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Tehran: Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said early Monday the US naval blockade would be lifted from tonight and announced a permanent halt to military operations across all fronts, signalling a major de-escalation in regional tensions.
Gharibabadi said Iran and the United States will sign the finalised draft of a peace memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Switzerland on June 19, Xinhua news agency reported quoting Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Tasnim also cited a source as saying that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen following the signing ceremony in Switzerland.
Meanwhile, Iran’s state-run IRIB TV, also citing Gharibabadi, said Iran’s entry into a 60-day period of negotiations with the United States on its nuclear program and the removal of sanctions will hinge on the US fulfillment of its preliminary commitments, which will be verified by Tehran from now until the signing ceremony.
Earlier in the day, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced on social media platform X that the United States and Iran had reached a peace agreement following intensive negotiations.
Sharif said that both sides had declared the “immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” and that mediators will facilitate a series of meetings this week aimed at preparing for the implementation of the agreement.
Minutes later, US President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social that the US-Iran peace deal “is now complete” and he had authorised the toll-free opening of the Strait of Hormuz and the immediate removal of the US naval blockade against Iranian ports.
However, Israel’s Ma’ariv news site, citing Israel sources, reported early Monday that in a phone call between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump, Netanyahu made it clear that Israel “does not consider itself committed to the Lebanese clause in the US-Iran agreement.”
The reaching of the MoU came as somewhat of a surprise, as Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) warned Sunday evening of an imminent response to an earlier Israeli strike on Lebanon’s capital Beirut.
“Lebanon is our lifeblood, and any violation of Iran’s red lines will not be tolerated,” Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of the SNSC, was quoted by IRIB TV as saying.
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–IANS
