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Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv decries ‘Russia’s Orthodox values’ as historic Pechersk Lavra monastery burns

The sacred and historic Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery’s Dormition Cathedral caught fire after a massive Russian air raid on ⁠the Ukrainian ⁠capital, Kyiv, that killed at least four people and injured more. Peter Beaumont writes from Kyiv that the strikes were part of a wave of Russian attacks across Ukraine, with reports of damage continuing to arrive early on Monday morning. Houses, cars and a high-rise apartment building caught fire and 140,000 people were without electricity in parts of Kyiv, ‌said Vitali Klitschko, the mayor and Tymur Tkachenko, head of the capital’s military administration. Agence France-Presse said a major missile attack was taking place and its reporter saw projectiles intercepted in the sky with glowing debris falling on to the city. The risk of missile and drone attacks continued into Monday morning, Ukraine’s air force warned. Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko, posted a picture of monastery buildings in flames, adding: “A brutal assault on our people ‌and our heritage. This is the true face of Russia’s Orthodox values.” In Kharkiv city, at least five people were killed in what appeared to be a double tap strike targeting emergency responders who were extinguishing a fire from an earlier attack. A baby was injured in a drone strike on Kharkiv city, said the regional governor. On Sunday the regions of Zaporizhzhia and Sumy came under attack. Police said two people were killed and four injured in Sumy. A woman aged 73 died when a drone hit a car in Zaporizhzhia, said the regional governor. Ukraine hit two bridges connecting Crimea to Russian-controlled areas as it continued efforts to isolate the illegally occupied peninsula. Crimea is already grappling with a severe fuel crisis due to Ukrainian strikes on supply lines. On Monday, three people were killed and another ⁠three were injured, including a one-year-old child, in a drone attack on the Russian city of Tula, an industrial cluster south of Moscow, the regional governor said. Ukraine denies targeting civilians. Ukraine hit an oil facility in Russia’s Yaroslavl region and the critically important Azot explosives plant in the Tula region, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday. Strikes on Russian military logistics also succeeded in occupied parts of Ukraine. “Ukraine is carrying out its plan of long-range sanctions against Russia and the assigned tasks regarding mid-range strikes in response to Russia’s refusal to end this war,” Zelenskyy said. The governor of Russia’s Yaroslavl region, Mikhail Yevryaev, said a massive Ukrainian drone attack hit the region. Fuel storage facilities were struck, causing a large fire. One ⁠person was killed and nine more ⁠were ⁠injured on Sunday when Ukrainian drones ⁠hit an apartment building in the ⁠Russian city of Oryol, ‌south of Moscow, ‌the regional governor ‌said. A drone strike set fire to a sea terminal in the southern Russian port of Temryuk, regional authorities said according to Russian state media. Ukraine’s military and the SBU security service said on Saturday that Ukrainian drones hit several targets in Russia including an oil and gas terminal in the Russian Krasnodar region and an oil processing and pumping facility in the Volgograd region. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has spoken with Donald Trump on ways to end the Russia-Ukraine war ahead of the G7 meeting in France this week, Gloria Oladipo writes. Sunday was the US president’s 80th birthday. Zelenskyy said: “I updated the president on the latest developments on the battlefield and how our position has strengthened,” he said. “We have some good ideas that could help bring peace closer.” Trump also spoke with Vladimir Putin and offered to help end the war, reported Russia’s Tass news agency.

Middle East crisis live: US and Iran reach peace deal as European leaders warn Tehran ‘must never acquire a nuclear weapon’

French president Emmanuel Macron said the deal between the US and Iran will be discussed at the G7 summit, which begins Monday in the French resort town of Evian-les-Bains and brings together leaders of the world’s major advanced economies, including president Donald Trump. “The aim will be to assess the implications of this agreement, support for Lebanon, the long-term reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, of course, reaching a deal on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic (missile) programs,” Macron said in a video posted on X. Egypt, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will join discussions in Evian on Tuesday. The G7 includes the US, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK.

Kyiv monastery set on fire in night of Russian attacks across Ukraine

Ukraine has come under a massive Russian missile and drone attack with waves of explosions echoing through the capital, Kyiv, in the early hours of Monday as air raids killed at least nine people across the country. Among targets hit in the sustained wave of strikes were the city’s historic Dormition Cathedral within the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, one of Ukraine’s most significant religious sites, as well as residential buildings across the city. Footage from the Perchersk Lavra, a Unesco world heritage site, showed towering flames licking up towards its domes. Six people were reported injured. “[T]he roof of one of the holiest places in the Christian world – the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra – is burning,” Metropoliton Epiphanius, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, wrote on X. Yulia Svyrydenko, the prime minister, posted a picture of the monastery building in flames and wrote: “A brutal assault on our people ‌and our heritage. This is the true face of Russia’s Orthodox values. “We ask for prayers for the salvation of the shrine from destruction. Another Russian crime against humanity, against history, against Christianity.” Damage was reported at 16 locations across the capital amid the sound of interceptor launches and explosions that shook windows in the city centre. “New launches targeting the capital keep being recorded,” said Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, urging people to remain in shelters. Four people were killed and 23 injured in Kyiv, Tkachenko said. Outside the capital, at least five people were killed in the city of Kharkiv in what appeared to be a double tap strike targeting emergency responders. Attacks across Ukraine came after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had warned that Moscow would target Ukraine with “systemic” strikes, and amid evidence of mounting battlefield setbacks for Russia. The strikes follow a period of relative quiet in Kyiv in recent days as Moscow prepared its drone and missile forces for the latest in a recent series of massive air attacks. Poland, an EU and Nato member, scrambled fighter jets and put ground-based air defence systems and radar reconnaissance on a state of readiness, the Polish armed forces said on Monday morning. The strikes came after the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Sunday that he had ⁠spoken to Donald Trump ahead of a G7 meeting in France this week and discussed efforts to achieve an end to the more than four-year war. Trump also told Putin on Sunday that ending the conflict in Ukraine was vital and he was ‌ready to help, the Kremlin said. Progress towards a peace agreement in Ukraine has been slow, with US officials and mediators concentrating on the conflict in the Middle East. US and Iranian officials said on Sunday they had agreed on a peace framework to end their war, with the pact expected to be officially signed on Friday in Switzerland.

Macron frames Évian G7 agenda in hope Trump will stay for whole summit

Emmanuel Macron, the host of the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, has framed an agenda to make it as palatable as possible to his guest of honour, but the French president has no idea if Donald Trump, a haphazard summit attender, will last the full three days – or disrupt the proceedings every hour he stays. The US president quit the last G7 summit in Kananaskis, Canada, early to work on the Iran conflict, and this year, plus ça change, Iran may also draw presidential attention. For good measure, he insulted this summit’s host before leaving Canada last year, describing Macron as “publicity seeking” and adding: “Purposefully or not, Emmanuel Macron always gets it wrong.” Macron, who will be attending his 10th G7 summit, chose not to take umbrage, and has even postponed the start of the summit to allow Trump to celebrate his 80th birthday with a UFC event on the White House lawn. Macron is holding out a dinner in Versailles on Wednesday night as a reward if Trump stays the three days; French officials say Trump adores the palace’s gold, and insist the two men respect each other. It will be touch and go if Trump completes the summit. Reports out of Washington suggest the US president has not been in celebratory mood, and the temptation for him will be to insult his six fellow leaders – representing Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK – for lacking the loyalty to join his earlier plan to reopen the strait of Hormuz through force. At best, he will be demanding the planned Franco-British naval taskforce to enforce the restoration of freedom of navigation, as outlined in the US-Iran joint memorandum of understanding, moves quickly. De-mining is also urgently needed if the hundreds of tankers backed up in the strait are to reach the arteries of the world economy in time. The other G7 leaders – all opposed to the Iran war, with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, describing it as a US humiliation – will have to decide whether to look ahead, or pass verdict on a war that has upended the world economy. Trump appears to be in a state of denial about the economic impact of the war. He told Fox News last week that oil prices had not risen as much as many predicted, adding: “You know what I really love. I love the inflation.” The World Bank in a report on Thursday cut forecast world growth this year from 2.9% to 2.5%, taking growth to its lowest global level since the Covid pandemic. The Bank of Japan is expected to raise interest rates to a 31-year high, as wholesale prices have climbed at the fastest pace in three years. Europe’s central bank on Wednesday raised interest rates for the first time since 2023 amid fears of inflation going over 3% this year. The French central bank’s governor, Emmanuel Moulin, Macron’s former chief of staff, predicted “persistent” coming inflation. He may have noticed that container shipping rates have doubled since the start of the war, and are unlikely to decline soon. The French foreign ministry says the world’s poorest will suffer most as fertiliser and food prices soar. Commodity prices are to rise 22%, the World Bank predicts, against the 7% fall expected at the start of the year. Chronic indebtedness will worsen as interest rates rise. This was happening, the World Bank pointed out, as international development aid was falling “and is expected to decline further, stripping away one of the last remaining buffers that countries depend on to sustain schools, health care, and food assistance programmes”. Trump also faces being cornered by two other even more persistent wars – Ukraine and Gaza. Macron wants to see Europe given a greater role in solving both conflicts, pointing out it is Europe, not the US, that is saving Ukraine from bankruptcy. Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, is promoting the idea of an EU envoy for Ukraine – the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, has been mentioned – but Macron is sceptical about the post. European credibility on defence has also been weakened by the failure of the Franco-German FCAS fighter-jet project, while the resignation of the UK defence secretary, John Healey, shows Britain’s fiscal problems. Volodymyr Zelenskyy will attend on Tuesday, and recent progress on the battlefield means the Ukrainian president can remind Trump he did hold more cards than the US president thought. However, at the same time, Ukraine’s civilian death toll in May was the highest since the war began. France will also be pressing for the US to resolve the impasse in Gaza over Hamas disarmament. Trump will meet leaders from Qatar, UAE and Egypt to discuss the crisis and the fallout from Iran. But there will be no attempt to sign a joint communique on the conflicts and Macron will instead issue a summary. The French president also plans to issue concise communiques after each working session; common ground will be sought on critical mineral supply chains, artificial intelligence, containing damage from geopolitical conflicts, and reforming international development partnerships. Tech titans attending the summit on Wednesday will include Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI, and Arthur Mensch, the French founder of Mistral AI, giving Macron a chance to promote his regulatory initiatives – which include banning social media for those under 15 or 16. The climate crisis, normally a G7 staple, has been kept off the agenda as it will provoke a row. But in a deft piece of diplomacy, Macron has chosen to make global economic imbalances – code for booming Chinese exports and accusations that Chinese state subsidies are fuelling a record Chinese trade surplus – a centrepiece of the formal summit as it is a subject on which Europe and the US identify a shared culprit. Chinese success in high-value products such as electric vehicles has become all the more alarming for Europe as these are sectors the west thought it would dominate. For France and other EU states facing manufacturing job losses, it sounds at times as if the only solution will be protectionism and EU tariffs on Chinese products. But Macron has been careful to try to frame this debate as one of greater collective solidarity, as opposed to China-bashing, to prevent what remains of the multilateral trading system from fragmenting further. The G7 had to “help China to generate the internal demand that it really needs”, he explained at an event last week attended by video by the Chinese vice-premier, Zhang Guoqing. Europe for its part had to address under-investment, Macron said. Little that Zhang said strayed from the usual Chinese denial of unfair trade practices, arguing that the country could hardly be blamed for pursuing a successful industrial policy. If the worst comes to the worst, the Évian golf course – which dates back to 1904 – is closed for the three days, and if the earnest summitry gets too much, it represents an escape route for the world’s most famous 80-year-old golfer.

Pakistan PM says signing of agreement – as it happened

Thank you for following our live coverage of what has been an eventful day, with a tentative peace deal on the table and what appears to be the most significant breakthrough yet in ending the war in Iran. This blog is closing now, but we have a new blog live here. For now, here is a quick recap of the latest. The US and Iran have reached a tentative peace deal to end the war, although many critical questions and details, including the reopening of the strait of Hormuz, and the future of Iran’s nuclear program, remain unanswered. The agreement was first announced by Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, who has been acting as a mediator. Minutes later, Donald Trump confirmed the deal, writing: “The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all!” Trump subsequently said the “Great Deal” would bring peace and security to the region and claimed the strait of Hormuz would be reopened. “The Leaders of the Region have, for the first time, found a President who can help them achieve real Peace,” he said in a post on Truth Social. “With the opening of the Strait upon the signing of the Deal on Friday, for purposes of mine removal, oil will flow on both ends again for the Region, and the World!” In televised comments, Iran’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said the agreement with the United States puts an “immediate end” to the countries’ war. He said the end of the war had been declared on all fronts, including Lebanon. However, how the strait of Hormuz will be managed seems uncertain, with Iran’s state media Mehr saying that an MoU expected to be signed in Geneva on Friday stipulates that it will be carried out under “Iranian arrangements”. In a call to the New York Times, Trump claimed that under the deal the strait would be “permanently toll free”. Trump also insisted that if Iran failed to reach a final nuclear accord with the US, he would restart military attacks on Tehran or make the US “the guardian of the Middle East” in return for 20% of the region’s revenues. Some, such as Republican senator Lindsey Graham have expressed concern about the differing substance from US and Iranian negotiating teams. Leaders in Europe, Japan, and Australia have welcomed the deal, while the UN chief António Guterres hailed it as a “critical step”. Asian markets have responded positively to news, with benchmarks in Tokyo and Seoul gaining more than 5% early Monday. Oil prices fell more than $3 a barrel. There has been no immediate reaction to the announcement from Israel, which has said it was not party to the planned US-Iran deal. The agreement ‌was sealed despite an Israeli strike on Lebanon on Sunday that drew criticism from both Iran and Trump.

What do we know about the US-Iran peace deal – and what questions remain?

Donald Trump and officials in Tehran have hailed an immediate end to the war on Iran, with the US president claiming that “oil will flow on both ends again for the region, and the world”. However, in the hours that followed the announcements, exactly what had been agreed remained unclear, with the final text of their memorandum of understanding unpublished and details scant about key issues including access to the strait of Hormuz, Iran’s nuclear program and Lebanon. Trump later told the New York Times that he would restart military attacks if Tehran failed to reach a nuclear agreement with the US during broader negotiations set to begin on Friday. Here’s what we know, and what we don’t know, in the hours immediately after the latest announcements: The strait of Hormuz On Sunday evening, Donald Trump appeared unequivocal about the status of the strait of Hormuz, declaring: “I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” An hour later, the US president said the opening of the key waterway through which about a fifth of the world’s oil flows was contingent upon the signing of a deal, scheduled for Friday, and would be “for purposes of mine removal”. Crucially, Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, the peace deal mediator, made no mention of the strait in his opening announcement. Iran’s Mehr state news reported that the agreed memorandum of understanding calls for the reopening of the strait within 30 days under “Iranian arrangements”. The US has long been adamant that any tolling arrangements on shipping – such as those reportedly discussed with Oman – would be unacceptable. The US president said last month: “The strait is going to be open to everybody. Nobody’s going to control it.” The leaders of the UK, France, Germany and Italy – a grouping called the E4 – were also quick to emphasise that the reopening of the strait must be unconditional and with unrestricted freedom of navigation. Regardless of the uncertainty, global oil prices tumbled in the hours following the news, with prices falling to their lowest levels since early March, shortly after the Iran war began. Prices plunged despite warnings that it could take months or years to restore the Gulf’s energy production. Reopening oil and gas sites is a complex process, and some of the region’s infrastructure has been damaged by drone attacks. There is also the question of whether shipping companies and insurers will feel the strait is safe enough for passage. Lebanon A key point of disagreement during early ceasefire talks was whether Lebanon would be included in any deal. Iranian deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi was unequivocal about the scope of Sunday’s agreement, saying: “A permanent and immediate end to the war has been declared on all fronts, including Lebanon.” Mediator Sharif was clear, too, saying in a social media post: “Both sides have declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.” But Trump made no mention of Lebanon in his initial announcements on Truth Social, focusing almost exclusively on the strait of Hormuz. This could be difficult to accept for Israel, which has not been included in the Iran peace negotiations and did not immediately respond to news of the deal. Its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, arguably has his own domestic political reasons to continue pursuing the conflict with Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon. Further military action could conceivably torpedo any agreement between the US and Iran. Earlier plans to unveil a deal with Iran on Sunday were upset by an Israeli attack on Beirut, which destroyed a building in the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs, killing three and injuring six. Trump told the Axios news site that the strike had “delayed the signing by a few hours”. Trump and Netanyahu have repeatedly clashed over Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, which continued as part of a separate and frequently ignored ceasefire deal. Two weeks ago, Trump reportedly called him “fucking crazy” after a launching a strike on Beirut, adding: “You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me.” After the latest strike the weekend, he said Netanyahu had “no fucking judgment”. Iran's nuclear program By any assessment, the fate of the Iran’s nuclear program – a key rationale given by Trump for the war on Iran – has not been resolved in the latest agreement. The president repeated on Sunday his promise that “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon” but senior Pakistani officials told the Associated Press that nuclear talks would continue over the next 60 days. Trump himself told the New York Times that if Tehran failed to reach a nuclear deal, it could come under fresh attack by the US military. In a joint statement with the E4 grouping of the UK, France, Germany and Italy, echoed Trump’s comments on Sunday night, adding: “We are prepared to lift relevant sanctions in response to clear, verifiable steps by Iran on its nuclear program.” Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is peaceful and has not publicly committed to giving up the enriched uranium, which is believed to be buried under three nuclear sites that were badly damaged by US strikes last year. Trump faces significant political pressure to secure a better deal on this issue than the one he scuppered during his first term. He withdrew the US from a 2015 multilateral Iran deal, negotiated by Barack Obama, that lifted sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program, including international inspections. Iran responded by ramping up its enrichment of uranium, producing more than 400kg of material at close to bomb-grade purity. The eventual fate of that uranium is likely to be a key negotiating point during ⁠the upcoming broader talks. Republican senator Lindsey Graham said on Sunday he would be “watching closely” the coming nuclear negotiations.

Peace deal between US and Iran announced, with strait of Hormuz expected to reopen

A peace deal between the US and Iran has been reached following nearly four months of fighting in the region, Donald Trump and senior Iranian officials have said. Iranian deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi confirmed the agreement in televised comments in the early hours of Monday, saying it puts an “immediate end” to the countries’ war, and that it included Lebanon. The precise terms of the deal were not immediately known, however, in a statement posted to Truth Social Sunday evening, the US president announced the opening of the strait of Hormuz as well as the removal of the US naval blockade. “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”, said Trump in the celebratory post. He later clarified that the opening of the strait would be contingent upon the signing of the deal on Friday – which mediator Pakistan said would take place in Geneva – “for purposes of mine removal” However, Iran’s Mehr state news reported that the memorandum of understanding agreed with the US calls for the reopening of the strait within 30 days under “Iranian arrangements”. Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, announced the agreement on Sunday afternoon, with both sides declaring “the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon”. The agreement was struck despite ⁠an Israeli strike on Lebanon on Sunday that drew criticism from both Iran and US President Donald Trump. “Following intensive talks, we are pleased to announce that the Peace Deal between the United States of America and Islamic Republic of Iran has been REACHED,” Sharif said in a post on X. A signing ceremony for the peace agreement is expected to take place on 19 June in Switzerland, he added. Trump had called for restraint on Sunday after Israel launched fresh airstrikes on Beirut, as mediators sought to reach a preliminary peace deal to definitively end the three-month war in the Middle East. Trump had previously suggested the US could sign an agreement with Iran on Sunday, but as the evening came in the Middle East, there was no sign of a breakthrough. Instead, Iranian officials threatened a military response to the Israeli attack on Beirut, which destroyed a building in the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs, killing three and injuring six. Trump earlier told the Axios news site that the Israeli strike had “delayed the signing by a few hours” and said he had told the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, he had “no fucking judgment”. Israel said it had targeted senior Hezbollah commanders after the militant Islamist organisation – which has close links with Tehran – launched three projectiles into northern Israel. A strike on Beirut by Israeli forces a week ago triggered a short but intense new round of fighting between Iran and Israel, momentarily destabilising negotiations between Tehran and Washington. Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, a lead negotiator for Tehran and Iran’s parliamentary speaker, wrote on X on Sunday that Israel’s strikes on Beirut showed “America either lacks the will to fulfil its commitments or the ability to do so”, warning that the strikes could imperil the talks. Gen Mohammad Jafar Asadi, the deputy commander of Iran’s joint command headquarters, said: “These crimes will not go unanswered,” according to the official Mizan news agency. Iran’s foreign ministry said it held the US responsible for Israel’s attack in Lebanon and warned of a “strong response”. Iran’s top joint military command added that the “finger [is] on the trigger” and was ready to fire at the “enemy’s heart”. Tehran had insisted that any peace agreement must cover “all fronts” and so include the fighting in Lebanon, where Israel has launched a broad offensive and occupied a swath of the south. Regional officials said Qatari mediators had travelled to Tehran on Sunday to finalise terms of a memorandum of understanding. Unconfirmed earlier reports suggested the preliminary agreement would oblige Iran to reopen to all shipping the strait of Hormuz, which before the war carried about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquid gas supplies. At the same time, the US would lift its own blockade of Iran and allow Tehran to sell oil, providing some relief for Iran’s fast-deteriorating economy. However, the memorandum did not appear to address the most contentious issues, such as Iran’s nuclear programme, which would be addressed during a 60-day period leading to a more comprehensive deal. Observers have expressed scepticism that complex negotiations could be successfully concluded in less than two months, pointing out that the 2015 US-Iran deal that restricted Tehran’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief took almost 10 times longer and the negotiations were conducted by large teams of technical experts. “I doubt we are going to see all this hammered out in 60 days,” said Alia Brahimi, of the Washington-based Atlantic Council. Reaction in Israel to the broad outlines of the emerging deal had been sharp, with widespread concern at the absence of terms in the draft agreement that would force Iran to restrict either its ballistic missile arsenal or support for regional militant movements such as Hezbollah. Netanyahu has publicly supported Trump but faces a tough re-election battle later this year. Hezbollah fired missiles into Israel on 2 March, two days after the US and Israel attacked Iran, killing the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. Israeli troops have since pushed their invasion of Lebanon deeper than at any point in over a quarter-century. “This is a colossal failure. A full-blown collapse. Iran has undisputedly emerged as the big winner,” wrote Avi Ashkenazi in the mass-market Maariv newspaper. Jacob Nagel, a former national security adviser to Netanyahu, called the draft deal a “big mistake”. Critics in Trump’s Republican party, which is struggling with high fuel prices and an unpopular war ahead of midterm elections, have also criticised the emerging deal. Even if the strait of Hormuz is reopened, relief for the world economy will come slowly, analysts say. Safe passage for shipping trapped in the narrow waterway is far from assured and infrastructure damaged during the conflict will take months to fully repair. Trump is expected to discuss de-mining the strait during the G7 summit that starts on Monday.

Anger among Iranian hardliners at terms of deal agreed with US

Iranian hardliners have mounted a rearguard rejection of a deal with the US as as they say it does not guarantee sanctions relief, compensation or control of the strait of Hormuz. “The fact that they say we won and America has retreated is a blatant lie,” said the Iranian MP Kamran Ghazanfari. Meysam Nili, the managing director of Rajanews and brother-in-law of the hardline former president Ebrahim Raisi, called the deal on the table a catastrophic capitulation. He urged Iranians not to sit quietly. Faced with the onslaught, Iranian officials led by Mehdi Mohammadi, an adviser to the head of the negotiating team, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, mounted a detailed rebuttal in an audio message insisting the deal would end the war, including Israel’s offensive in Lebanon, and that Tehran has not been required to make any new commitments on its nuclear programme, leaving the means of disposal of its highly enriched uranium – including down-blending inside Iran – to future discussions lasting 60 days. Mohammadi also said that by referring to “Iranian arrangements”, the text would allow Iran and Oman to charge fees for passage through the strait of Hormuz, and would even prevent Israeli commercial ships using the waterway. The US had fought hard to have the phrase “Iranian arrangements” excluded, he claimed, and in the second phase of the deal had agreed to lift primary sanctions for the first time. His explanation is sharply at odds with the critics on points of fact and interpretation, which he said was because they were working from outdated drafts. On the nuclear programme, Mohammadi said the only statement in the text was that Iran would not build or purchase nuclear weapons, which he said was “what we have been saying for years”. He said the proposed deal was better for Iran than the 2015 nuclear pact agreed under Barack Obama that lifted sanctions in return for limits on its nuclear activities, because Tehran had shown it could control the strait of Hormuz. “This time, it is not like we will shut down the nuclear programme and wait for them to lift the sanctions,” he said. “There is no such wishful thinking. The strait is in our hands, we can close it any time we want at an hour.” He acknowledged that the text on the release of half of Iran’s frozen money held abroad, roughly $12bn (£9bn), had not been finalised. “We know that America will not give us money,” he said. “The Arab countries have pledged this money and are forced to give it, because we are above them and they have seen our power in the region and have tasted our power. One of the implications of this agreement is that the Arab countries have been forced to accept Iran’s sovereignty and superiority and participate in making concessions.” Critics in Iran aiming their fire at Ghalibaf and the foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, are from a group in the parliament coalesced around the Paydari Front including Mahmoud Nabavian, a hardline member of the national security committee, commenters such as Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor-in-chief of the Kayhan newspaper, and a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who worked alongside Russia in Syria. The opponents have mounted protests outside the foreign ministry in Tehran, and launched a “we will not accept” hashtag. Government supporters say the Paydari Front is opposed to any deal and is not representative of ordinary Iranians, who know wars against superpowers rarely end in outright victory. Shariatmadari wrote in an open letter: “We must ask Mr Ghalibaf and Mr Araghchi, wasn’t closing the strait of Hormuz one of our country’s main levers in the Ramadan war, and wasn’t closing the strait blocking the enemy’s commercial and economic breathing space and bringing it close to suffocation?! With what logical justification and acceptable explanation are these gentlemen going to give up this fateful lever?! “They say ‘we will charge service fees from passing ships’! That’s it?! America and its allies have martyred former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Islamic world shed the blood of dozens of nuclear scientists and high-ranking military commanders, hundreds of innocent people and oppressed students. They have caused hundreds of billions of dollars in damage … and now by opening the strait of Hormuz and charging service fees (!) from passing ships, we are going to release their economic and commercial bottleneck?!” The hardline Shia cleric and MP Hajatoleslam Naboyan, who acts as the de facto foreign affairs spokesman for the Paydari Front, appeared incredulous that the proposed agreement appeared to allow free commercial shipping in the strait. “Will Israeli commercial ships also be freed? It is the proposal of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said. “From now on, all Israeli ships, not military, all hostile countries, their ships and their movement in the strait of Hormuz must be freed.” The Khorosan newspaper expressed concern at the licence given to the critics of the proposed agreement. “If the regime is going to grant freedom of speech and assembly to this group so that they can chant slogans against the negotiations and the negotiators, similar freedom must be given to those in favour of the agreement so that they can also gather and march in support of the regime’s decision to end the war, sign the agreement, and even resume relations with the United States,” it said. “Then it will become clear that the majority of the Iranian people support the regime’s will for the agreement, and the minority cannot impose its will on the regime and the nation through shouting, using the national radio and television, abusing the gatherings.” The hardliner’s criticism may help Donald Trump as the US president seeks to justify the deal as better than Obama’s. The two deals are not directly comparable, however, because the 2015 deal was a specific and detailed arms control agreement while the memorandum is focused on the preconditions for a ceasefire. Trump, who faces accusations that he has only achieved an agreement through a disruptive, expensive and illegal war that he could have reached through diplomacy, needs evidence that it is superior to the one Obama struck and from which he withdraw the US in 2018.