French-UK mission 'ready' to aid Hormuz reopening, says Macron
President Emmanuel Macron's comments came after Washington and Tehran said they reached an agreement to end the war that the US and Israel launched on Iran in February, with a deal to be signed on Friday in Switzerland.
Under the agreement announced late on Sunday, Iran and the US agreed to an “immediate and permanent” end to military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon – notably lifting their blockades on the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of global oil and LNG flowed before the war broke out on 28 February.
Macron, who is due to host US counterpart Donald Trump for a G7meeting later on Monday, said that the UK-France mission's "assets are in place and ready to be deployed".
"The resumption of maritime traffic, without restrictions or tolls, is an essential condition for regional stability and the global economy," he said in a post on X.
'Let the oil flow!'
The initial announcement from mediator Pakistan was quickly confirmed by Washington and Tehran, and an official signing ceremony was scheduled for 19 June in Switzerland.
“The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete,” Trump posted Sunday on social media as he marked his 80th birthday.
“I hereby fully authorise the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorise the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”
The content of the agreement, which follows weeks of fraught negotiations and periodic threats from Trump of fresh hostilities unless Iran reached a deal, remained unclear. It offered little indication on the thorny question of Tehran's nuclear programme.
Iran's Mehr news agency reported that the US will release $12 billion in frozen assets to Iran before the start of negotiations.
It quoted a 14-point “memorandum of understanding” (MoU) between the two nations, which it said stipulated “the release of 24 billion dollars in frozen Iranian assets during the 60-day negotiation period” that begins after the MoU is signed.
The Trump administration did not immediately comment on the details of the agreement, which may prove contentious as the US presses its effort to end Tehran's nuclear ambitions and deal with its stockpile of highly enriched uranium – believed to have been buried by US strikes last year.
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Israel anger
Tehran has long demanded that any agreement to halt the war must include the parallel conflict in Lebanon, where Israel has been pursuing a campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, has denounced the US-Iran deal, insisting his country was not bound by it.
"Trump's agreement does not bind us... we are not party to this agreement. It does not safeguard our security," Ben Gvir said on his Telegram channel, in what was the first reaction from an Israeli official to the deal.
"We must not settle for anything less than the dismantling of Hezbollah. We must not withdraw from a single inch of territory that our soldiers have captured and cleared of terrorist infrastructure," he said.
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'Critical step'
Elsewhere, the announcement of the deal was greeted with international relief and hope for an enduring end to the conflict.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was a “critical step” toward resolving the war in the Middle East.
The United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy said they were prepared to lift sanctions imposed on Iran and will work “with the US, Iran and regional partners to seize this moment, maintain momentum and achieve a long-term diplomatic settlement".
The announcement also brought relief at market opening on Monday. Oil prices plunged more than four percent in Tokyo, and Japan's Nikkei stock index jumped three percent.
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The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has had a worldwide economic impact, from inflated gas prices that have fuelled inflation in the US and many other countries and congested supply chains for goods like fertiliser key to food production in areas far beyond the Middle East.
(with newswires)