JERUSALEM, Israel – With great fanfare, President Trump, on his 80th birthday, announced that a memorandum of agreement with Iran had been reached in Islamabad, Pakistan.
On Truth Social, Trump posted on Sunday that he had authorized the end of a U.S. naval blockade against Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz. “Congratulations to all!” he wrote. “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”
The agreement was confirmed by Pakistani officials that “both sides have declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” adding that mediators will this week facilitate meetings to “lay the foundation for the technical talks.” A signing is expected in Switzerland on Friday.
Reaction was slow in coming from Iran, although state TV displayed a banner boasting, “US was forced to sign an agreement to end the war.”
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Israel, which was not a party to the agreement, has been slow to react as well, officially. Earlier on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated President Trump on his birthday. However, U.S. media reports indicated that Trump was furious with the prime minister for attacking a terrorist stronghold in Beirut over the weekend, despite continued Hezbollah rocket and drone launches against Israeli troops and residents of northern Israel.
Click the video ABOVE to see CBN’s Gordon Robertson interview Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, about the Iran deal. Meanwhile, the Israeli embassy has also released a booklet titled “Manufacturing a Modern Blood Libel” to address accusations against Israel of genocide and starvation in Gaza.
One Israeli opposition party is blaming Netanyahu for what its leader described as a terrible deal. The leader of the Israeli Democrats Party, Yair Golan, was quoted in The Times of Israel as saying, “Tremendous military achievements won through the courage of our pilots and the blood of our fighters were erased, while Netanyahu stood aside – weak, ill, isolated, and lacking influence.”
Israelis won’t be comforted, either, by comments from United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who has frequently been hostile toward Israel. He praised the deal, saying, “I warmly congratulate the United States and Iran for having reached a peace deal that provides for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz as well as a framework for further negotiations.”
One U.S. supporter of Israel, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), welcomed the opening of the Strait, but he added a caveat, according to a report by JNS News, stating, “I will be watching closely the ensuing negotiations regarding Iran’s nuclear program and other matters.”
Graham added, “I am somewhat concerned that Iran’s view of the agreement seems different than what the American negotiating team is claiming. Under our law, any nuclear deal with Iran will be sent to Congress for review and a vote.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz has announced that Israel will not withdraw from its security zone in southern Lebanon, despite Pakistani claims that Lebanon was included in the memorandum of agreement ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran.
And what about the Iranian dissidents who were killed by the thousands for protesting against the Tehran regime earlier this year? A source told The Jerusalem Post that they are “shocked” at the turnaround from the time early in the conflict when Trump promised them, “Help is on the way.”
The source remarked, “He came to harvest what Israelis had planted while the tree was still a sapling, and he ruined the seeding.”
President Trump leaves for the French Alps on Monday to take part in the G7 Summit.
