Bloomberg: “Explaining his decision to agree to an interim peace deal, Trump repeated his insistence that the country would never get a nuclear weapon. Yet he went on to suggest that Iran should have the right to enrich uranium, be allowed to develop ballistic missiles and get access to billions of dollars in frozen funds.”

“Those three things have been at the center of the debate around how to approach Iran for years, dating to the 2015 agreement that the US, under President Barack Obama, and other great powers signed with Iran to limit its nuclear program.”

“Not only that: Trump had repeatedly cited those issues as reasons why Obama and past presidents had failed so badly in containing the threat posed by the regime in Tehran.”

“President Trump’s agreement with Iran opened new fissures in his party on Wednesday, with Republicans on Capitol Hill and beyond questioning whether his administration had secured adequate concessions from Iranian leaders after months of a costly and unpopular war,” the New York Times reports.

“After the Trump administration released the text of the arrangement on Wednesday, some Senate Republicans reacted with fierce criticism, skepticism and alarm. Prominent members of the GOP’s old guard from outside Congress also sounded dubious notes. And even some of president’s allies in the conservative news media voiced concern.”

“Israelis from across the political spectrum reacted angrily Monday to the news of an initial deal between the U.S. and Iran, calling it a disaster for Israel and directing their fury at one man: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” the Associated Press reports.

“President Donald Trump signed an interim deal to end the war with Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, speeding up the timeline for the agreement to go into effect despite blowback from Republicans who said it amounted to a victory for Tehran,” Bloomberg reports.

“The so-called memorandum of understanding is now in effect, a US official said. It was unclear if Iran had immediately begun taking steps to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz.”

New York Times: “When the text of the deal intended to wind down the conflict was finally released on Wednesday, read aloud paragraph by paragraph by a senior administration official who stopped to defend each section, it read nothing like a surrender document. Instead, the Iranians emerged from a confrontation with the world’s most powerful military having not only survived, but with much to celebrate.”

“It starts with the resumption of Tehran’s ability to reap billions of dollars in oil sales, lifting pressure on the struggling regime even as negotiators prepare to begin haggling over a far more lengthy and critical document: the one Mr. Trump insisted in an interview on Sunday will arrest Iran’s nuclear program for the next 15 or 20 years.”

“Reagan is rolling over in his grave. Iran’s nuclear ambitions were not curbed, and they have learned that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works and will undoubtedly leverage it in the future. Now, Iran gets to build brand-new infrastructure under this deal.”

— Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), in a statement.

“President Trump on Wednesday defended letting Iran maintain its large arsenal of ballistic missiles when discussing the emerging deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz,” NewsNation reports.

Said Trump: “I mean, they have to have some, because other people have some. You got to have some.”

He added: “Well, what am I going to do? Am I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but they can’t have them? Doesn’t work that way, you know, it doesn’t work that way, and missiles aren’t the problem. Missiles, they hurt a little location, but they don’t blow up the planet.”

“Iran and Oman will define how the Strait of Hormuz is administered in discussion with other Persian Gulf states under the agreement to end the war in the Middle East, senior U.S. officials told reporters Wednesday,” CNBC reports.