US releases text of Iran peace plan as Trump says deal averts ‘worldwide depression’

The Trump administration has released the text of its 14-point agreement with Iran , claiming it delivered a “major win” for the United States – even as it made significant political and financial concessions to Iran to reopen the strait of Hormuz and prevent a “worldwide depression”. In extraordinary remarks on Wednesday, Donald Trump went from threatening Iran with a new wave of attacks to suggesting that Iran had basic rights to enrich uranium for civilian use, that he would not pressure Tehran to abandon its ballistic missiles program and that the US was “going to have to give back” billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets. Those remarks, as well as the full text of the agreement – which was hailed by Hezbollah as a “great victory” by Hezbollah’s chief Naim Qassem – are likely to fuel anger in Israel and among hardliners in the Republican party who had urged Trump not to make a deal with Tehran. Defending the deal, Trump said no US president had ever been as tough on Iran as him, and “there is nothing as smart as the market – and the market loves it”. Trump said that “the alternative would be a worldwide depression”, arguing that if he had not struck a deal, “the strait [of Hormuz] would never have been opened. …