US-Iran news LIVE: Trump says Iran likely to follow through on MoU

The memorandum of understanding, reached over the weekend with Iran, is due to be signed on Friday. It triggers a 60-day-window to negotiate the final terms of a deal.

The US, Iran and mediators are discussing holding the signing of a memorandum of understanding, currently scheduled for Friday, as early as Wednesday, Axios reported, citing a diplomat from one of the mediating countries and a second source familiar with the discussions.

If that happens, the MoU would be signed electronically, the parts of the deal concerning the Strait of Hormuz would go into effect, and the US might release the text of the agreement, the report said.

Axios cited the diplomatic source as saying the talks on accelerating the timetable were intended to open the Strait of Hormuz sooner than Friday, as both parties agreed on that issue.

As of Wednesday morning, no final decision had been made about shifting the signing, the report said.

President Donald Trump said the memorandum of understanding with Iran was “very strong” and said he believed Tehran wanted to make a deal.

Trump said he thought Iran would follow through, but warned that “the process will start again” if it did not.

He said he wanted Israel to be able to protect itself, while adding that he wanted Israel to use “good judgment.”

According to Iran International, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic must move beyond confrontation and focus on economic development.

“We must take over the trench from the launcher boys, lift people out of economic pressure and build the country,” he said at a meeting on China-related economic policy with Iran’s chamber of commerce.

Iran will immediately take steps to reopen the Strait of Hormuz once a tentative deal with the U.S. to end the war is signed and will be allowed to sell its oil without restrictions, according to leaked copies of an interim agreement that officials say broadly matches the document, the Associated Press reported.

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney on Wednesday said a US-Iran deal to end the Middle East war could be a "game changer" in the region and beyond.

There is "a likelihood that this memorandum of understanding agreement could be a game changer", Carney told reporters on the third day of a G7 leaders' meeting in the French town of Evian.

He pointed to encouraging discussions, which included US President Donald Trump, on Ukraine and Lebanon at the summit.

An interim deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz offers relief, but Asia’s economic woes are far from over. Beyond the chokepoint, the conflict has forced long-lasting shifts in Asia’s food and energy flows, Bloomberg reported.

The UK-based human rights group on Wednesday said the Israeli army’s mass forced displacement orders in Lebanon amount to “war crimes” under international law.

Displaced families are beginning to return to southern Lebanon after the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the wider conflict, CNN reported.

Rising inflation and a 30 per cent jump in oil prices are dampening global growth, but leaders of the world's top economies are unlikely to blame US President Donald Trump for the war-driven slowdown when they meet in France to discuss the economy on Wednesday.

G7 leaders, already bruised by US tariffs and conflicts over NATO and Greenland, have publicly criticized Trump's decision not to consult them before the US and Israel launched the war with Iran.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called for a firm commitment to a ceasefire in the war, urging all parties to work towards laying the foundation of a “sustainable security architecture in the region”, the state news agency Xinhua reports.

Speaking at a news conference for the release of a white paper on China’s vision for global governance, Wang warned of mounting instability in the international order.

Iran has reportedly fired multiple drones aimed at commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a source told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

The firing took place after the signing of the US-Iran memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Sunday, and the drones were intercepted by the US military ere they posed a threat to commercial or US military ships and personnel.

Al Jazeera on Wednesday reported that Israeli forces have carried out an air strike on the outskirts of Kfar Tebnit in the Nabatieh district.

Israeli forces also launched raids on the town of al-Nabatieh al-Fawqa and shelled the Ali al-Taher heights and the outskirts of the town.

Hezbollah fighters also launched at least 10 rockets toward Israeli forces in the vicinity of Kfar Tebnit.

“We support and are ready to contribute to the implementation of the US-Iran deal,” says G7

Another oil carrier, loaded with Iranian oil, has sailed past the US Navy’s blockade line in the Gulf of Oman, making it the third vessel to do so following the US-Iran deal. The oil tanker, Sonia I, is operated by National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), and is carrying 1 million barrels of Iranian crude. Earlier, two NITC tankers – the Diona and Hero 2 – carrying a total of 3.8 million barrels of Iranian oil had exited the blockade line on Tuesday.

Qatar is beginning to bring some of its liquefied natural gas tankers back to the Middle East, as the major supplier prepares to ramp-up exports once the Strait of Hormuz reopens following a US-Iran deal.

Indian shares opened higher on Wednesday, building on a three-day rally fuelled by declining crude oil prices following a U.S.-Iran peace deal.

The benchmark Nifty 50 rose 0.23% to 24,044.50, while the BSE Sensex was up 0.35% at 77,080.09, as of 9:15 a.m. IST.

US officials told CNN that negotiators are working quickly to release the text of the agreement between Washington and Tehran, even as they downplay the significance of the specific language in the document.

Asian investors held steady Wednesday after a breathtaking start to the week fuelled by the US-Iran deal, with attention now turning to peace talks and the planned reopening of the crucial Strait of Hormuz.

The United Nations (UN) noted that there has been a “significantly reduced level” of violence and exchange of fire across the Israel-Lebanon border compared to the weekend and hailed the US-Iran agreement as having a “positive impact on the situation” in Lebanon.