US-Iran Interim Ceasefire Deal Nears Public Release, Permanent Truce Still Elusive
By Steve Holland and Jana Choukeir
EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France/DUBAI, June 16 (Reuters) — The outlines of a temporary U.S.-Iran agreement to pause the devastating Middle East conflict began to surface Tuesday, as President Donald Trump confirmed the deal would preclude Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and a U.S. official disclosed it permits Tehran to resume oil exports almost immediately.
The memorandum of understanding, signed this week but not yet formally published, extends a shaky ceasefire first announced in April by another 60 days, giving both sides room to negotiate a lasting peace. The original truce had done little to halt fighting on the ground, and the new accord is seen as a fragile attempt to prevent a full-scale regional conflagration.
Under the terms, the United States will lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports, while Iran agrees to restore the free passage of oil tankers and other maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz — a waterway it had effectively shut since U.S. and Israeli strikes began on February 28, choking global energy supplies and sending shockwaves through commodity markets.
Trump, speaking to reporters at the G7 summit in France, said the accord clearly states that “Iran will not have a nuclear weapon” and promised that the full text would be made public within days in a formal setting. Tehran has long insisted its nuclear program is strictly peaceful, a stance it has maintained even as the conflict escalated.
The war, launched by the U.S. and Israel in late February, has exacted a heavy toll. More than 7,000 people have been killed, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, where Israel invaded in March after Hezbollah — an Iran-backed militia — joined the fighting. The conflict also disrupted global oil markets, strained diplomatic relations across the region, and fueled humanitarian crises in several countries.
Yet the interim deal leaves many core U.S. war aims unresolved. Iran’s theocratic government remains firmly in power; its ballistic missile program has not been dismantled; and its support for anti-Israel militias like Hezbollah shows no sign of ending. Trump, who has offered shifting justifications for the strikes, now faces criticism from within his own Republican Party ahead of November midterm elections. At the same time, Iran’s leadership risks renewed domestic protests if the deal fails to ease the crippling economic pressures from the war and years of sanctions.
Israel, a key U.S. ally in the region, was not directly involved in the talks and has distanced itself from both the April ceasefire and this latest agreement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that his country is not bound by the accord and will not withdraw from southern Lebanon, where Israeli forces remain entrenched. A Hezbollah spokesperson told Reuters the group doubts Iran would agree to any permanent truce as long as Israeli occupation continues. In response, Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters warned Israel to expect a “hard response” if it does not halt attacks on southern Lebanon.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance, however, insisted in public remarks that the agreement includes both Israel and Lebanon, contradicting Netanyahu’s stance. The discrepancy adds to the uncertainty over whether the new ceasefire will actually hold.
The economic dimensions of the deal are significant. A senior U.S. official said Iran is now permitted to immediately sell oil and fuel, and can access banking, transportation, and insurance services to facilitate those sales. The accord could eventually deliver substantial relief to Iran’s battered economy by lifting additional sanctions and unfreezing foreign assets. If Tehran complies with other conditions, the deal also envisions a $300 billion reconstruction fund, financed by neighboring Gulf states that host U.S. military bases and suffered Iranian missile attacks during the war.
DIFFICULT TALKS PENDING
Over the next 60 days, negotiators will tackle the thorniest issues, starting with the future of Iran’s nuclear program. Those talks had been underway with Trump administration officials in February until the U.S. decision to launch the war abruptly halted them. Two other issues that Trump and Netanyahu used to justify the war — ending Iran’s support for regional proxy militias and curbing its missile program — are conspicuously absent from the current agenda, raising questions about whether they will ever be addressed.
Trump has publicly expressed frustration with Netanyahu’s approach, saying Tuesday he was “not happy” with Israel’s conduct of the campaign. Still, the president struck an optimistic note about the next phase with Iran: “They want to get it done. They have to get back to business, and the relationship is now normalized, so I think it’s going to go pretty quickly.” Earlier, he described the interim deal as “a wall to a nuclear weapon” for Iran.
For context, Iran signed the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with the U.S. and other world powers, dramatically limiting its uranium enrichment. Trump withdrew the U.S. from that agreement during his first term, a move that pushed Iran to accumulate a large stockpile of highly enriched uranium — material that Trump now insists must be removed or destroyed. The fate of that stockpile remains a central issue in the next round of talks.
Speaking at the G7 meetings, Trump said he likes the idea of submitting the agreement to the U.S. Congress for review, after some fellow Republicans complained they were kept in the dark. The president has faced broad criticism for launching the war without congressional authorization, especially since the conflict proved widely unpopular among Americans.
Oil markets reacted sharply to news of the deal. Prices slid more than 2% to new three-month lows on Tuesday, following a nearly 5% drop the previous day. Yet industry officials caution that Middle East oil and gas output will take months to fully recover, and shipping companies remain wary.
CAUTION OVER SHIPPING
The Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries about one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas trade, is expected to reopen Friday. But shipping firms say they will wait for visible and sustained peace before sending vessels through. On Tuesday, Iranian state television reported operations to lift its maritime blockade, while stressing that vessels must still coordinate with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. The U.S. said the strait would be open toll-free for 60 days and expects that arrangement to be part of any final agreement. Iran, meanwhile, has signaled it intends to retain joint control over the waterway with Oman, a position that could become a sticking point.
As the 60-day clock starts ticking, the world watches whether this fragile window of calm can be transformed into a durable peace — or whether the underlying animosities and conflicting demands will pull the region back into war.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Stephen Coates, Aidan Lewis and Jonathan Allen; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Alexandra Hudson and Sanjeev Miglani)