- Trump says Tehran’s uranium is ‘perfectly taken care of’.
- Iran sees US truce as a victory for Tehran amid Trump’s claims.
- Both sides agree to a ceasefire just an hour before the deadline.
President Donald Trump said AFP On Tuesday, the United States achieved a “total and complete victory” after reaching a two-week ceasefire agreement with Iran.
In a phone call, Trump said he believed China had persuaded Iran to negotiate, and said Tehran’s enriched uranium would be “perfectly taken care of.”
The ceasefire agreement came after more than a month of destructive attacks by the United States and Israel, and followed mediation by Pakistan.
The US leader sounded optimistic about the truce with Iran, even though Tehran also sees it as a victory for its side, and amid questions about what exactly the two sides had agreed to.
The two sides agreed to a ceasefire just an hour before Trump’s deadline to wipe out the Islamic republic expired.
“Total and complete victory. 100%. There’s no doubt about it,” Trump said. AFP during the brief call when asked if he claimed victory with the ceasefire.
Faced with uncertainty over the terms of reopening the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic in particular, Trump insisted on the existence of a solid framework for a longer-term agreement.
“We have a 15-point deal, most of which have been agreed to. We’ll see what happens. We’ll see if we can do it,” Trump said.
The Republican president said in his previous announcement on his Truth Social network that Iran had presented a 10-point proposal that was “doable.”
Trump would not say whether he would return to his initial threats to destroy Iran’s civilian power plants and bridges if the deal failed.
“We’ll have to see,” Trump said AFP.
Uranium “taken charge”
The fate of Iran’s enriched uranium reserves is another key question, after a war that the US president says was partly aimed at ensuring Iran could never acquire a nuclear weapon.
But Trump insisted that nuclear materials would be covered in any peace deal.
“This will be fixed perfectly, or I wouldn’t have fixed it,” Trump said, without elaborating on what would happen to the uranium.
Trump said he believed China played a role in bringing Iran to the negotiating table.
“I hear yes,” Trump said when asked if Beijing was involved in negotiating a truce with Tehran, its key ally.
The American president is due to travel to Beijing in mid-May to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, during a crucial summit between the two superpowers.
The trip was originally planned for early April, but Trump postponed it, saying he needed to stay in Washington to oversee the war in Iran.
Beijing is a close partner of Tehran and the main buyer of Iranian oil, most of which passes through the strait.
But it also has close economic ties with Gulf countries and has repeatedly criticized Iran’s attacks on them.
