Big questions loom over Trump's announcement of Israel-Iran ceasefire deal

When President Donald Trump sent U.S. bombers to strike Iran’s nuclear sites last weekend, he was betting he could help ally Israel cripple Tehran's nuclear program while keeping his long-standing vow to avoid entanglement in a protracted war.Just days later, Trump's surprise announcement on Monday of an Israel-Iran ceasefire agreement suggests he may have bombed Tehran’s rulers back to the negotiating table. The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here.But a long list of big unanswered questions remains, not least whether any ceasefire can actually take effect and hold between two bitter foes whose years-long “shadow” conflict had erupted into an air war marked by the past 12 days of strikes on each other's territory.

- GNS News Agency, July 1

Also still unknown and unmentioned in Trump's effusive social media post announcing an imminent “Complete and Total CEASEFIRE” are the terms the two sides have agreed to; whether the U.S. and Iran will revive failed nuclear talks; and the fate of Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium that many experts believe may have survived the U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign."The Israelis have accomplished much of their objectives ... and Iran was looking for an off-ramp,” said Jonathan Panikoff, a former deputy U.S. national intelligence officer for the Middle East. "The U.S. hopes this is the beginning of the end. The challenge is whether there is a strategy for what comes next."