US president Donald Trump said on Wednesday his new ceasefire agreement with Iran was not final and he could resume the war if he is unsatisfied, even as Israel launched fresh air strikes in Lebanon where fighting threatens the wider truce.
“It’s a memorandum of understanding. And if I don’t like it, we’ll go back to shooting at them, dropping bombs on their head,” Trump said at a G7 summit in France of the agreement, reached three days ago.
“If I don’t like it, if they don’t behave, we’ll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head, OK?”
Leaders hailed the agreement at the summit, held in the French town of Evian-les-Bains, an hour’s drive along the shore of Lake Geneva from where the Iran ceasefire memorandum is due to be signed at a ceremony across the Swiss border on Friday.
The leaders also demanded an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon, where the memorandum calls for a halt to hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed Hizbullah group that have displaced more than a million people.
Fighting there has abated but not ceased since the agreement was reached on Sunday, and Israel, which was not part of the negotiations, says it retains the right to use force.
Lebanese state media reported fresh Israeli air strikes and artillery fire in several southern towns throughout Wednesday. Lebanese security sources said Hizbullah had also launched two drone attacks on Israeli forces in the south. The group did not publicly claim the attacks.
Israel later said five of its soldiers had been injured in two Hizbullah drone attacks in southern Lebanon.
Inside the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh, below a medieval castle seized by Israeli forces, buildings had been blasted to ruins resembling the Gaza Strip.
Khodr Kodeih, a member of the town council, told Reuters that some displaced residents had come back to check on their homes in recent days, but that the fresh strikes were again keeping them away.
“The city of Nabatieh emptied out again. We hope that a safe environment can be secured so people can return, because the basic necessities of life are still not available,” Kodeih said.
The memorandum of understanding, yet to be made public three days after it was signed by Washington and Tehran, extends a ceasefire announced in April by another 60 days to allow them to negotiate a permanent truce.
The G7 summit gave Trump a chance to present his deal with Iran to allies Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
They share Washington’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme and other issues, but never endorsed his decision to go to war, and worry Tehran has gained leverage by withstanding the superpower onslaught and asserting control over the strait.
“We underline the need for the negotiation ... to address the threats posed by Iran in the region and beyond and ensure that they never obtain a nuclear weapon,” the G7 leaders said in a statement.
They said they were ready to contribute to implementing the accord, with a coalition led by Britain and France set to help secure shipping once the Strait of Hormuz reopens.
Oil prices fell again on Wednesday on prospects for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, with Brent crude futures below $80, at their lowest level since the opening salvos of the U.S.-Iran conflict.
Trump appears to have achieved little of what he said he wanted at the outset of the war. Iran’s theocratic government remains in place, its stockpile of highly enriched uranium has not been surrendered, its ballistic missile capabilities have not been destroyed and it has not ended its support for anti-Israel militias like Hizbullah in Lebanon.
Trump says the agreement states that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon – a restatement of Iran’s official position since the 1970s. US officials say further discussions will lead to the removal or destruction of its enriched uranium stockpile.
But ending the war on such terms could still expose Trump to criticism, including from hawks within his own Republican Party, in advance of midterm elections in November.
The mood among ordinary Iranians, grappling with economic woes further exacerbated by months of war, remained grim, even as their leaders declared this week’s interim deal a diplomatic victory for Tehran over Washington.
“I think 99 per cent of people are in survival mode and just living day by day,” said Amir (34), a media production company owner in Isfahan in central Iran, who declined to give his surname.
“I don’t think anybody has any hopes any more. I don’t think anybody has any visions of what the future might look like.” – Reuters
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