Live Updates: Iran says deal with U.S. requires Israeli forces to leave Lebanon

A senior Iranian diplomat said Tuesday that the two-month U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and vessels had been lifted ahead of the planned formal signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two countries set to take place Friday.

"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," said Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi, according to the Iranian government's website.

President Trump said on his Truth Social platform Sunday that he was authorizing "the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade," but the Joint Maritime Information Center, a multinational naval operation that includes the U.S. military, said Monday that the blockade would remain in place until Friday, "pending execution" of the ceasefire.

CBS/AFP

Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi and his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi spoke by phone on Tuesday and reaffirmed their shared "commitment to international law regarding the safe and free passage of maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz," according to Oman's state news agency. 

The two top diplomats expressed hope that the coming period would see "serious and sustained efforts by all parties to support an effective and constructive political and diplomatic process aimed at preserving regional security and stability."

Iran has said for weeks that it is working with Oman — as the two states with coastlines in the Strait of Hormuz — to create a new system to manage commercial shipping traffic through the vital waterway.

President Trump told The New York Times in an interview published Sunday that the U.S. agreement with Iran would ensure the strait was "permanently toll-free."

Iran says vessels have been — and may again be after a 60-day negotiation period with the U.S. set to begin with Friday's planned signing of the two nations' memorandum of understanding — charged "fees" to transit the strait.

Before the U.S. and Israel launched their joint war with Iran on Feb. 28, the strait had long been free and open to all traffic as an international waterway. 

A U.S.-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 U.S. and Iran," Switzerland's foreign ministry said.

Oil prices are sinking again Tuesday and pulled back to $80 per barrel for the first time since early March, while the U.S. stock market drifts near its all-time high.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude fell 3.2% as optimism continues following the tentative deal reached between the United States and Iran that will hopefully reopen the Strait of Hormuz at the end of the week and get the global flow of oil going again. It was at $80.50 after earlier dropping as low as $79.61.

Significant hurdles remain in the negotiations, including what to do with Iran's nuclear program. But the hope on Wall Street is that this agreement will mean a long-term fix to a conflict that has worsened inflation  around the world. The price of Brent has come down sharply from its $100-plus level of a few weeks ago, though it could still take months for the energy industry to get back to full speed.

Speaking to reporters at the G7, President Trump said he'd "like" to send the memorandum of understanding with Iran to Congress for approval, but he didn't commit to doing so.

"I mean, who wouldn't approve it?" he said.

The U.S.-Iran agreement is merely a framework for negotiations on a wider deal to end the war and lay out parameters for Iran's contentious nuclear program, which American and Iranian delegations are expected to haggle over for a 60-day period once the memorandum is signed. 

President Trump said Tuesday that he would hold a news conference with the media when he releases the text of the U.S. memorandum of understanding with Iran "in a couple of days," to go over it "word by word." 

Mr. Trump said he hasn't yet released the text of the agreement "because I'd like to get a formal setting first before we do it." 

On Monday, the president said he might not release the text of the deal before the signing ceremony on Friday. 

"I will actually, I'll not only release it, I'll probably have a press conference and read it to you word by word so that the press covers it accurately," he said. "Because it's a, it's a very important document and - unlike Obama, who could have destroyed the Middle East with the horrible JCPOA, it is the worst agreement. That was a road to a nuclear weapon - Mine is a wall against a nuclear weapon."

President Trump said the next phase of negotiations with Iran could take longer or shorter than the 60 days agreed to in the memorandum of understanding set to be signed Friday.

Speaking to reporters at a G7 meeting in France, Mr. Trump said the process "could go faster, could take longer, too. But it could go faster." 

Under the U.S.-Iran agreement, the official signing ceremony on Friday will begin a 60-day period for the two sides to negotiate further critical details, such as the future of Iran's uranium enrichment program.

The president also said "good things are happening" in the Strait of Hormuz. 

"The ships are starting to move now, we're going to have it fully opened by Friday," he said. "The ships are starting to move nicely, oil is starting to go, and the prices are coming down rapidly. Stock market is going up rapidly, a lot of good things are happening."

Tracking data has shown a handful of tankers transiting the strait over the last couple days - including an Iranian ship under U.S. sanctions - but major shipping companies have said they are yet to see a level of detail about the U.S.-Iran deal that would make them comfortable resuming regular operations through the waterway.

Iran's state broadcaster reported Tuesday that the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and vessels appeared to be lifting.

"Today has been an eventful day in the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf, and the coasts of the Makran Sea," said a correspondent for the IRIB network. "Based on my field assessments from maritime authorities, some actors in maritime trade and military sources, there are indications that the lifting of the naval blockade is now underway."

The reporter said three Iranian oil tankers and two other ships carrying essential goods were heading from the Indian Ocean toward Iran.

At least one oil tanker owned by Iran's government and subject to U.S. sanctions had crossed the U.S. blockade line in the Gulf of Oman Tuesday, according to open-source data relayed by tracking website MarineTraffic.com.

A sanctioned Iranian oil tanker crossed the U.S. blockade line in the Gulf of Oman Tuesday, data from open-source tracking website MarineTraffic.com shows.

The ship, which is believed to be carrying oil, was last tracked in late March in the Strait of Malacca, a key route for Iran's illicit oil trade. It turned the tracking back on June 16, reappearing on the other side of the U.S. blockade line in the Gulf of Oman.

The Diona crude tanker is owned by the National Iranian Oil Company and has been under U.S. sanctions since 2018, when President Trump re-imposed the measures after pulling the U.S. unilaterally out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by former President Barack Obama's administration.

The U.S. Navy said Monday that its blockade of Iranian ports and vessels would remain in place pending the finalization of the U.S.-Iran agreement on Friday, and it warned ships not to cross without explicit directions.

European stock markets extended gains and oil prices fell further on Tuesday, buoyed by the U.S.-Iran peace deal and the expected reopening of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

London, Paris and Frankfurt stock markets all climbed around 0.5 percent in midday deals, after a mixed session in Asia.

World oil prices fell more than two percent Tuesday after Monday's sharp drop, leaving international benchmark Brent North Sea crude trading at around $81 a barrel.

"Although the deal has not been formally signed, there already appears to be a peace dividend for markets," said Kathleen Brooks, research director at trading group XTB.

"We are seeing European markets play catch-up with the US, and this could continue, as some European indices remain below their pre-war levels," including London's FTSE 100 index, she added.

Lebanese media outlets reported relative calm Tuesday in the country's south, where Israel has been fighting Iranian-backed Hezbollah for months. 

The fighting has repeatedly threatened to unravel diplomatic progress toward ending the war between the U.S. and Iran, and Tehran insisted Tuesday that Israeli forces must leave Lebanon under the deal agreement set to be signed this week.

Lebanese media reported only two Israeli strikes on Tuesday: One on the outskirts of a southern town, and a drone strike on a vehicle. 

Hezbollah did not claim any new attacks against Israel or Israeli forces on Tuesday.

Israel's defense minister said Monday that Israeli forces would remain in a "security zone" that stretches across southern Lebanon and extends some 25 miles into the country from the Israeli border, even after the U.S.-Iran deal comes into effect. 

President Trump told reporters Tuesday he was not happy with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of Israel's "minor war" against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and he voiced frustration that the parallel conflict was complicating his efforts to end the war with Iran.

"I'm not happy with the way Israel has handled themselves with Lebanon and with Hezbollah," Mr. Trump told reporters France, where he is attending a G7 meeting. "They should have been able to do the job faster. It just goes on forever, and when that happens, it throws a negative light on the big deal, and that's the deal with Iran." 

Mr. Trump criticized Israeli operations in Lebanon, saying: "You don't have to knock down an apartment house every time you're looking for somebody, because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses and they're not all Hezbollah, that I can tell you.'

Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi said Iranian officials had explained to foreign diplomats in Tehran on Tuesday the contents of the memorandum of understanding with the U.S., and he noted a previously unmentioned "mechanism" in the terms that he said would be triggered in the event that Israel "violates the agreement."

While the agreement is between Iran and the U.S., Iran's foreign minister told the diplomats earlier that in Tehran's view, "the two parties to this memorandum of understanding are the United States and Israel on one side, and Iran and Hezbollah on the other."

According to Iran's official state news agency, Takht-Ravanchi said after the meeting that "a clause in the memorandum of understanding on the termination of war and military operations across all fronts, including Lebanon, explicitly states that if the Zionist regime violates the agreement, then — since the United States has committed on behalf of its partners in this understanding to ending the war on all fronts, including Lebanon — the mechanism set out in the memorandum will be activated."

It was not clear what mechanism the deputy foreign minister was referring to. Neither the U.S. nor Iranian governments have released the text of the agreement that Vice President JD Vance is expected to sign on Friday with Iranian officials.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tuesday that the continuing presence of Israeli forces in Lebanon would be a violation of the U.S.-Iran agreement set to be signed on Friday.

Speaking to foreign diplomats in Tehran in remarks aired on state TV, Araghchi said: "When we reached a ceasefire, we declared it across all fronts, with particular emphasis on Lebanon …  Any continued occupation of Lebanese territory will be regarded by us as a violation of the memorandum of understanding."

Araghchi said Iran considered Israel, and the Hezbollah group Israel has fought for months in Lebanon, parties to the agreement struck between the U.S. and Iran.

"An important point I want to emphasize is that, in our view, the two parties to this memorandum of understanding are the United States and Israel on one side, and Iran and Hezbollah on the other," Araghchi told the diplomats.

On Monday, Israeli officials said troops would remain in a wide section of southern Lebanon that they have effectively occupied over the last three and a half months, forcing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate. 

"Trump's agreement does not bind us," Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Monday. 

Vice President JD Vance denied on Monday that Iran will receive "billions of dollars of assets" as part of the U.S.-Iran deal that was announced Sunday and is set to be signed later this week. 

"When people say that billions of dollars of assets will be released, that's not true," Vance said on "CBS Mornings." "What is true is that Iran will have a much better and much more prosperous future if they meet the obligations they make in this agreement."

The U.S. has yet to release the terms of the agreement. But Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Monday that under the agreement, the country will receive $24 billion in frozen funds during the 60-day final negotiation period, of which half must be made available before final negotiations begin.

Pressed on the possibility of unfreezing Iranian assets, Vance said while "we're open to a lot of things that are on the table," the $24 billion figure "just doesn't appear anywhere in any of the texts that we've talked about with the Iranians."

President Trump wrote on Truth Social that "the story that the U.S. is paying Iran 300 million Dollars is Fake News, put out by the Dumocrats!!!"

The president appeared to be referring to reports that Iran could get access to $300 billion to rebuild as part of the memorandum of understanding it inked with the United States over the weekend. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Monday the deal requires the U.S. and its allies to present postwar reconstruction plans in at least that amount — though it's unclear whether the money would come from the U.S. or other sources.

Vice President JD Vance — who has helped lead the Trump administration's diplomatic push with Iran — has not ruled out a reconstruction fund, but said it would be paid for by Gulf allies. Asked about the issue on "CBS Mornings" on Monday, Vance said the fund is "the sort of thing they could have access to … so long as they honor their end of the obligation."

Money has emerged as a point of contention in the day-old deal between the two countries. Iran has said the agreement requires the U.S. to unfreeze billions of dollars in sanctioned Iranian assets before nuclear talks between the two sides begin, but Vance and other U.S. officials say Iran will not get any sanctions relief until it demonstrates compliance.

Vice President JD Vance said on CNN the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran is a "very general document," spanning about a page and a half, with knotty details on the future of Iran's nuclear program and other issues left for future talks.

"On a number of issues, we are going to have to figure this stuff out during the technical negotiation phase," Vance told CNN's Jake Tapper, referring to the deal's 60-day window for further talks, which are set to begin Friday.

Senior U.S. officials told reporters earlier Monday they plan to release the full text of the memorandum of understanding in the next 24 to 48 hours. 

In the short-term, the deal is expected to extend the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, end a U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports and launch negotiations on Iran's nuclear program. But the two countries have made conflicting claims about sanctions relief, with Iran's Revolutionary Guards saying the U.S. is expected to unfreeze billions in Iranian assets before the start of talks, while the U.S. says Iran will get nothing until it complies with the deal.

Vance told CNN the claims about unfreezing assets as a precondition to talks are "definitely not true," and argued those claims may have been made by "hardliners" within Iran who tend to "overemphasize what Iran gets from the bargain" to appeal to a domestic audience.

Vance said Iran could get a "very significant sanctions relief package," but only if it meets its obligations.

"There is a really big opportunity for the Iranians, but they only get the benefit of that opportunity if they do the things they promise they're going to do," he said.

It's also unclear what form a potential U.S.-Iran nuclear agreement might take, or whether the two sides will strike a deal in 60 days. And Iran said last week that negotiations will only cover nuclear issues, with Iran's ballistic missile program and its support for militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah — two other major concerns for the U.S. — excluded from talks.

Vance said preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon or reconstituting its nuclear program are the most important issues, but U.S. officials "certainly expect that as part of our broader agreement … Iran is going to stop funding terrorist organizations." He pointed to a portion of the memorandum that said Iran must commit to "regional peace and stability."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer expressed skepticism about the U.S.-Iran agreement and pressed for more information, arguing "it's been nearly 24 hours since Trump announced there was a potential deal with Iran, and we still don't know the details."

"In these high-stakes negotiations, the devil is in the details, but Trump hasn't even revealed the text of his quote, understanding, unquote with Iran," the New York Democrat said in remarks on the Senate floor Monday. "The American people need to know exactly what's in the deal. Trump must brief Congress and the public on the details of his understanding with Iran immediately and end this war once and for all."

Senior U.S. officials said earlier Monday the text of the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding will be released in the next 24 to 48 hours.

The top Senate Democrat also warned that gas prices could remain elevated and Iran could retain some control over the Strait of Hormuz, adding: "Americans are scratching their heads, wondering what we've accomplished in Iran."

President Trump has projected confidence about the Iran deal while meeting with world leaders at the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bain, France. He arrived Monday for talks with G7 leaders, including some who have been sharply critical of his management of the 15-week conflict that led to a surge in global energy prices. 

Mr. Trump said he isn't sure whether he'll attend the signing of the agreement to end the Iran war on Friday, suggesting during a joint appearance with French President Emmanuel Macron that he "may be involved," although Vice President JD Vance "was originally going to do it."

The U.S. president has hailed the Iran deal as promising, but not a guarantee.

"Hopefully, it's going to be a good relationship, and we're going to get along. If we don't, we go back to where we started. But I don't think that's going to be necessary," said Mr. Trump. "The Iran deal we made is going to bring a lot of, a lot of success to the world, because the oil was really clogged up there for a while."

Trump added that the Strait of Hormuz will "be completely opened" on Friday.