Iran and the U.S. Make a Deal. What Now?
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The US and Iran sign a peace deal. We'll get the latest on the fate of Iran's nuclear program, what Israel makes of the deal, and how the agreement could turbocharge Tehran's oil revenues.
Iran's oil facilities haven't been damaged very, very dramatically. And also, Iran is a country that can actually bring back oil production fairly quickly.
It's Thursday, June 18th. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. President Trump is back in the U.S. following a surprise move to ink an agreement to end the Iran war over dinner last night at the G7 summit in France. Journal national security reporter Alex Ward has been reporting from the summit and is now in Switzerland, where negotiations are set to continue. Alex, what is the current situation? It seems like all of a sudden we went from, hey, we're getting a big signing on Friday and then smash cut to, well, the agreement's actually now been signed by President Trump and he's already back in Washington.
Is this thing now in effect?
Boy, what a surprise this was. Yes, the deal is in effect as of Wednesday. President Trump surprisingly signed the deal while having dinner in Versailles. And Iran says that their president has signed it as well. And so this deal is now operational. That kicks off 60 days of discussion over the nuclear file, right? Because when we talk about the Iran deal, I think we need to separate two things. We need to say... This memorandum of understanding is really an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. That is really what this is about. It does set up larger negotiations over the nuclear file. And that's what's going to be happening now that this deal has been signed this weekend. You're going to see Vice President J.D.
What recent deal did the U.S. and Iran sign?
Vance and the Iran envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. They all are expected to arrive in Lucerne to start those negotiations. And so the Iranians will be coming as well and some mediators from the countries of Pakistan and Qatar.
Starting with the Strait of Hormuz, are we seeing movement there? What should we be expecting in the next few hours and days?
We've already been seeing some movement, but this is going to be a long-term process. As much as President Trump said it'll be fully reopened by Friday, that's just not how commercial shipping works. There also is the small matter that there are mines in the strategic waterway through which about a fifth of the world's oil supply flows. So it's going to take a few weeks, at least perhaps more to get fully up and running. Now, let's also talk about the Iranian side of this equation. which is as part of this, as they call it, a memorandum of understanding. Basically, at the heart of it is a trade. Iran reopens the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. lifts the blockade and, crucially, allows Iran to sell oil again, right?
It is immediate upon the signing of the deal, which allows Iran to bring in revenue. So, in effect, the Trump administration has offered Iran the incentive of making money in order to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. And so that's where we are today.
Okay. And we would be expecting, I guess, Iranian oil export vessels to be passing through the Straits along with all those other vessels that have been stranded there. So that's something visual, frankly, that we're going to get pretty soon, it sounds like.
Yes. Now, again, the volume of it is unclear, right? If you're a shipping company, you're probably worried about the mines.
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