The US and Iran said they reached an interim peace agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and move further toward ending a war that’s killed thousands of people across the Middle East.
Vice President JD Vance said a 60-day preliminary ceasefire extension between Iran and the United States was signed digitally ahead of in-person meetings to sign the deal in Europe later this week. “We already signed the deal digitally yesterday,” Vance told ABC’s Good Morning America on Monday about the memorandum of understanding. “And there’s been […]
Crude oil prices fell to a three-month low Monday after President Donald Trump announced that the United States and Iran had reached a deal, which resumed tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Benchmark crude fell nearly 5% to around $83 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude dropped below $81 per barrel for […]
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's jobs may be at stake if they continue to oppose President Donald Trump's Iran deal, a senior White House official warned.The threat emerged in a report published Sunday by the right-leaning Israeli daily Israel Hayom, which detailed a bitter internal White House battle over the emerging memorandum of understanding with Tehran."The debate has been settled. Those who oppose it may pay a personal price," a senior US official told the outlet.According to the report, Vice President JD Vance, envoy Steve Witkoff, and Trump envoy Jared Kushner have driven the push for a deal, arguing the Iranian regime is unlikely to collapse soon and that Gulf states — particularly Qatar — have pressed hard for an agreement.Rubio and Hegseth argued the opposite: that Iran is buckling under economic pressure and Washington should tighten the screws, not ease them. The two men had been the public faces of that harder line — touting "Project Freedom," a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by force, only for Trump to shelve it hours after they publicly praised it.Trump has since sided firmly with the deal camp. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly warned that lifting sanctions would be nearly impossible to reverse, but the Israel Hayom report said his objections changed the terms only slightly."This is an American game being managed with utter foolishness…Trump is acting badly and against the American interest, not only the Israeli one," Oded Ailam, a former senior Mossad official, told Israel Hayom.Sanctions on Iranian oil sales are expected to be lifted — at least in part — after the Strait of Hormuz fully reopens, according to the report.
The U.S. and Iran have moved to the next stage of the peace process. Hawks on all sides are terrified that it will succeed.
A military expert shredded President Donald Trump's agreement to end his war with Iran as nothing short of capitulation.The 80-year-old president claims to have reached an agreement confirmed by Iranian officials, but retired U.S. Naval War College professor Tom Nichols published an article for The Atlantic analyzing the details that have been reported so far."The details of the agreement remain unconfirmed, but the president, of course, is eager to spin the outcome as a victory," Nichols wrote. "Trump was in a hurry to sign the deal on his birthday; the Iranians, who now seem to be in charge of this whole business, instead said they will send someone to a meeting in Switzerland on Friday. But even before we have the details, it is clear that Trump has failed to achieve every one of the goals he put forward for this war of choice, and now he is determined to sign, seal, and deliver America’s capitulation as quickly as possible."Nichols wasn't so sure the war had ended in defeat for the U.S., saying Iran had taken significant damage from the military operation, but he said the regime remained intact and in control of the Strait of Hormuz – which he said were Tehran's key strategic aims."Indeed, the United States has perhaps done worse than gaining nothing," Nichols wrote. "Iran, while temporarily weakened, is now an even more powerful political actor: The regime in Tehran stood up to a massive U.S. onslaught, survived, and then inflicted pain on various states in the Gulf as punishment for going along with Trump’s war."The Strait of Hormuz will reopen when the agreement is signed, but Nichols said Iran held a stronger hold over the crucial waterway than before Trump launched the attack, and he said the president had agreed to give the regime $24 billion over the next two months and another $300 billion for reconstruction."The war leaves Iran battered, but more powerful and with more cash at its disposal, while it leaves America weaker, with important stocks of weapons depleted, and with its consumers paying the price for the war at the gas pump," Nichols wrote."Trump began this war by promising the Iranian people that they would be able to seize their government from the theocratic tyrants who oppress them, and he repeatedly said he would settle for nothing less than 'unconditional surrender,'" Nichols concluded. "Had Trump toppled the regime in Tehran, he would have had the thanks of most of the world — and congratulations from even his most dedicated critics. Instead, the United States has been defeated."
Vice President JD Vance denied that Iran will receive "billions of dollars of assets" as part of a the U.S.-Iran deal that was announced Sunday and is set to be signed later this week.
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Markets welcome US-Iran peace deal but prices may stay high as buyers race to refill depleted emergency crude stockpilesOil prices hit three-month low and markets rallyBusiness live – latest updatesAfter more than 100 days of the greatest recorded disruption to the world’s energy supplies, the global oil and gas markets have breathed a sigh of relief.Hours after Donald Trump confirmed that a US-Iran peace deal would lead to the reopening of the strait of Hormuz to tankers carrying millions of barrels of oil and gas, the price of Brent crude tumbled to lows of $83 a barrel. Wholesale gas prices fell about 6%. Continue reading...