The United States will - "in cooperation with Iran" - dig up and remove all enriched uranium believed to be buried under the nuclear facilities that the United States bombed last summer, Donald Trump claims in a social media post.
By this he is likely referring to the enriched uranium that remains in nuclear facilities such as Isfahan, which was attacked in a brief war this summer. Donald Trump writes that these facilities have been monitored by satellite and that “nothing there has been touched.”
Finger on the trigger
A few hours earlier, on Wednesday night, Trump described the two-week ceasefire agreed to by the US and Iran as "a total and complete victory."
This is despite the fact that it was unclear what the deal involved, including conflicting information about whether Iran would be allowed to enrich uranium in the future.
And despite the ceasefire, attacks continue, both against and from Iran. Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are reported to have fought off Iranian missiles and drones on Wednesday, and a number of people are said to have been slightly injured.
Iran, for its part, announced that oil facilities on the island of Lavan had been attacked. The country's Revolutionary Guard warned that it did not trust the US promises and claimed that it still had "a finger on the trigger," according to a social media post reproduced by AFP.
Safe passage?
One of Trump's demands for agreeing to the bilateral ceasefire brokered by Pakistani mediators was that Iran open the Strait of Hormuz. This was granted, and at noon on Wednesday the first two ships passed through the vital oil trade waterway.
“For two weeks, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible through coordination with the Iranian military,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X overnight.
Five weeks have passed since the US and Israel launched the war by attacking Iran. The bombing has claimed over 2,000 civilian lives and destroyed hundreds of thousands of civilian buildings, according to the UN agency OCHA.
When the war began, Donald Trump justified it with Iran's uranium enrichment. He claimed that the country was close to developing nuclear weapons and therefore posed a threat to the United States.
The US and Iran are now invited to the mediator country, Pakistan, on Friday for talks on a more permanent agreement. Trump writes on Truth that the US is already talking about tariffs and sanctions relief with Iran - but adds that countries that supply Iran with weapons will be punished with US tariffs.
Facts: Strait of Hormuz
A strait between Iran and Oman that is 33 kilometers wide at its narrowest point.
Iran and Oman have their territorial waters in the strait, but are covered by the right of transit passage under the Law of the Sea Convention.
It is important for crude oil transport from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Iran as it connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.
The majority of oil shipments go to countries in Asia.
Source: NE, AP
