German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius (L). [Getty]
Germany is deploying two ships to the Red Sea in preparation for a possible military mission in the Strait of Hormuz, Germany’s Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Thursday.
“As we speak, our minesweeper Fulda and the supply ship Mosel are sailing through the Suez Canal towards the Red Sea,” he told reporters as he arrived for a meeting with his NATO counterparts in Brussels.
Pistorius said approval would be needed from Iran and Oman before any participation in a minesweeping operation, and added any mission would also depend on the developments in further talks between Iran and the United States.
A day earlier, US President Donald Trump and Iran’s president signed a deal on Wednesday meant to end the US-Israeli war on Iran, with Tehran agreeing to dilute its enriched uranium in return for large-scale economic relief.
Trump put his signature to the memorandum of understanding during dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles following a G7 summit, a US official told AFP.
“Just signed it,” Trump told reporters as he emerged from the palace.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, quoted by the state news agency IRNA, said the document “was finalised with the signatures of the presidents.”
“Now it is time to test the implementation of the agreement,” Baqaei said.
Under the text, Washington commits to immediately waiving oil sanctions crippling Iran’s economy.
And once a final agreement is reached on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, the United States will also facilitate the release of a $300 billion reconstruction fund supported by regional nations, the deal says.
