Topline
The U.S. has reached a peace deal with Iran, both President Donald Trump and Pakistani mediators said Sunday evening, with the president also announcing in a post on Truth Social an end to the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, saying “Let the oil flow!”
Key Facts
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country acted as an intermediary between the two sides, announced the deal in a post on social media earlier on Sunday evening, which is set to be signed next Friday in Switzerland.
The deal would declare an immediate end to the conflict on all fronts, Sharif said, including in Lebanon—where Israel struck Hezbollah targets in Beirut just hours earlier.
In Trump’s post on Truth Social, the president promised to remove the naval blockade of Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz, before declaring: “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi confirmed Iran planned to sign the deal next Friday, multiple outlets reported citing his statements to Iranian state-affiliated media.
Trump and Sharif offered no other immediate details about the contents of the deal, but both Reuters and the New York Times reported the agreement would give both sides another 60 days to address Iran’s nuclear program—something Trump has repeatedly insisted Iran must give up in order for a deal to proceed.
Big Number
$81.30 per barrel. That’s how much U.S. crude oil was trading for in the immediate aftermath of the announcement of the peace deal, with prices falling about 4.2% in the minutes after trading opened.
Contra
Earlier on Sunday, it appeared as if the Israeli strikes on Beirut could upend a possible peace deal. Iran has previously insisted the ceasefire deal with the U.S. must also apply to Israel’s ongoing war with Hezbollah, the Islamist militant group in Lebanon. Continued fighting there has threatened to shatter the fragile truce between the U.S. and Iran multiple times, and Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, condemned the most recent attack on Beirut again on Sunday, saying it showed “America either lacks the will or the ability to fulfill its obligations.” In an earlier post on Truth Social, Trump also appeared angry about the Israeli strikes in Lebanon. “This morning’s attack on Beirut should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran,” Trump wrote, calling the Hezbollah attack that prompted the strike “very small and meaningless.”
