US and Iran deal to end war allows Tehran to sell oil and fuel – as it happened
Two months of final negotiations will begin immediately after the initial deal between the US and Iran is signed on Friday. Negotiations will continue for a 60-day window after the ceremony, officials told AFP, leading to a plan for the lifting of economic sanctions and decisions on the fate of Iran’s nuclear programme. A US-Iran deal aimed at ending the Middle East war will be signed at Switzerland’s mountainside Burgenstock resort on Friday, the Swiss foreign ministry confirmed to AFP. The site, located near Lucerne in central Switzerland, is difficult to access and therefore easily secured. It “was proposed by the Pakistani and Qatari mediators, as well as by the US and Iran”, Switzerland’s foreign ministry said. Trump said that he would send the deal with Iran to the US Congress for a review. “I like the idea, send it to Congress please,” he said at the start of a meeting with the UAE president Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on the sidelines of the G7 summit. “I mean who wouldn’t approve it.” Speaking at the G7, US president Donald Trump has said the strait of Hormuz will be open by Friday and that the full text of the peace deal will be released in a “formal setting”. Trump also said he expects the “second stage” of the deal “to go quickly”. The US will allow Iran to immediately start selling oil and fuel again as part of the deal to end the war, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. Iran can only sell oil if they keep to the terms of the deal, as US official told Reuters. It includes the free flow of navigation in the strait of Hormuz and not obtaining an nuclear weapon. An Iranian deputy foreign minister on Tuesday said the two-month US naval blockade on Iranian ports had been lifted ahead of the planned formal signing of a deal ending the war. “The lifting of the blockade was something we had emphasised from the outset. It has now begun, and the blockade has been lifted prior to the formal signing” scheduled for Friday, said Iranian deputy foreign minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi, according to the government’s website. John Thune, the US Senate majority leader, has reportedly asked the Trump administration for the text of the MOU with Iran. However, he says he has had no response so far, Punchbowl News’s Andrew Desiderio. Hezbollah believes Iran will not sign a nuclear deal with Washington unless Israel pulls its troops from southern Lebanon and told Reuters it understands that Tehran will push for Israel’s withdrawal in its next phase of talks with Washington. Hezbollah’s media office said such a withdrawal would be the result of, and not a precondition for, the next set of talks between Iran and the US, set to begin after the two formally sign their memorandum of understanding this coming Friday. The US must uphold every clause of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Iran and US, particularly when it comes to ending the war in Lebanon, Ebrahim Azizi, the head of the Iranian parliament’s national security commission, posted on X on Tuesday. “Iranian resilience forced a strategic pivot: the US came to the table on Iran’s terms,” Azizi wrote. “Now, Washington must prove its commitment by ending the war against Lebanon and upholding every clause of the MOU. Any breach will be met with a decisive, crushing response.” Israeli drone strikes targeted three vehicles in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least four people and wounding others, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported. Two people were killed in a double-tap strike, with a drone hitting a car in the village of Mayfadoun followed by a second strike after people had gathered at the scene. Iran’s Top Joint Military Command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said in a statement that Israel should expect a hard response from the Iranian armed forces if it did not stop its attacks on southern Lebanon, days after Tehran and Washington announced a MoU to end the regional war. Qatar, a key mediator between the US and Iran, said it believed the framework peace agreement could deliver security to the Middle East. “We are cautiously optimistic that the signing of the memorandum of understanding will lead to the next phase of regional security through the talks that will take place on the nuclear programme and on other issues,” foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari told reporters in Doha, as he praised Pakistan’s mediation efforts.







