First Thing: Trump promises ‘great things’ for Middle East and claims Iran deal ‘all signed’

Good morning. Donald Trump has declared the strait of Hormuz will be “completely open” from Friday. “The deal’s all signed. And the strait ⁠is already partially opened,” the US president said as he arrived at the G7 summit in France. “I think a lot of great things are going to happen in the Middle East. And very importantly, the oil is plummeting down and the stock market is shooting up like a rocket today,” Trump said. “The main thing is that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. They fully agreed to that with strong policing powers, and they won’t have a nuclear weapon, which is what it was all about.” The comments will be seen as optimistic and premature – no peace deal has been signed, no nuclear agreement has been agreed and the strait of Hormuz, which was open before Trump’s war on Iran, has now been heavily mined. Continued Israeli breaches of the ceasefire in Lebanon and Iran’s claims about its right to charge fees in the crucial Hormuz waterway revealed some of the agreement’s loose ends. The memorandum of understanding is due to be formally signed at a ceremony in Geneva on Friday, and technical discussions led by the US vice-president, JD Vance, will begin later this week. What is the reaction in Israel? Analysts have pointed out that none of Benjamin Netanyahu’s promises at the beginning of the war – regime change in Tehran and the destruction of Iran’s nuclear programme – have been fulfilled. …