World leaders on Monday cautiously welcomed a new cease-fire deal and diplomatic path to ending the U.S. war with Iran, as oil prices tumbled, fighting in Lebanon appeared to ease and Iranians expressed wary relief that a conflict that has killed thousands could soon end.
No text of the agreement was published by either side, and American and Iranian officials have made conflicting statements about what it contains. But it was clear that its initial phase aimed to end military attacks and allow ships to once again sail freely through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital conduit for the world’s energy supplies that Iran effectively shut down after the war began.
Since the United States and Israel started strikes in Iran on Feb. 28, the war has not produced the results that President Trump vowed to achieve: destroying Tehran’s military capabilities, eliminating its regional proxies, abolishing its nuclear ambitions and toppling its theocratic leadership.
But returning the strait to its prewar status, when it was open to commercial shipping, could begin the process of lowering high gas prices in the United States that have become a political liability for Mr. Trump and Republicans heading into the midterm elections. Experts cautioned that it could take months for gas prices to fall, however. Rebuilding Iran’s battered economy could be a similarly long process.
Word of the deal emerged as Mr. Trump traveled to France for a Group of 7 summit with other global leaders. President Emmanuel Macron of France, seated on Monday next to the American leader before the meeting in Évian-les-Bains, called the agreement “a very important step toward peace” and a boost for the global economy. Persian Gulf nations were optimistic that Iranian attacks on their territories would end. Oman’s foreign minister, Badr al-Busaidi, called the deal a “timely win for diplomacy and common sense.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said his country would not be constrained by the agreement as it fought Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia in Lebanon. Israel’s “struggle has not ended,” he said at a news conference on Monday.
Mr. Trump said the text of the agreement would be made public “sometime after Friday,” when American and Iranian leaders are expected to formally sign the deal in Geneva. Vice President JD Vance will attend the ceremony, along with Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, according to U.S. officials.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance have both electronically signed a framework agreement along with the speaker of Iran’s Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led that country’s negotiating team, according to a senior U.S. official. Mr. Vance confirmed that the signing happened on Sunday.
U.S. and Iranian officials have said the deal includes a 60-day cease-fire to pave the way for negotiations toward a final peace agreement. The deal could still come apart, and the negotiations lying ahead come are likely to be complex.
The talks are expected to grapple with two contentious issues that neither side has shown much willingness to compromise about: easing American economic sanctions on Iran and limiting Tehran’s nuclear program.
In a CNBC interview on Monday, Mr. Vance, who will lead the next phase of negotiations, acknowledged that the Trump administration still had “very important details to figure out,” including how to dispose of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
“We have the diplomatic, economic and military leverage, but we also are extending an open hand to the Iranians and saying, ‘If you guys negotiate in good faith and you make that long-term commitment not to develop nuclear weapons, then we are going to make sure that your country is successful,’” he said.
Mr. Trump said in France on Monday that the deal would prevent the Iranians from ever developing a nuclear weapon, something they have previously promised not to do. “They fully agree to that, with strong policing powers,” he said.
U.S. officials, speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity, said the Trump administration was prepared to release frozen Iranian funds if Tehran reached certain milestones in the agreement. About $24 billion in Iranian assets are frozen abroad.
The U.S. officials added that they were also prepared to lift economic sanctions on Iran and would make “small gestures of that in the beginning” if Iran kept its commitments.
Iranian officials said they expected the United States to unfreeze assets and lift sanctions in the next phase of negotiations, on Iran’s nuclear program.
“We have now completed half of the journey, and we must capitalize on its results in a way that serves the country’s interests,” Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Monday, according to the state broadcaster, IRIB. “The other half still remains, and it will be the more difficult part.”
Hanging over the negotiations will be “a history of broken promises, noncompliance and even the tearing up of agreements,” Mr. Araghchi added, referring to Mr. Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal. “We are planning the negotiation process and the implementation of the agreement on the basis of mistrust, past breaches of commitments and previous experiences.”
In interviews and social media chat groups, Iranians expressed a range of emotions about the agreement. Many had lost their jobs as the Iranian economy cratered during the war. They had also lost hope that the Iranian government would be driven from power.
“So what was the point of this war? What did it bring us exactly?” Roshanak, a resident of Tehran, said by telephone. She asked to be identified only by her first name for fear of retribution. Despite the uncertainty, she said, “Honestly, we are very happy it’s over.”
It was unclear what the deal would mean for Lebanon, where the Israeli military has been attacking Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group. Iran and Pakistan, a mediator in the negotiations, said the agreement called for an immediate end to military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.
Israel and Hezbollah appeared to scale back their fighting in southern Lebanon on Monday. In a statement, Hezbollah congratulated Iran for a “major achievement,” securing a “comprehensive cease-fire on all fronts, including Lebanon.”
But Mr. Netanyahu said the Israeli military would remain in Lebanon for “as long as it is required.” Defending the war with Iran, he said it had managed to remove Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which posed an existential threat to Israel.
More than 1.1 million people have been forced from their homes by the fighting in Lebanon, according to the United Nations. Lebanese officials and Hezbollah warned families displaced from the south not to return yet.
“Things aren’t stable yet,” said Hassan Rahal, who has been living in an apartment in Beirut after fleeing his home in the southern Lebanese town of Burj Rahal. “I don’t know yet if this is a real cease-fire.”
U.S. officials have said that as part of the agreement with Iran, the American military will end its blockade on ships entering and leaving Iranian ports. Yet, economic shock waves from the war will keep rippling through the global economy for months, analysts say.
Mr. Trump has said the deal calls for the strait to be “permanently toll-free,” as it was before the war. But the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Esmail Baghaei, said on Monday that ships passing through the strait could be charged fees “in exchange for the services that are provided.”
Mr. Trump said the strait would be open by Friday, but a senior U.S. official told reporters that ship traffic there would not return to normal for two more weeks.
Shipping companies said that they were taking a cautious approach before navigating the strait, after attacks on ships there killed civilian sailors and left thousands of mariners stranded in the region. And there remains a threat from naval mines, though President Trump played that down on Monday, noting that ships have already transited the strait.
“There are a lot of questions that need to be clarified,” said S.V. Anchan, the chairman of Safesea Group, a shipping company based in Piscataway, N.J., that has two vessels in the Persian Gulf, both of which were attacked during the war. One was so badly damaged that it was no longer operating and the other was waiting to leave the gulf.
“We want to hear from the Iranians that they will not attack us,” Mr. Anchan said.
Reporting was contributed by Sanam Mahoozi, Adam Rasgon, Johnatan Reiss, Christina Goldbaum, Hwaida Saad, Jenny Gross, Peter Eavis and Michael Levenson.
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