On Sunday night, June 14, the spotlight was on a UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House. Beneath the metal structure that organizers called “The Claw,” Justin Gaethje celebrated his victory with a spectacular roll outside the octagon. In the front rows of the stands, Donald Trump watched the spectacle, having just announced that the war with Iran was over and that the Strait of Hormuz was reopening.
A few hours earlier, as he prepared to celebrate his 80th birthday at the White House with his family, the US president had caused an international sensation with a post on Truth Social. “The deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is complete. Congratulations to all. I fully approve of the opening of the Strait of Hormuz without transit fees and the immediate lifting of the United States naval blockade. Ships of the world, start your engines. Let the oil flow,” he wrote.
However, as has happened many times during this war, the president’s rhetoric has outpaced the facts. The full text of the agreement had not yet been made public, the official signing was days away, and the most difficult issues – the nuclear program, sanctions, and the Lebanese front – remained open.
The attack that almost blew everything up
The deal literally came crashing down that morning. At about 6:45 a.m. Washington time, Israel bombed targets in southern Beirut. Iranian negotiators had repeatedly warned that such an action could lead to a complete collapse of the talks.
The Israeli government claimed it was in response to missiles fired by Hezbollah. But many in the West and Arab capitals saw something different: a last-ditch effort by Benjamin Netanyahu to derail a deal from which he had effectively been excluded.
Tehran temporarily froze contacts. Four hours later, Trump himself went public and criticized the Israeli attack, stating that it “should not have happened.”
His annoyance with his once close ally was no longer a secret. According to reports, he contacted Netanyahu by phone and expressed his anger in particularly harsh terms, believing that the bombings threatened to destroy months of diplomatic efforts.
Qatar comes out ahead
Behind the deal lay months of mediation. Although Qatar had played a supporting role alongside Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey since March, it had refrained from taking the lead in the process until mid-May.
The situation changed when both Washington and Tehran asked Doha to become more actively involved.
Qatar secretly sent a high-level delegation to Tehran via Turkey to avoid publicity. The aim was to record the real intentions of the Iranian leadership and identify possible compromises. The Qatari mediators were in the Iranian capital just as Trump publicly renewed the threat of military action, declaring that “time is running out for Iran.”
A day later, the US president announced that he had postponed a planned attack at the request of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, because serious negotiations were underway.
Source: protothema.gr
