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President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from that accord in his first term, setting the stage for the tensions that culminated in the current war, which has killed thousands across the Middle East, including the top leaders of Iran\u2019s theocracy, and raised the prices of fuel, food and other basic goods far beyond the region.<\/p>\n
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The Strait of Hormuz won’t open until the deal is signed<\/p>\n
Trump, who faced pressure to end the war ahead of congressional midterm elections in November, hailed the agreement on social media, saying he had authorized the Strait of Hormuz to open and the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports to end. He later said the strait wouldn\u2019t open until Friday.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, confirmed the agreement on state television but said Iran would not start implementing it until it was signed.<\/p>\n
Early in the war, Iranian attacks on ships brought traffic in the crucial waterway \u2014 through which a fifth of the world\u2019s oil and natural gas passed before the conflict \u2014 to a near standstill. Trump implemented a blockade in response.<\/p>\n
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The closure of the strait, Iranian attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure and the blockade sent fuel prices skyrocketing, and the knock-on effects rippled through the world economy. Energy experts say it will likely take months before energy companies can resume operations to the point of meeting the world\u2019s demand.<\/p>\n
Iranian and U.S. officials will hold preparatory meetings in Doha, Qatar, this week before the signing, said a diplomat with direct knowledge of the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door meetings.<\/p>\n
Israel says it won’t withdraw from Lebanon<\/p>\n
The success of the deal rests at least partially on what happens between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel\u2019s bombing of Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs on Sunday nearly derailed the negotiations, and a previous attack led Iran to fire on Israel and Israel to fire back.<\/p>\n
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Defense Minister Israel Katz, meanwhile, said Israel plans to stay \u201cindefinitely\u201d in land it holds in Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip. Over the past 2 1\/2 years, Israel has taken control of areas in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria amounting to 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of territory.<\/p>\n
Katz also threatened that if Iran attacks Israel over its strikes in Lebanon, Israel will strike Iran with \u201cgreat force.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to questions about where Israel stands on the deal, David Mencer, a spokesman in Netanyahu\u2019s office, told The Associated Press that Israel and the U.S. remain fully aligned on preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. But he added that Israel will not tolerate attacks from Hezbollah on its territory and will continue to act against those who seek to harm its citizens.<\/p>\n
In a sign of the tenuousness of the deal, the Lebanese army called on residents not to rush to return to border villages, saying they should follow military instructions because of the danger of \u201cIsraeli violations and aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In its first public statement after the deal’s announcement, Hezbollah credited Iran with a \u201cmajor achievement\u201d in reaching the agreement, which it said could lead to \u201cthe full liberation of our land, the return of our prisoners to their homeland and families,” and reconstruction of war-devastated areas.<\/p>\n
The militant group added that \u201cthere will be no return to the situation that existed before March 2,\u201d referring to the 15 months leading up to its latest war with Israel, when a ceasefire was officially in place but Israel continued to carry out regular strikes in Lebanon that it said aimed to stop Hezbollah from rebuilding.<\/p>\n
The group took another swipe at the Lebanese government\u2019s decision to enter into U.S.-mediated direct negotiations with Israel, which yielded several ceasefire announcements that were not implemented on the ground, and called for the government to \u201cmove away from illusions and losing bets.\u201d<\/p>\n
World leaders welcome the deal<\/p>\n
Despite the uncertainties, world leaders from Europe to China welcomed the agreement. French President Emmanuel Macron, who is hosting Trump and other world leaders at a Group of Seven summit this week, said France and other Western partners are \u201cready to take action very quickly\u201d to help restore normal shipping traffic in the strait once the U.S. and Iran agree to such a mission.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe already have forces in the area,\u201d including France\u2019s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, Macron said in an interview Monday on French television TF1.<\/p>\n
Others have expressed caution that the deal remains tentative. Luxembourg\u2019s foreign minister, Xavier Bettel, noted: \u201cIt\u2019s a long time till Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Will Weissert in Washington, Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Abby Sewell in Beirut, Najib Jobain in Doha, Qatar, Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Sylvie Corbet in Evian-les-Bains, France, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman waves an Iranian flags as she chants slogans against Iran and U.S. talks at the Islamic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[41,35359,45043,38,1143,34,50602,37,93,3284,3285,12510,3282,12511,3281,3283,12512,3286,101,69,10656],"class_list":["post-161087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tehran","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-charles-de-gaulle","tag-david-mencer","tag-donald-trump","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-iran","tag-iran-us-war-oil-june-15-2026","tag-israel","tag-lebanon","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30597-ap-business-news-f-wire","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-31995-ap-online-general-financial-business-news","tag-product-31998-ap-online-national-news","tag-product-32505-ap-online-middle-east-news","tag-product-32509-ap-online-religion-columns","tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-tehran","tag-xavier-bettel"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}