WASHINGTON — In a significant diplomatic move, President Donald Trump has signed a pivotal agreement with Iran aimed at reducing tensions and addressing nuclear concerns. The agreement, finalized on Wednesday, requires Tehran to dilute its highly enriched uranium stockpile. In exchange, the U.S. will lift certain sanctions, allowing Iran to freely sell its oil, a substantial concession from Washington. This move was confirmed by both nations involved.
The preliminary deal, designed to bring an end to ongoing hostilities, takes effect immediately following the signatures from both countries’ leaders. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who played a key role in brokering the agreement, announced the news via social media.
Under the terms of the agreement, there is a commitment to permanently cease hostilities, and a 60-day window has been established for further negotiations regarding Iran’s nuclear ambitions. However, President Trump has indicated that military actions could resume if necessary. The agreement is seen as providing several immediate advantages to Iran without demanding significant concessions in return.
Details of the agreement have been surrounded by secrecy and confusion. U.S. officials were initially reluctant to reveal the specifics, even after confirming that the agreement had been digitally signed by President Trump and Vice President JD Vance over the weekend. President Trump later signed a physical copy during a dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron at the historic Versailles Palace, renowned for hosting numerous significant diplomatic agreements.
Originally, the White House had scheduled an official signing ceremony in Switzerland for Friday. However, due to conflicting reports from the U.S., Iran, and Pakistan, the event’s status remains unclear.
“It’s signed,” Trump said as he left the dinner at Versailles, which followed his trip to the Group of Seven summit in France.
In a video posted online by a White House aide, Trump was seen seated at a table next to Macron signing a paper copy of the agreement. Trump then handed the document and pen to Secretary of State Marco Rubio as people in the room applauded.
“This was not easy,” Trump said right before he signed it, according to a video posted to social media by Macron.
In Tehran, a stone-faced President Masoud Pezeshkian signed the deal on behalf of Iran, according to the state-run IRNA news agency, which posted an image of him holding up the deal with his signature and Trump’s.
Text of the agreement still has not been formally released by the Americans. U.S. officials dictated draft language to journalists after days of secrecy, speaking on condition of anonymity. Iranian state media has released text that largely tracked what the U.S. put out.
The deal will stop the fighting and start more negotiations
Much of the agreement would restore the status quo before the war, including ending hostilities, restarting talks between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program, and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial passage for the world’s oil and natural gas whose closure created a historic energy crisis.
The agreement opens the strait without tolls for two months, but does not preclude fees in the future, according to the drafts from both countries.
In return, the U.S. will move to waive, but not eliminate, some wide-ranging sanctions against Iran.
The deal also affirms a commitment to Lebanon’s territorial integrity in the face of Israel’s invasion against the Hezbollah militant group. That is one of the most delicate parts of the agreement because Israel has maintained it will continue to defend itself and to occupy vast swaths of Lebanon. Iran has said Israel must withdraw under the deal, a condition Israel has already rejected.
The U.S. and Israel went to war Feb. 28 in part to prevent Iran from ever getting a nuclear weapon. Trump has cited various goals for the war, including at times vowing it would end Iran’s nuclear and missile programs and its support for Hezbollah and other proxy groups. He also suggested it could lead to toppling the Iranian government.
The interim deal falls short of all those goals, but Trump hailed it as “very strong.”
He also opened the door to abandoning it: “It’s a memorandum of understanding, and if I don’t like it, we’ll go back to shooting at them, dropping bombs.”
The U.S. agreement to immediately allow Iran to sell its oil freely and the offer to eventually lift all sanctions are major concessions that go beyond the terms of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Trump withdrew America from that Obama-era pact in his first term, declaring it the “worst deal ever.”
Iran maintains its nuclear program is peaceful, though it is the only country to enrich uranium to 60% purity without a weapons program, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The interim deal calls for the IAEA to monitor the “downblending” of that uranium in Iran, without elaborating.
The accord likely will draw intense opposition in Washington, and it appears to be a major setback for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has come under criticism at home from the media, his opponents and even some allies as details emerge.
Under the Obama-era nuclear agreement with Iran that Trump pulled out of, Iran also agreed to restrictions on its nuclear program and promised never to build an atomic weapon in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
Major concessions have been offered to Iran
Some concessions to Iran – including the full lifting of sanctions and the release of frozen assets – would happen gradually and be linked to progress in the nuclear talks, according to Pakistani officials. They outlined some of the deal’s major points on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
But in the meantime, the U.S. will issue waivers to sanctions that allow Iran to sell oil freely.
The Islamic Republic’s oil export revenues in 2024 were more than $46 billion. Its main buyer of oil, China, is believed to have bought at below-market prices because of its willingness to ignore the sanctions.
Granting oil waivers at the start of the 60-day talks strips the U.S. of a major point of leverage. Only at the conclusion of the overall deal in 2015 were sanctions on Iran’s oil lifted.
The interim deal also opens the door to ending all sanctions Iran faces from the U.S. and at the U.N. – including those over Tehran’s weapons programs and human rights abuses – though it says the schedule for that will be worked out later. Still, that far surpasses the 2015 deal, which only lifted some sanctions in exchange for Iran drastically reducing its enrichment and stockpile of uranium.
The accord would also provide Iran with at least $300 billion to rebuild – an extraordinary figure and another major benefit for Iran. The money also appears dependent on the progress of further negotiations.
Vance has said Gulf Arab nations would invest that amount. But Gulf countries would likely be reluctant to help Iran after Iranian attacks in the war destroyed oil facilities and other sites in their territory.
Trump reiterated Wednesday that the U.S. would not contribute and said it was up to other countries if they wanted to invest.
The pact would provide relief to the global economy
The initial deal provides a major win for the global economy – the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas once passed before the war began. Since then, Iranian attacks on shipping and the threat to vessels effectively shut the strait.
The strait’s closure drove up energy prices around the world and made many basics, including food, more expensive. Iran let through some vessels that paid tolls, something never done before in the strait, which has long been considered an international waterway. The U.S. later provided military support to get other tankers out, but traffic was nowhere near levels before the war.
The deal also says the U.S. will lift a blockade imposed on Iranian ports and that the strait will return to its prewar traffic levels in 30 days, while acknowledging Iranian mines may need to be destroyed.
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