60-day toll-free opening agreed upon in US-Iran peace deal
Washington: American officials said that the Strait of Hormuz will be opened free of charge for 60 days as part of the yet-to-be-announced peace agreement between the United States and Iran, but its long-term operation will be subject to negotiations.
The issue is one of many unresolved issues that will need to be worked out over the next two months after President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf signed an agreement to end the conflict electronically on Sunday (US time).
The agreement is expected to be signed in person in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday, with both Vance and Ghalibaf in attendance. The text was kept secret, but American officials said it would be made public before or after it was signed.
Vance, who is leading negotiations on the American side, moved to clarify some aspects of the deal on Monday as he combats “propaganda” from Iran’s conservatives published by state-run media.
Specifically, he said it was not true that Iran would immediately receive $24 billion ($34 billion) of its frozen assets or that American taxpayers would not donate cash to help rebuild the country.
“Iran is not receiving a dime unless it fulfills its obligations,” Vance told ABC. Good Morning America. “The money we’re talking about is basically sanctions relief. Not a single American dollar will go to Iran.”
Vance said that although a large investment fund from the Gulf countries was foreseen in the agreement, it was not true that Iran would receive 300 billion dollars in compensation.
But he acknowledged that there are questions about the long-term functioning of the Strait of Hormuz, the main shipping route connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, through which more than a fifth of the world’s oil supply usually transits.
“Our expectation is that the strait will be opened free of charge in the long term. We will reach such a conclusion in these technical negotiations,” Vance told CNBC television. “There are very important details to understand.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s Fars news agency, citing the press conference held by foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei on Monday, reported that Iran and Oman plan to impose a service fee in the strait after the 60-day period.
In a conference call with journalists, senior US officials said the long-term future of the strait would be determined after broader talks that would include regional partners.
“The agreement is clear: The Strait will remain open and free for sixty days,” a senior US official said. “Our expectation is that this principle will remain part of any final agreement.”
Another senior official said: “As far as the final situation is concerned, there will be a regional dialogue on what will happen; there are no fees or charges for the duration of the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding.
“The aim here is to create a mechanism that will make it impossible to close it again and clearly protect all the different interests in the region.”
Both officials noted that traffic in the Bosphorus has already increased. One person said they expected the number of ships sailing through the causeway to immediately increase to 40 or 50 a day and be “fully open” by Friday.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian described the memorandum of understanding as an important step towards stopping the war and starting negotiations, stating that a final agreement “has not yet taken shape.” He said that in X the country was ready for all options and had learned “not to submit to humiliation”.
Trump, who left Washington immediately after hosting a UFC event at the White House and headed to the G7 meeting in France, told reporters at Evian that it was unlikely he would stay in Europe to sign the deal in person.
He promised that the text of the MoU would be made public “very soon”, but noted that this might not happen until after Friday’s ceremony. “I want it to be published because it is a very powerful document,” Trump said.
Senior officials on the conference call said the text would show that the United States is ready to release frozen Iranian assets and ease sanctions, and that some “small gestures” would be provided in advance if Iran does the same.
They also described how American negotiators alienated Oman during the negotiations and excluded them from the process; one person described Omani intermediaries as “very hypocritical” and acting on behalf of Iran.
Trump at one point threatened to bomb Oman if it attempted to impose tolls in or around the Strait of Hormuz.
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political correspondent in Canberra.Connect with: X or email.
