US Iran deal highlights: CENTCOM confirms lifting Iran naval blockade; Trump says he expects Lebanon truce

This blog is closed. Follow the latest updates related to US-Iran deal here: US-Iran peace deal live updates.

US Iran deal LIVE updates: Here are the key points:

• The Swiss government has confirmed that initial talks between the United States and Iran are planned at the Buergenstock mountaintop resort in Switzerland on Friday, June 19.
• The White House said US vice president JD Vance won't be leaving on Thursday for Switzerland to lead a new round of talks with Iran about its nuclear program, citing difficult logistics for negotiations meant to add details to an agreement signed by US President Donald Trump a day ago.
• Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's lead negotiator and parliament speaker, has said Tehran will not accept any violation of the memorandum of understanding by the United States.
• Mohsen Rezaei, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, says that “the proud and triumphant nation of Iran brought the devils of the world to their knees and shattered their dominance”.
• The Joint Maritime Information Centre says the maritime security threat level in the Strait of Hormuz has been reduced to moderate.
• The US Central Command (CENTCOM) on Thursday (local time) announced that the United States has lifted its maritime blockade on all traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas.

US Iran deal LIVE updates: The White House said US vice president JD Vance won't be leaving on Thursday for Switzerland to lead a new round of talks with Iran about its nuclear program, citing difficult logistics for negotiations meant to add details to an agreement signed by US President Donald Trump a day ago.

The White House said in a statement that plans for the technical talks have not been finalised, and said the US delegation has been prepared to depart at the first available opportunity.

US Iran deal LIVE updates: Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's lead negotiator and parliament speaker, has said Tehran will not accept any violation of the memorandum of understanding by the United States.

“In the event of bad faith, breach of contract, and excessive demands by the opposing side, we have no hesitation in delivering a crushing response to the enemy,” he wrote in a post on X.

“They were once slapped during the war; if they wish to tread that path again, they will receive an even harder slap.”

Mohsen Rezaei, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, says that “the proud and triumphant nation of Iran brought the devils of the world to their knees and shattered their dominance”.

“This epic will endure eternally in history,” he wrote on X.

Rezaei added, however, that Iran was in mourning “over the blood of our martyred leader, and there is no balm for this wound save vengeance”.

Several senior Iranian officials, including former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were killed in the US-Israel war on Iran.

John Bolton, former US National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump, has sharply criticised the newly signed US-Iran agreement, calling it "very favourable to Iran" and warning that it repeats the same structural mistakes that plagued previous deals regarding Tehran's nuclear programme.

In an interview with ANI, Bolton argued that the agreement grants Iran significant economic and strategic concessions while failing to fully secure Washington's core objective of guaranteeing unrestricted navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.

He said that the MoU does not restrict Tehran from charging tolls or imposing conditions on the maritime traffic through the vital naval route.

"I think the deal is very favourable to Iran, and the one issue that mattered most to Trump, which is opening the Strait of Hormuz, is not fully resolved by this deal," Bolton said.

"I mean, we'll see what happens, we'll see whether Iran tries to charge tolls, for example, or imposes other conditions on maritime traffic. This agreement does not prohibit that," he added.

The United States is about to embark on difficult negotiations with the Iranian government, whose survival of a massive US-Israeli military assault has undercut American leverage while bolstering the Islamic Republic.

US President Donald Trump tore up the last nuclear deal with Tehran and now faces the key test of whether his administration can come up with a better one -- or any at all -- in talks that are set to start soon and last for an initial 60 days.

But things are significantly different from when Washington and Tehran reached an agreement during Barack Obama's presidency more than a decade ago -- an effort that took years.

"It's a much worse situation strategically for the US now than it was back in the 2010 to 2015 time period," said Alan Eyre, distinguished diplomatic fellow at the Middle East Institute.

"The Iranian nuclear program is a lot more advanced now", though its nuclear facilities and enrichment ability were set back by US strikes last year, and "there's a lot less bilateral trust," said Eyre, one of the negotiators of the 2015 deal.

After Trump withdrew from that deal in 2018, Iran began rolling back its commitments, with the International Atomic Energy Agency saying Tehran was enriching uranium to 60 per cent purity -- far above the previous 3.67 per cent cap.

While Iran appears to benefit from the interim agreement, the 60-day negotiation period will likely need to be extended multiple times – while the ceasefire hopefully remains in place – before a final deal is reached, says Harlan Ullman, a retired US senior naval officer.

“It seems to me that Iran has come out very well,” Ullman told Al Jazeera.

The agreement’s eighth point, “which is a critical one, [uses] exactly the same language that appeared in the Obama administration’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)”, Ullman said from Washington, DC.

The JCPOA explicitly banned Iran from ever developing or acquiring nuclear weapons.

It’s therefore difficult to say what the Trump administration has really achieved with this agreement and will achieve during the 60-day negotiation period, said the analyst.

“The JCPOA took over two years to negotiate, so while the MoU is very favourable to Iran… the devil… is in the detail.”

The Joint Maritime Information Centre says the maritime security threat level in the Strait of Hormuz has been reduced to moderate.

Earlier this week, the centre had downgraded the threat level to ships transiting the strategic waterway from “severe” to “substantial”.

Gold slipped as the Federal Reserve’s hawkish stance outweighed an interim peace deal between the US and Iran that eased inflation risks.

Bullion fell as much as 1.3% as the dollar pushed higher. Oil slid while stocks staged a comeback on optimism that the US-Iran truce will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and ease inflation risks that have fueled wagers on higher rates for longer. Elevated rates are negative for gold, which carries no interest.

Fed Chair Kevin Warsh this week vowed to restore price stability after officials left rates unchanged and signalled growing support for interest-rate hikes.

Uncertainty remains over how quickly fuel prices can come down and when transits through the strait can return to pre-war levels. If energy costs stay elevated for an extended period of time, that may feed through to inflation data, and the US central bank may still need to raise borrowing costs or at least keep higher rates for longer.

Iraq's oilfields are ready to resume production, and a return to normal output levels will take place gradually until previous production rates are restored, Oil Minister Basim Mohammed told Iraq's state news agency early on Friday.

He said state oil marketer SOMO had contacted all customers to nominate chartered and owned tankers to load contracted Iraqi crude oil cargoes from the country's southern ports.

He added that the resumption of exports would be gradual and dependent on the smooth passage of shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

The average U.S. price for a gallon of gas fell below $4 on Thursday, to a level not seen since the first full month of the war with Iran, providing a bit of relief to consumers squeezed by soaring costs.

Although the tentative peace deal between the U.S. and Iran and the resumption of oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz are pushing energy prices downward, the cost of gas is still much higher than before the war began on February 28.

According to AAA, a gallon of regular gasoline averaged $3.99 on Thursday. It was the first time since late March that prices were that low. And the drop aligns with easing crude oil costs overall, with markets expressing optimism in recent weeks about the prospect of a peace deal.

Even with prices dropping, American drivers are collectively paying about $1 more per gallon than they were before the war, and gas is 25% more expensive than it was this time last year. That has caused many households to tighten their budgets and rethink how they want to spend their money.

Trump’s interim deal with Iran has faced public criticism from some of his fellow Republicans.

One Republican senator called the framework pact the “worst foreign policy blunder in decades”, another said some reported provisions seemed “ill-advised”, and some pro-Republican commentators also broke with Trump over the agreement.

“Iran’s nuclear ambitions were not curbed, and they have learned that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works and will undoubtedly leverage it in the future,” Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said on X.

Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, said he worried that the MoU “negotiates away” US military successes.

Wicker also said it would be a mistake to force Israel to stand down against Hezbollah in Lebanon and opposed lifting any sanctions on Iran or unfreezing Iranian funds “in exchange for Iran’s mere agreement to negotiate for another 60 days”.

Kaja Kallas, vice-president of the European Commission, says that the issue of lifting EU sanctions on Iran will be addressed once there is an Iranian nuclear deal.

“Once the conditions allow, of course, member states will discuss whether the lifting of sanctions is [appropriate], but we are not there yet,” Kallas told reporters ahead of a summit with leaders of EU countries.

The EU currently maintains multilateral sanctions targeting over 700 individuals and entities in Iran, which include travel bans and asset freezes.

Iran will invite the IAEA to inspect nuclear sites after the US-Iran deal, Donald Trump envoy Steve Witkoff told US lawmakers, AP reported, quoting sources.

Hezbollah said its fighters were engaged in fresh clashes with the Israeli military on Thursday, hours after Lebanese state media reported that Israeli strikes in the south killed three people.

The fighting came a day after the United States and Iran signed an agreement to end the Middle East war on all fronts, including in Lebanon.

Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group, said on Thursday it was fighting "a force of the Israeli enemy army that attempted to advance from the town of Arnoun towards the outskirts of Kfar Tibnit", near the key town of Nabatieh.

"The clashes are still ongoing," it added in the statement released in the late afternoon.

“Today, U.S. forces lifted the blockade on all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas, in accordance with the President's direction. American forces are not impeding the transit of vessels to or from Iranian ports. All U.S. military blockade enforcement efforts have ceased. Our great Naval Ships will remain in the general area to make sure that all aspects of the agreement are adhered to, obeyed and in full force and effect,” CENTCOM said.

Iran's Supreme National Security Council said the Persian Gulf Strait Authority has been charged with issuing permits as quickly as possible.

It has also said that the Strait of Hormuz traffic will be increased gradually. Measures on mine clearance will be carried out under the Islamabad MoU, though ships are advised to stick to the path and timing allocated by the authority, the statement published by state media added.

Iran's Supreme National Security Council has said that, based on the MOU with the U.S., no fees will be charged to ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days, state media reported.

It has also said tha fees will be covered by Iran during the 60-day period.

The US government has announced sanctions against several Lebanese officials it said were aligned with Hezbollah and members of the sanctioned Alaa Hassan Hamieh business network for obstructing Lebanon’s peace process and delaying the disarmament of Hezbollah.

The US treasury department said its Office of Foreign Assets Control was also designating individuals in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Oman who it claimed were raising funds and operating front companies to generate revenue for Hezbollah.

US President Donald Trump said in an apparent message to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyau that Washington expects a complete ceasefire on all fronts, “including Lebanon, Hezbollah, and Israel.”

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday that he had approved a deal with the United States to end the Middle East war despite having a "different view", without elaborating.

"In principle, I had a different view, but I issued my permission due to the commitment that the honourable (Iranian) president, as the chairman of the Supreme National Security Council, gave me on behalf of himself and other members to protect the rights of the Iranian nation and the Resistance Front," said Khamenei, who has not been seen in public, in message read on state television.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday that future talks with the United States would be held directly but that did not mean "accepting its views".

"It is obvious that the face-to-face negotiations that will be held in the future will not mean accepting the enemy's point of view," Khamenei said in a message read on state television, his first reaction to the Iran-US deal ending the war that broke out late February.

US Iran deal LIVE updates: US Central Command on Thursday said it has lifted its blockade on “all maritime traffic entering and exiting” Iranian ports.

“All U.S. military blockade enforcement efforts have ceased. Our great Naval Ships will remain in the general area to make sure that all aspects of the agreement are adhered to, obeyed and in full force and effect,” CENTCOM said in a post on X.

US Iran deal LIVE updates: Vice President JD Vance rebuked US critics in Israel against “attacking the only powerful ally” it has left. He lashed out at members of the Israeli government, warning them that “Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time.”

Vance said he plans to travel to Switzerland for talks on the Iran deal but he doesn’t know when that will happen. He had been expected to lead talks on implementing the agreement with Iran aimed at diluting its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and restarting oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

via AP