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The US would lift its blockade of Iranian ports while Tehran would restore transit through the Strait of Hormuz, the agreement says according to Iranian state TV
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The White House says a report on Iranian state television citing a draft of an unofficial framework for a memorandum of understanding between Tehran and the United States is not true and that the cited memorandum is “a complete fabrication”.
The report said the draft agreement allowed for the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened and commercial vessel numbers restored to pre-war levels within a month, and the US military to lift their naval blockade on Iranian ports.
Iran and Oman would handle the management and routes of shipping through the Straight of Hormuz, Iranian state TV said.
If a full peace agreement is reached within 60 days, it will be approved in the form of a binding UN security council resolution.
Iran said it would only sign a peace agreement with the US if Washington released $24 billion (£17.8 bn) in frozen Iranian assets.
Tehran’s top negotiator and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that no agreement would be finalised until half the frozen assets, around $12bn, were transferred after a memorandum of understanding was announced.
The White House has dismissed a report from Iranian-controlled media on a memorandum of understanding, saying it was not true and was “a complete fabrication”.
The Netherlands will send a minesweeper to the Mediterranean Sea as part of a Nato operation to ensure rapid deployment to the Strait of Hormuz is possible, ministers said on Wednesday.
The minesweeper will, contribute to Nato countermeasures group from mid-June after it departs this week, the letter from defence minister Dilan Yesligoz and foreign minister Tom Berendsen said.
Preparations are under way for a possible Dutch role in ensuring safe shipping routes in the Gulf region, they said.
Nato chief Mark Rutte has said several countries are “pre-positioning” logistical and other support such as minehunters and minesweepers near the Gulf to be ready for any possible mission in the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial global waterway for oil and gas transport.
The Lebanese army said on Wednesday that a soldier had been killed in an Israeli air strike near his post in Bekaa and that it had retrieved his body.
It said the retrieval was delayed from the previous day due to the security situation in the area.
An attack on a South Korean cargo ship operated by local shipper HMM in the Strait of Hormuz earlier this month likely involved an Iranian anti-ship missile, the country’s foreign ministry has saud.
The ministry made the assessment at a briefing to announce the outcome of a government investigation into the May 4 attack on the bulk carrier, which caused a fire and damaged the lower stern hull.
“Various pieces of evidence point toward Iran,” said First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo, adding that Seoul had not conclusively determined who was responsible or whether the attack was intentional.
The probe looked at debris from unidentified objects that were found inside the ship after the attack on the vessel.
Read the full report:
As we’ve been reporting, Iranian state TV says it has received a draft of the unofficial framework for a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the US and Iran.
It is worth noting that we haven’t heard from the US side – this is only what we are hearing from Iranian state-controlled TV.
The memorandum framework is not yet finalised, state TV says.
Here is what it said about the agreement:
We’re getting lines in from Iranian state TV, which says it has seen a draft of the unofficial framework for a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the US and Iran.
According to the draft, US military forces would withdraw from the vicinity of Iran and lift its naval blockade on Iranian reports, it said.
In return, Iran has committed to restoring the number of commercial transit vessels through the Strait of Hormuz to pre-war levels within one month.
We’ll bring you more as it comes.
Our senior foreign affairs reporter James Reynolds reports:
Iran has long been burdened by Western sanctions, limiting its ability to earn revenues from its lucrative trade in oil and gas.
There are primary sanctions, by which a sanctioning country or bloc, like the EU, bans its companies and citizens from doing work with Iran. And then there are secondary sanctions, or extraterritorial sanctions, which bar entities in third countries from doing business with Tehran.
Washington’s secondary sanctions have resulted in companies suspending payments to Tehran, as international banking restrictions have made transfers illegal under rules set out by the US treasury department.
By way of example, Iran has sought the release of $6bn now held in Qatar. Those funds stem from Iranian oil sales to South Korea that were blocked in South Korean banks after Trump reimposed sanctions on Iran in 2018 and scrapped a deal with Iran over its nuclear programme.
The figure had been due for release in 2023, under Joe Biden, as part of a US-Iranian prisoner swap before being effectively frozen again in the wake of the October 7 attacks on Israel by Iran’s ally, Hamas.
While no comprehensive public ledger is available, trackers estimate there are around $100bn (£74.4bn) worth of frozen assets around the world, representing between a third and a quarter of Iran’s GDP.
These are mostly held between China, India, Japan, Qatar and Iraq, with smaller amounts tied up in Europe and the United States.
Israel’s largest defence contractor is developing hardware to combat explosive Hezbollah drones that have killed Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, its CEO has told Reuters news agency.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has used the cheap, easy-to-assemble kamikaze drones to attack Israeli troops which have remained in southern Lebanon since an April 16 truce.
Difficult for air defences to thwart, the drones are also being used to deadly effect in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Under pressure to address the threat, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged on Monday to escalate attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon. But he did not spell out a plan to address the drones, which can evade Israel’s high-tech jamming technologies.
In an interview, Bezhalel Machlis, chief executive of Elbit Systems said the defence giant was actively working with the Israeli defence ministry to develop a quick solution to the drone challenge.
This could include the use of laser-based defence systems, he said.
He said that could involve an “energy weapon solution,” adding that the company is “very active in energy weapons such as lasers”.
The announcement by Ofgem that energy bills will rise up to 13 per cent in July has come as another crushing blow to UK households as they continue to face the consequences of Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East.
Brits are being squeezed from all angles as a result of so-called Trumpflation, fresh on the back of another bout of tax rises brought in by the Labour government. British businesses are also feeling the pinch after rising employment costs and other cost increases over the past year – in addition to this new energy price uplift.
The cost of power, however, is only part of the problem – and one which feeds through into other areas of life including food, manufacturing and transport.
Experts are also warning that the cost-of-living crisis is only set to get worse, with painful energy prices ris es due to hit in October, when demand increases ahead of winter.
Business and money editor Karl Matchett reports:
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