Trump Hails Iran Agreement as 'Resounding Success' for America

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President Donald Trump told AFP on Tuesday that the United States had won a “total and complete victory” after agreeing a two-week ceasefire deal with Iran.

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In a telephone call, Trump said he believed China had persuaded Iran to negotiate, and said Tehran’s enriched uranium would be “perfectly taken care of.”

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The US leader appeared bullish on the truce with Iran, despite Tehran also casting it as a win for its side, and amid questions over exactly what both sides had agreed on.

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The two sides agreed on the ceasefire barely an hour before Trump’s deadline to obliterate the Islamic republic was set to expire.

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“Total and complete victory. 100 percent. No question about it,” Trump told AFP in the brief call when asked if he was claiming victory with the ceasefire.

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With uncertainty over arrangements for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic in particular, Trump insisted there was a strong framework for a longer-term deal.

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“We have a 15 point transaction, of which most of those things have been agreed on. We’ll see what happens. We’ll see if it gets there,” Trump said.

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The Republican president had said in his earlier announcement on his Truth Social network that Iran had given a 10-point proposal which was “workable.”

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Trump would not say whether he would go back to his original threats to lay waste to Iran’s civilian power plants and bridges if the deal fell apart.

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“You’re going to have to see,” Trump told AFP.

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– Uranium ‘taken care of’ –

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The fate of Iran’s store of enriched uranium is another key question, after a war that the US president said was partially aimed at ensuring Iran could never get a nuclear weapon.

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But Trump insisted that the nuclear material would be covered by any peace deal.

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“That will be perfectly taken care of, or I wouldn’t have settled,” Trump said, without giving any specifics about what would happen to the uranium.

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The ceasefire deal came after more than a month of destructive attacks by the United States and Israel, and followed mediation by Pakistan.

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Trump said that he believed China had played a role in getting Iran to the negotiating table.

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“I hear yes,” Trump said when asked if Beijing was involved in getting key ally Tehran to negotiate on a truce.

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The US president is due to travel to Beijing in mid-May to meet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, in a crucial summit between the two superpowers.

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The trip was originally scheduled for early April but Trump postponed it, saying he had to stay in Washington to oversee the Iran war.

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Beijing is a close partner of Tehran and the main buyer of Iranian oil, most of which passes through the strait.

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But it also has strong economic ties to the Gulf countries and has repeatedly criticized attacks on them by Iran.

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