- Face-to-face talks will not mean accepting the “enemy’s position”: Khamenei.
- The supreme leader says he approved the deal despite having a “different vision.”
- Oil prices fall after Trump and Pezeshkian sign deal.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday that he had authorized a memorandum of understanding signed by the Iranian and US presidents, despite having a different opinion, after receiving assurances from President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior officials that Iran’s rights and the interests of the “Resistance Front” would be safeguarded.
In a written message to the Iranian nation, Khamenei said that Pezeshkian, in his capacity as head of the Supreme National Security Council, had accepted responsibility for ensuring that the deal protected Iran’s interests and pledged not to budge if Washington made what he described as excessive demands.
Khamenei added that future face-to-face negotiations with the United States would not mean accepting “the enemy’s position.”
The signing of the agreement by Trump and Pezeshkian launched a 60-day period for talks on broader issues between the two foes, including the Iranian nuclear program.
But there was uncertainty about next steps and it was unclear whether the two sides, which have not had diplomatic relations since the 1979 Islamic revolution, would hold a signing ceremony and talks in Switzerland on Friday as previously announced.
Oil prices plunged after the deal was signed, although activity was still weak in the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic chokepoint for energy shipments that Iran blocked during the conflict and which should be reopened immediately under the deal.
Mojtaba Khamenei, who became supreme leader after his father and Iran’s former ruler, Ali Khamenei, was killed in an airstrike on the first day of the war on Feb. 28, said in a written statement that he had approved the deal despite having a “different vision,” without elaborating.
“But I granted my permission because of the commitment” made by officials, including Pezheshkian, to “protect the rights of the Iranian nation.”
During his rule, Ali Khamenei had repeatedly allowed officials to press ahead with negotiations without showing enthusiasm.
His son, said to have been injured in an airstrike, has yet to be seen in public since he was named supreme leader. His father’s funeral ceremonies, scheduled for early July, will be closely scrutinized for signs of the new ruler.
‘Maybe they’ll start fighting again’
U.S. forces early Thursday lifted their naval blockade of Iranian ports that had prevented ships from sailing to or from the Islamic Republic, the U.S. military said, noting that U.S. warships “will remain in the general area.”
Three Saudi oil tankers left the Gulf through the strait on Thursday, shipping trackers said, while the liquefied natural gas (LNG)-laden vessel Mraikh became the first French vessel to make the transit since the start of the conflict.
Iranian state television, citing a statement from the country’s Supreme National Security Council, said ships “seeking to pass through the Strait of Hormuz must apply” to a new government body tasked with overseeing the waterway.
Under the terms of the agreement, he added, “no fee will be charged to applicants for a period of sixty days.”
Meanwhile, US Vice President JD Vance said he planned to go to Switzerland for “technical negotiations” with Iran “this weekend” instead of Friday, but stressed that the plan “could change.”
In Iran, the Tasnim The agency said “nothing has been confirmed” about the Iranian delegation’s trip to Switzerland.
The deal should end the ongoing US-Israel conflict with the Islamic Republic, which saw five weeks of all-out war until a ceasefire was reached in early April.
But some in Tehran expressed a pessimistic mood about the prospects for peace.
“I have no hope that this will be a lasting agreement. Maybe after 60 days they will start fighting again,” said Mina, 54, a psychologist in Tehran.
His sentiment was shared by French President Emmanuel Macron, who presided over the signing at the Palace of Versailles in what he described as a “spontaneous” move by Trump.
Macron said he “did not believe” the war was “totally over.”
According to the text, Washington commits to immediately suspend the oil sanctions that paralyze Iran’s economy.
And once a final deal on Iran’s nuclear program is reached, the United States will facilitate the release of a $300 billion reconstruction fund supported by nations in the region, according to the agreement.
‘Victory’
Trump’s decision to end the war, which killed 13 US service members and used up a large proportion of US ammunition reserves, has unsettled some of his allies at home.
US Senator Bill Cassidy of Trump’s Republican Party described it as “the worst foreign policy mistake in decades”.
“Iran’s nuclear ambitions have not been curbed, and they have learned that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works,” he said.
Apparently anticipating such criticism, Trump told a G7 summit that he was prepared to “bomb the hell out of” Iran if they violated the deal.
Trump added on social media Thursday that critics of the deal were “fools” and described the agreement as a “victory.”
There has also been some criticism from hardliners within Iran, where the conflict was described as an “imposed war” and compared to the 1980-1988 conflict with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
But Parliament Speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf insisted the deal represented a “failure” for the United States, while Pezeshkian called it “historic.”
Agnes Lavallois, president of the French Institute for Research and Studies on the Mediterranean and Middle East, said the feeling was that Americans “wanted only one thing: the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.”
