ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK

Trump Humiliated by New Leak of ‘Secret’ Peace Plan

Trump’s deal with Iran is littered with humiliating concessions, according to a leak of the agreement.

A leak of Donald Trump’s peace deal with Iran has revealed the extraordinary concessions the president has made, including allowing Tehran to manage the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump, 80, has sought to cast the secretive peace plan as a victory for the United States, repeatedly touting it as superior to previous deals struck with Iran.

Although the two countries did not disclose the terms of the memorandum of understanding, Israel’s Channel 12 reported what it said were 12 provisions of the agreement, according to the New York Post.

Several commitments in the agreement, which Trump and Vance signed electronically on Monday, leave the U.S. coming out behind where it stood before the war, while strengthening Iran’s hand.

Under the deal, Iran will reportedly take steps to ensure passage for commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz—falling well short of a firm pledge not to interfere with the vital waterway, which had been open and uncontested before Trump launched his war in February.

Iran, Oman, and Gulf states will hold talks on new shipping and maritime security arrangements for the Gulf, according to the Post.

Trump has also agreed to lift all sanctions on Iran once a final deal is reached after the 60-day negotiation period, according to the leaked plan, despite frequently blasting Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal for offering Tehran sanctions relief—a deal he later abandoned in 2018.

The agreement will also open the door for a $300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran, according to the Post. Trump denied that Iran would receive the funds on Monday, but Vice President JD Vance confirmed that term of the deal, telling CBS News’s Ed O’Keefe, “Well, Ed, that’s the sort of thing they could have access to, funded by the Gulf Coast Coalition, so long as they honor their end of the obligation.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Trump, who was reportedly anxious to end his war amid unfavorable public polling and spiking inflation, has also agreed to release an unspecified amount of frozen Iranian assets, according to the plan.

And while one of Trump’s main declared goals of his war was to eliminate Iran’s nuclear capabilities, that issue has been left for further talks.

Under the agreement, Iran would reaffirm its pledge never to build a nuclear weapon, but the fate of its enriched uranium, including what becomes of it, would be pushed into later negotiations.

If anything, the current deal looks weaker than Obama’s 2015 deal, under which Iran agreed not to develop or acquire nuclear weapons and accepted strict limits on uranium enrichment, deep reductions in its nuclear stockpile, and an extensive inspection regime in exchange for sanctions relief.

As part of the new memorandum of understanding, the U.S. will reportedly end its naval blockade of Iranian ports and withdraw its forces within 30 days after a final deal is reached.

Iran, the United States and their respective allies would agree to halt all hostilities across the region, including in Lebanon, where Israel and Hezbollah have been warring.

The agreement will go into effect after the official signing ceremony in Switzerland on Friday.

TRUMP’S SHAMEFUL SURRENDER

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Vic Verbalaitis

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Erkki ForsterNight News Reporter

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