WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Upbeat claims from President Trump over an imminent peace deal to end the war with Iran were met with deep skepticism Friday across the Middle East, where Iranian and Israeli officials questioned the prospects for a lasting agreement that would satisfy all parties.<\/p>\n
The outlines of an agreement began to emerge that would provide Iran with a major strategic victory \u2014 and a potential financial windfall \u2014 allowing the Islamic Republic to leverage its control over the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> to exact significant concessions from the United States and its ally Israel as Trump presses for a swift end to the conflict.<\/p>\n In a series of social media posts and interviews with reporters, Trump announced that the strait was \u201cfully open<\/a>,\u201d vowing Tehran would never again attempt to control it. But Iranian officials and state media said that conditions remained on passage through the waterway, including the imposition of tolls and coordination with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. <\/p>\n Iranian diplomats posted threats that its closure could resume at any time of their choosing, and warned that restrictions would return unless the United States agreed to lift a blockade of its ports. Trump had said Friday that the blockade would remain in place.<\/p>\n \u201cThe conditional and limited reopening of a portion of the Strait of Hormuz is solely an Iranian initiative, one that creates responsibility and serves to test the firm commitments of the opposing side,\u201d said a top aide to Iran\u2019s president, dismissing Trump\u2019s statements on the contours of a deal as \u201cbaseless.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cIf they renege on their promises,\u201d he added, \u201cthey will face dire consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n In an overture to Iran, Trump said Israel would be \u201cprohibited\u201d from conducting additional military strikes in Lebanon, where the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to prevent Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy militia, from rearming, a potential threat to communities in the Israeli north. <\/p>\n But in a speech delivered in Hebrew, Netanyahu would say only that Israel had agreed to a temporary ceasefire, while members of his Cabinet warned that Israel Defense Forces operations in southern Lebanon were not yet finished. A top ally of the prime minister at a right-wing Israeli news outlet warned that Trump was \u201csurrendering\u201d to Iran in the talks.<\/p>\n It was a day of public messaging from a president eager to end a war that has proved historically unpopular with the American public, and has driven a rise in gas prices that could weigh on his party entering this year\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n Yet, Republican allies of the president have begun warning him that an agreement skewed heavily in Tehran\u2019s favor could carry political costs of its own.<\/p>\n Trump was forced to deny an Axios report<\/a> Friday that his negotiating team had offered to release $20 billion in frozen Iranian assets in exchange for Tehran agreeing to hand over its fissile material, buried under rubble from a U.S. bombing raid last year.<\/p>\n