country’s main oil terminal. But “taking note that the talks with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been examined and approved by the highest Iranian authorities”, he then announced on his social network Truth Social that he had “cancelled the planned attacks and bombings”. (AGI)