THE MEMORANDUM of understanding aiming to end the war in the Gulf has already been signed by U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and the speaker of Iran’s parliament who heads its negotiating team, a U.S. official said on Monday.
There was no immediate response from Tehran to the report that the agreement, which both sides announced overnight, had already been signed. Previous reports from both sides had suggested it would be signed officially at a ceremony in Geneva on Friday.
In an early reminder of the agreement’s fragility, Israel – which launched the war alongside the United States in February and was not consulted on the talks to end it – struck a car with a drone in southern Lebanon, where it has been battling the Iran-aligned Hezbollah movement. Iran has said the deal must bring a full cessation of hostilities there.
The terms of the memorandum of understanding, reached after more than two months of negotiations, have yet to be published. The U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he expected the terms would be made public in the next 24-48 hours.
Oil prices tumbled on the prospect of an end to disruption to global energy supplies, and share prices soared, some hitting new records.
Trump, who had earlier said the blockaded Strait of Hormuz would be open on Friday, said on Monday that ships had already begun transiting it. However, the U.S. military told shippers it had not yet lifted its blockade of Iranian ports.
60-Day Negotiation Period
According to accounts from both sides, the agreement would reopen the blockaded strait and extend a ceasefire for a 60-day negotiation period, when contentious issues such as the future of Iran’s nuclear programme are due to be decided.
Vance, speaking to CBS News, said the deal could ultimately end with Iran being given access to a reconstruction fund of up to $300 billion, funded by its Gulf Arab neighbours, provided it fulfills promises to give up nuclear material.
Meanwhile, the immediate fate of the pact could hinge on Lebanon, where Israel has been battling the Iran-aligned Hezbollah armed group in parallel with the wider war that it launched alongside the United States against Iran in February.
Iran has said the preliminary agreement requires a cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon. Israel, which was not consulted on the preliminary deal, has said it reserves the right to act in Lebanon against Hezbollah threats.
Security sources said fighting in southern Lebanon had tamped down on Monday after the agreement was announced but had not ceased entirely.
In the first strike of its kind since the announcement, an Israeli drone struck a car in the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Tebnit, killing the driver, Lebanese state media reported. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strike.
Lebanon Has Been a Sticking Point
While the U.S. and Iran had largely ceased hostilities in early April, fighting has not ceased in Lebanon, where Hezbollah opened fire on Israel in support of Tehran on March 2 and Israel responded with an air campaign and ground invasion that has uprooted some 1.2 million people.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said there must be a complete halt to Israeli attacks against Lebanon and wrote on Telegram that the U.S. bears responsibility for implementing the framework deal.
Hezbollah welcomed the deal and said the inclusion of Lebanon reflected Iran’s commitment to securing a halt to the war and preserving Lebanon’s rights.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to respond publicly to the U.S.-Iran agreement. But Defence Minister Israel Katz said that Israel would remain “indefinitely” in areas it is occupying in southern Lebanon to eliminate what it perceives as militant threats.
Privately, Israeli officials’ views of the deal have been negative. One senior Israeli official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the agreement was “terrible for Israel,” and that this assessment was shared throughout the government from Netanyahu on down.
The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz would help solve a global energy crisis precipitated by the war, which has hurt Trump’s political fortunes by forcing up gasoline prices in the United States.
“Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” he wrote on Sunday.
On Monday he announced: “Ships are starting to move, many loaded up with Oil, out of the Strait of Hormuz.”
