Washington/Islamabad, June 18 (SANA) The United States and Iran have signed a memorandum of understanding intended to end the current conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. officials said on Thursday, describing the agreement as having already entered into force.
The agreement was signed remotely after diplomatic consultations accelerated its timetable, according to U.S. officials cited by Axios.
President Donald Trump signed the memorandum while attending a dinner in France with French President Emmanuel Macron, the report said. The signing had originally been scheduled to take place in Switzerland on Friday.
A diplomat from a mediating country and a source familiar with the discussions told Axios that negotiations in recent days focused on moving up the signing date and establishing implementation mechanisms that would allow shipping through the Strait of Hormuz to resume sooner than planned.
Despite the signing, a meeting between U.S. and Iranian delegations remains scheduled for Friday in Switzerland. The talks are expected to be led by U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and Iran’s Parliament Speaker and will focus on launching a new round of negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program, according to the sources.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in the French city of Évian, Trump said the memorandum should not be viewed as a final settlement.
According to Agence France-Presse, Trump warned that Washington could resume military strikes if future negotiations fail to produce what he described as satisfactory results.
Separately, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the memorandum includes provisions to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and lift U.S. restrictions on Iranian ports.
In a post on X, Sharif said the agreement would take effect immediately, adding that Iran would reopen the strategic waterway without delay while the United States would lift maritime restrictions.
Sharif said Switzerland would host a ceremony on Friday marking the agreement, coinciding with the start of technical discussions between U.S. and Iranian officials.
Neither Washington nor Tehran immediately released the full text of the memorandum, and details of its implementation were not independently verified.
The Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf to global shipping routes, is one of the world’s most important energy transit corridors, carrying a significant share of global oil and liquefied natural gas exports.
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