Trump Says U.S. and Iran Reach Deal to End War, Strait of Hormuz to Reopen

President Donald Trump said the United States and Iran had reached a deal to end the war on Sunday, bringing an end to more than three months of devastating fighting that killed thousands and roiled the global economy.

"The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!"

Iran's deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, confirmed the agreement on state television and said Iran would start implementing it after it was signed later this week.

The details of the deal have were not immediately available. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the two sides are expected to meet for a signing ceremony on Friday, June 19, in Switzerland.

The announcement came hours after an Israeli strike on Beirut, Lebanon, threatened to derail talks as they reached the final stage.

Trump issued rare criticism of U.S. ally Israel, saying the attack "should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran."

The Israeli army said it targeted a "Hezbollah command center" in Beirut after it launched "aerial targets" toward Israel.

Soon after the attack, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf threatened to halt peace talks with the United States, which are reportedly in the final stages, after Israel bombed the Lebanese capital, Beirut. 

“The Zionists’ aggression against Dahieh once again showed that the United States either lacks the will to implement its commitments or lacks the ability to do so,” Ghalibaf, who is also Iran’s top negotiator in the current talks, said in a post on X after the bombing.

“If you do not have the will or the ability to fulfil your commitments, then there is no point in talking about continuing down this path,” he added. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that Israel’s strikes came in response to “continued Hezbollah attacks on Israel’s territory, including a terror drone strike this morning.” They added: "Israel will not tolerate firing into its territory."  

Iran had insisted that an eventual deal with the U.S. to end the war would include a halt to Israel’s bombing campaign against Hezbollah and occupation of southern Lebanon. Israel’s refusal to accept such a measure has reportedly caused a rift between Netanyahu and Trump, culminating in an expletive-laden call between the two leaders earlier this month over Trump’s objections to strikes on Beirut.    

Trump claimed in a Truth Social post on Saturday that his deal would prevent Iran from attaining a nuclear weapon and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil shipping route that has been closed by fighting for months, which has led to a surge in energy prices around the world. 

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Sunday that "[b]oth sides have declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon." He added that "technical talks" would follow.

Why Lebanon matters to an eventual peace deal 

Iran’s demand that Lebanon be included in an eventual peace deal has been one of the major sticking points in reaching a deal with the U.S. to end the war. 

Trump has continually pressed Netanyahu to resist launching large-scale attacks in Lebanon while he tries to negotiate with Iran, but the Israeli prime minister has largely rebuffed those efforts. The tensions between the two close allies reached a crescendo earlier this month when Trump pressured Netanyahu to call off an attack on Beirut. According to Axios, Trump called Netanyahu “crazy” on a phone call and accused him of reacting disproportionately to Hezbollah attacks. 

Intense fighting broke out in Lebanon since March 2, when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel to support its ally Iran in the face of a U.S.-Israeli surprise attack.

Despite a monthslong bombing campaign in Beirut and across the country, the occupation of much of southern Lebanon, and the widespread destruction of Lebanese villages along the border between the two countries, the Israeli army has been unable to deal a fatal blow to Hezbollah, a Shia militant group and political party that is allied with Iran. 

Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,700 people in Lebanon, including 132 health workers and 247 children, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. Around 1 million Lebanese people have been displaced by the war, and Human Rights Watch said Israel has committed “numerous violations of the laws of war in Lebanon with total impunity, including apparently deliberate or indiscriminate attacks on journalists, civilians, medics, financial institutions, reconstruction-related facilities, and peacekeepers, in addition to the widespread and unlawful use of white phosphorus in populated areas.”

Israel says 24 of its soldiers and four civilians have been killed over the same period. And Human Rights Watch has also accused Hezbollah of failing to take adequate measures to protect civilians. 

What is in the proposed peace deal? 

Little is definitively known about the peace deal, and each side has accused the other of dishonesty in public statements about its terms. 

Trump claimed in his Truth Social post on Saturday that Iran had agreed not to seek a nuclear weapon, and that despite Iran’s demand for reparations for war damages, no money would change hands.

He also said that the deal would lead to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and implied that the U.S. would acquire and destroy Iran’s highly enriched uranium.

“At the appropriate time, when all is calm, we will go in and get the Nuclear Dust, buried deep under the powerful sunken granite mountains, thanks to our beautiful B-2 Bombers and their brilliant pilots, and downblend and destroy it, whether in Iran, or the United States,” he wrote.