By Lesedi Sibiya-Diplomatic Insider
The presidents of Iran and the United States have now signed an initial peace deal which is aimed at ending the war and allowing it to take immediate effect.
The conditions of the deal includes Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz as well as a $300bn plan for Iran’s “reconstruction”, and for the US to terminate “all types of sanctions” on Iran.
However the concern surrounding Iran’s nuclear programme, which is the main reason for conflict, according to the US, is still set to be negotiated over a 60-day period with an option of it being extendable.
United States President Donald Trump, signed the deal during the G7 Summit in France and defended the proposal, saying that it could be used to avoid catastrophe. Trump also threatened that he would attack Iran if the deal was not able to be made.
Iranian President, Masoud Pezeshkian, signed the document on Wednesday as Iran’s parliamentary speaker has expressed that there is still a distrust that looms from them towards the US.
“If the enemy does not understand the language of logic, we will enter again with the language of power” said Iranian Parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
The war was launched by Israel and the United States from February 28, when they assassinated the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as top military officials on the first day of the conflict.
Since then Iran has taken measures to counter this attack by imposing the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key trade waterway which accounts for 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
“I didn’t want to see an economic catastrophe…if you kept this going, that could’ve happened” said Trump. “All I know is every time we talked about the possibility of peace, the stock market shot up like a rocket ship,” Trump continued.
“Every time we said something negative, like, guess what, we’re not going to be able to settle, it would go down very big”. Trump had signed a hard copy of the initial deal titled the “Memorandum of Understanding”, during a state dinner hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles.