Negotiations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz continued overnight. The oil price has changed. Trump: “I don't make bad deals”
The peace agreement between the US and Iran is getting closer, but it could take several days to complete, an American official said, quoted by the media in the United States.
“The official said the sides had agreed in principle on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and on Iran's commitment to eliminate its highly enriched uranium, but stressed that the deal had not yet been signed,” writes The New York Times.
Oil prices fell to their lowest levels in two weeks on Monday, as markets increasingly bet that Washington and Tehran could move closer to a diplomatic solution despite persistent disagreements on key issues, the Iran International website also writes.
Brent crude futures were down $4.71, or 4.55 percent, at $98.83 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was down $4.57, or 4.73 percent, at $92.03 a barrel.
“The sharp drop in oil prices reflected growing optimism that a deal could finally ease tensions threatening Middle East energy supplies,” says Iran International.
The fact that Mojtaba Khamenei is in hiding is delaying the negotiations
A senior US administration official said on Sunday that the supreme leader has accepted the broad outlines of the current draft agreement, and President Trump posted on Truth Social that he expects a definitive answer in the coming days, US television station CBS News reports.
Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who was wounded by US and Israeli strikes as part of Operation Epic Fury, is taking extreme measures to avoid attacks similar to the one that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Mojtaba Khamenei has not been officially seen or heard from in public since before the war began. And his collaborators have a hard time contacting him. That delays any centralized Iranian response to the peace talks.
“Right now, most of Iran's leaders don't see the light of day, spending weeks in heavily fortified bunkers and avoiding speaking to each other unless absolutely necessary,” the sources said.
Donald Trump: The deal will be “a good and fair one”
In a new post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump fired back at critics of the latest Iran deal negotiations. He says that any deal he makes will be “a good and fair one” and will be better than the nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration, from which he withdrew.
“No one has seen the agreement and no one knows what it contains,” he wrote. “It hasn't even been fully negotiated yet. So don't listen to the losers criticizing something they know nothing about.”
Without giving concrete details, the US president added: “Unlike those before me, who should have solved this problem many years ago, I do not make bad deals!”
