*Trump orders stop to US naval blockade, says ‘let the oil flow’
*Iran, Pakistan confirm peace agreement*Both sides declare permanent termination of military operations
*Final written understanding set for signing on Friday
*At $84, oil price falls to first week of war level
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The United States and Iran yesterday finally agreed to end their 107-day war, with both sides declaring a permanent cessation of military operations and setting Friday for the formal signing of a peace accord brokered by Pakistan.
As a result, the US President, Donald Trump, announced the immediate removal of the American naval blockade and authorised the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global energy corridor. The move is expected to ease disruptions to global oil supplies and calm energy markets rattled by months of conflict.
The opening of the Strait of Hormuz is expected to offer relief to the global economy more than three months after fighting began.
Details of the deal were not immediately available, but key mediator, Pakistan, confirmed the signing will be Friday in Switzerland, even as key issues like Iran’s nuclear programme are expected to be addressed later.
“I hereby fully authorise the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorise the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The U.S. previously said it would ease its blockade of Iranian ports as the strait reopens, and would agree to relax sanctions to allow Iran to sell more of its oil and strengthen its battered economy.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, confirmed the agreement on state television but said Iran would not start implementing it until it was signed on Friday. He said the deal followed over 14 hours of talks in Tehran with a representative from Qatar, another mediator.
Pakistan first announced the deal after a day in which Israel, sidelined from the negotiations, attacked Beirut’s southern suburbs while pursuing the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. The attacks posed a threat to completing the negotiations, an Associated Press report said.
“Both sides have declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said, adding that mediators this week will facilitate meetings to “lay the foundation for the technical talks.”
However, broader negotiations on outstanding issues like Iran’s nuclear programme would continue over the next 60 days, two senior Pakistani officials said earlier Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly. If the sides fail to reach a resolution within that time, the timeline could be extended.
The deal likely returns the region to a status that existed before the war, but with thousands of people dead and Iran wielding a new source of negotiating pressure with its ability to influence shipping in the strait. The waterway is crucial to significant shipments of oil, natural gas and related products like fertilizer, and its effective closure rocked the global economy.
Of the stated targets by the U.S. and Israel when they launched the war on February 28 with strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Tehran still has a missile programme, support for armed proxies in the region like Hezbollah and a stockpile of highly enriched uranium for its nuclear program.
Khamenei’s son is now supreme leader, though he has not been seen in public since the war began. His approval was needed for Iran to sign off on the deal, AP said.
Iran wanted a ceasefire deal to include the fighting in Lebanon, where Israel has pushed its invasion deeper than at any point in over a quarter-century as it targets Hezbollah. Tehran also has sought the release of billions of dollars in frozen funds.
The emerging deal had been sharply criticised by Israel’s government and by critics in Trump’s own Republican Party. Some said it did not improve on the terms of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that Trump withdrew the U.S. from during his first term and still describes as “bad.”
Tehran has emphasised that it wanted a deal to focus on ending the war, with discussions put off until later on its nuclear programme — the issue at the centre of it all.
Iran has 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium that is enriched up to 60 per cent purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Iran has long maintained its nuclear programme is peaceful and has not publicly committed to giving up the enriched uranium, which is believed to be buried under three nuclear sites that were badly damaged by U.S. strikes last year.
Meanwhile, oil prices dropped on Sunday after Trump said an agreement with Iran had been reached and the United States would end its naval blockade on the country.
Brent crude prices fell 3.9 per cent to about $84 a barrel, and US crude dropped 4.8 per cent to about $81 a barrel. If oil settles at that level, it will be the lowest price for crude since March 4, just a few days into the war.
Anticipating a deal framework to be reached this weekend, oil settled below $90 a barrel on Friday for the first time since the first week of the war. Still, it has a long way to go to get back under $70, where it was before the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran in late February.
Markets have cheered apparent progress, but the oil market still has significant work ahead to return the flow of crude to normal. The Strait of Hormuz needs to be de-mined, ships need to be able to freely flow in and out of the strait, Middle East production needs to come back online, emergency petroleum reserves need to be refilled, and damaged energy facilities need to be repaired, a CNN report stated
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