President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that the United States and Iran have reached a sweeping agreement aimed at ending the conflict that erupted on February 28, 2026, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and ensuring that Tehran never acquires nuclear weapons. Speaking at the G7 Summit in Evian, Trump hailed the accord as a major diplomatic and economic victory.

“On Sunday, we reached an agreement with Iran that achieves everything we set out to accomplish,” Trump began, “ending the current conflict, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and preventing Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

Trump pointed to the financial markets as evidence of confidence in the agreement, saying investors reacted positively while energy prices declined following the announcement.

“If we didn’t do this deal, we could have dropped bombs for another three weeks, two weeks, four weeks, two years. You would never have the Hormuz Strait open. You would never have success. Your market, instead of going up at levels that no one has ever seen before, would go down at levels that nobody ever saw before,” he said.

The president argued that the agreement was the result of years of pressure and strategic decisions rather than a rushed diplomatic effort.

“This wasn’t a three-month deal. This was years in the making. And you know why? Because I was the one who killed General Soleimani. If I didn’t kill General Soleimani, we probably wouldn’t be talking about this deal right now, because he was a mad genius. They never were able to replace him.”

Trump said discussions with world leaders over the last several days reinforced international support for the accord.

“The past two days have provided a chance to discuss the details of this historic agreement with many of our closest friends and allies, including the G7 nations and many presidents and prime ministers,” he said. “They are thrilled that we made a deal. There’s not one nation that came to us and said, ‘Please, sir, keep dropping bombs on them.’ Stupid people say that.”

Discussing Iran’s postwar leadership, Trump said the officials who emerged after the conflict are more pragmatic than those who previously led the country. He described recent developments as a type of “regime change” and predicted that Iran’s conduct would shift significantly after the heavy losses it sustained.

Trump emphasized that avoiding a severe global economic shock was one of his chief objectives throughout the conflict.

“The one thing I didn’t want to see is economic catastrophe,” he said. “If you kept this going, this could have happened. But all I know is that every time we talked about the possibility of peace, the stock market shot up like a rocket ship.”

Reflecting on the economic consequences of prolonged instability, Trump remarked that “the one President I did not want to be was the late, great Herbert Hoover,” referencing the president associated with the onset of the Great Depression after the 1929 stock market collapse.

Trump also disclosed that Israel had received a copy of the Memorandum of Understanding reached with Iran.

Turning to earlier U.S. policy, Trump sharply criticized the Obama-era nuclear agreement, arguing that it failed to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions and instead enabled them. He also praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, describing him as a “very good man” and “an amazing prime minister.”

The president acknowledged occasional disagreements with Netanyahu, particularly concerning Israeli military operations in Lebanon.

“We had a little dispute over Lebanon,” Trump said of his relationship with Netanyahu. “I said, ‘You can do a little softer touch, Bibib. You don’t have to knock down a building every time somebody walks into it that’s from Hezbollah.’ It’s been an amazing partnership. But he will say, we’re the big partner and they’re the very small partner, and that’s true.”

At the same time, Trump suggested Israel could be more aggressive in confronting Hezbollah.

“They could do a much better job on Hezbollah,” Trump said of Israel.

Highlighting what he sees as a key difference between the new agreement and the JCPOA, Trump stressed that the current arrangement includes a strict deadline and the possibility of renewed military action.

“It’s a Memorandum of Understanding. If it doesn’t get done in 60 days, that’s alright – we go back to bombing. I don’t want to do that because it’s so good, but we might have to because we’re never going to let them have a nuclear weapon. But they’ve agreed not to, and you’ll see that very clearly in the agreement.”

The president said immediate negotiations would begin regarding the removal of Iran’s enriched uranium reserves.

“Technical discussions on the removal of all stockpiles of enriched materials will begin immediately.” He added, “And unlike Barack Hussein Obama, who sent Iran pallets of cash, any relief they receive under this deal, they’ll have to get based on merit-and it won’t be from us.”

Trump argued that previous administrations failed to halt Iran’s nuclear progress and claimed that his approach succeeded where others fell short.

“Every administration, for decades, has sought to get Iran to relinquish its nuclear ambitions, but the threat only got bigger… What I’m doing-and what I did-should’ve been done years ago… but it wasn’t,” Trump said. “No President in history has ever been tougher on Iran than I have – and they know that. If they don’t honor the agreement… we’ll probably go back to bombing them until they honor it.”

Concluding his remarks, Trump said the agreement goes further than prior nuclear arrangements by addressing both the development and acquisition of nuclear weapons.

“Iran agreed that they will neither produce nor procure nukes,” he said, contrasting that formulation with previous formulations that only included language on the building of nuclear weapons but would technically allow Iran to purchase nuclear weapons from third parties.

{Matzav.com}