Shehbaz Sharif said strait of hormuz news would reopen immediately under a memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran, calling the outcome a “peaceful resolution.” The Pakistan prime minister, who served as mediator for the deal, tied the reopening to a wider process that now puts 60 days of negotiations in motion.
The memorandum says Iran will reopen the Strait of Hormuz in return for waivers for US sanctions on crude oil exports, petroleum products and associated banking services. Iran and the United States will then enter negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program and stock of highly enriched uranium, giving the agreement an immediate shipping consequence and a separate diplomatic track.
France Welcomes Hormuz Reopening
G7 leaders welcomed the deal in France and called it a historic opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring any nuclear weapon. Emmanuel Macron said the reopening would put a stop to a “situation of great instability that had terrible consequences for our economies,” a direct sign that European governments are treating the route’s return to service as an energy issue as well as a diplomatic one.
European leaders expressed relief that the strait of Hormuz would reopen and allow the flow of oil to resume. For economies exposed to disruption in the shipping lane, the practical change is immediate: cargoes linked to crude oil exports can move again under the terms described in the memorandum, while negotiations continue over the nuclear file.
Israel Questions Iran’s Intentions
In Israel, the agreement was greeted with less optimism. Mark Regev questioned how seriously Iran would approach negotiations after America removed economic and military pressure, and he said, “The straits are open and the Iranians can start exporting their oil, and therefore they get money coming in, you’ve taken away the economic pressure.”
Yair Lapid was even blunter, saying, “Netanyahu promised us a historic victory – and we got a crisis with the Americans, Hormuz open to the Iranians, money for the Revolutionary Guards, ballistic missiles aimed at Israel, and Israel waiting in the corridor like a scolded child.” The criticism points to the deal’s sharpest friction point: the same memorandum that opens the waterway also loosens sanctions pressure on Iran before the talks over highly enriched uranium begin.
On Wednesday, David Horovitz wrote that the US-Israel war on Iran was lost due to “US presidential weakness” among other issues, and Netanyahu’s Likud party has reportedly scrapped plans to highlight the prime minister’s close ties with Trump in its upcoming election campaign. Before October, Israel is set to hold elections, keeping the agreement in the center of a domestic argument over whether the memorandum strengthens diplomacy or hands Iran room to maneuver.
The next confirmed step is the start of the 60 days of negotiations between Iran and the United States. Those talks will decide whether the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz becomes a durable arrangement or just the opening move in a broader dispute over Iran’s nuclear program and sanctions relief.
