AGENCIES

A media report late Tuesday revealed the details of a plan submitted by the US to Iran aimed at ending the war in the Middle East after President Donald Trump said Washington and Tehran had reached 15 “major points of agreements.”

It includes the dismantling of all existing Iranian nuclear capabilities and a commitment that Iran will never pursue a nuclear weapon, Israel’s Channel 12 reported.

There would be no production of weapons-grade nuclear material on Iranian soil and all enriched material would be handed over to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) within an agreed timeline, it said.

Iran’s Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow nuclear sites would be decommissioned and destroyed and the IAEA would get full access to all information in regards to Iran’s nuclear program, the report said, adding that Iran would cease the funding, directing and arming of its proxies in the region.

In addition, the Strait of Hormuz will remain open and a free maritime zone and “no one will block it.”

A decision on Iran’s missile program will be made later, but ranges and numbers “will need to be limited,” the reported added, noting that Iran will be able to use the missiles “only for self-defense purposes” in the future.

In return, all sanctions on Iran will be lifted, the report said, adding the country will also receive assistance in developing a civilian nuclear project in Bushehr. The removal of the “snapback threat” is also included among the points of the agreement, the report said, referring to the imminent, automatic reimposition of United Nations sanctions on Iran by the E3 countries -- Britain, France and Germany. Hostilities have escalated since US and Israeli strikes on Iran began on February 28.

Iran has retaliated with repeated drone and missile strikes targeting Israel and Gulf countries hosting US military assets. Despite Trump’s stated hopes for diplomacy, The Wall Street Journal reported that the United States is planning to send 3,000 soldiers from the elite 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East.

Trump’s envoys were negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran just two days before the United States and Israel launched the massive attack on February 28, killing Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day. Iran had agreed in 2015 to broad restraints on its contested nuclear program in a deal that Trump ripped up during his first term as he joined Israel in applying pressure to the cleric-run state.