Washington and Tehran have agreed to halt fresh hostilities and allow free movement of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, a US official said Sunday, as both sides prepare to resume negotiations toward a lasting resolution of the Middle East conflict.
The agreement came after a new round of tit-for-tat strikes threatened to unravel a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire that has been in place since April. US Central Command said it struck 10 Iranian military targets in response to what it described as continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping. Iran said it retaliated with strikes on US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain — attacks both Gulf states condemned.
“Technical talks are slated to continue on all areas of the MOU,” a US official told AFP, referring to the memorandum of understanding between the two countries. “Both sides will stand down for now and vessels can move freely” in and around the strait.
Iran did not immediately respond to the US statement. Reports that talks would resume Tuesday in Qatar were neither confirmed nor denied by Washington.
At the heart of the dispute is control of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas pass in peacetime. Iran has insisted on managing traffic through the waterway — leverage it gained during the war and appears determined to keep. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned Sunday that any attempt by ships to bypass Tehran’s preferred route would “increase tensions” in the region.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said vessels violating their traffic measures would face stricter consequences, while a top adviser to Supreme Leader Khamenei wrote that as long as Iran managed the strait, Washington’s “hegemonic dreams in the region will not be realised.”
Analysts said more flashpoints were likely. “A drawn-out negotiation accompanied by controlled pressure in the strait can work to Iran’s advantage,” said HA Hellyer of the Royal United Services Institute.
The exchanges have so far been largely without casualties, though Qatar’s interior ministry confirmed one of its citizens was killed by shrapnel from military operations in the area.
On a separate front, the Israeli military destroyed an extensive tunnel in southern Lebanon on Sunday, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz saying the structure — more than 200 metres long and 25 metres deep — contained hundreds of weapons and launch shafts targeting Israel. Hezbollah said the strikes were a “blatant violation” of an existing ceasefire and reserved the right to respond.
Lebanon was drawn into the broader conflict in early March when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in solidarity with Iran, prompting Israeli airstrikes and a ground offensive. Tehran has maintained that any regional peace deal must include Lebanon.
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