WASHINGTON, April 8 (Reuters) – The United States will work closely with Iran and the two countries are discussing tariff and sanctions relief, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, following the announcement of a two-week ceasefire.
Trump pulled back from the brink of a threatened full-on assault on Iran on Tuesday night, two hours before a deadline he had set for Tehran to open the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.
He said on social media that many of the 15 points in the U.S. plan proposed to Iran had been agreed to, but did not elaborate.
“We are, and will be, talking Tariff and Sanctions relief with Iran,” Trump said in a social media post.
Despite his ebullient comments, and widespread relief on Iran’s streets and in global financial markets over the ceasefire, the main disagreements between Washington and Tehran remain unresolved and the two sides are sticking to competing demands for a potential peace deal.
Trump also said on Wednesday that any country supplying weapons to Iran would immediately face a 50% tariff on any goods exported to the U.S.
Beijing and Moscow have both helped Iran build military capacity to counter U.S. and Israeli pressure, supplying missiles, air-defense systems and technology intended to bolster deterrence, complicate U.S. operations and raise the costs of attack. But Russia and China have been restrained in their support during the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran.
‘VERY PRODUCTIVE REGIME CHANGE’
Trump offered praise on Wednesday for Iran’s current leaders after U.S. and Israeli strikes killed a number of top officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He has been replaced as supreme leader by his son, Mojtaba Khamenei.
“The United States will work closely with Iran, which we have determined has gone through what will be a very productive Regime Change!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
“There will be no enrichment of Uranium, and the United States will, working with Iran, dig up and remove all of the deeply buried (B-2 Bombers) Nuclear ‘Dust.'”
“Nothing has been touched from the date of attack.”
The war waged by the U.S. and Israel has yet to deprive Iran either of its stockpile of near-weapons-grade highly enriched uranium or its ability to hit its neighbours with missiles and drones. And Iran’s clerical leadership, which faced a mass uprising months ago, has withstood the six-week onslaught with no sign of domestic opposition.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey;Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Gareth Jones)
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