US President Donald Trump has announced that a peace deal with Iran has been “largely negotiated” and that the Strait of Hormuz will be opened as part of the agreement, though Tehran has disputed the claim that control of the waterway will change.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that the Memorandum of Understanding between the United States, the Islamic Republic of Iran and various other Middle East countries including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain and mediator Pakistan has been largely negotiated and is subject to finalisation.
The deal reportedly includes provisional reopening of the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days as a confidence-building measure, during which Iran would not charge tolls for ships transiting the waterway and would clear mines previously laid in the Hormuz Strait to allow free passage.
In exchange, the US would lift its blockade on Iranian ports and issue sanctions waivers allowing Iran to sell oil freely, though the final details remain under discussion. The Strait of Hormuz is a critical global chokepoint for roughly 20% of the world’s oil trade and liquefied natural gas.
Trump’s announcement came after calls with Gulf allies and Israel and follows a revised proposal submitted by Iran and Pakistan to end the war launched under Operation Epic Fury. Final aspects of the deal are currently being discussed and will be announced shortly, the president said.
However, Iran has quickly hit back at Trump’s claims. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman for Iran’s military command, said the president’s contention that the Strait of Hormuz will be opened is “not true,” while Iran’s Fars news agency, close to the hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said the strait would remain under Tehran’s management and that the announcement was “incomplete and inconsistent with reality.”
Iranian media reports indicate that Tehran has agreed to allow the number of ships passing through Hormuz to pre-war levels but will continue to exercise control over the strategic waterway, which remains a US red line. The proposed deal would also begin at least 30 days of further negotiations focused on unresolved issues tied to Iran’s nuclear programme, especially Tehran’s stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium.
Trump also said the agreement is subject to approval of a number of other countries in the Middle East, not just the US and Iran, and warned he would be cautious about the president’s claims since the deal is still being finalised.
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