Iran's Strait of Hormuz leverage wins a $300 billion truce

The war that began with a decapitation strike against Iran's supreme leader ended with a memorandum of understanding that looks more like a Tehran victory than a Washington one.

The US and Iran signed the MoU this week, agreeing to end hostilities and reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 30 days. A final deal is supposed to follow within 60. The strait was open before the conflict escalated; the MoU commits both sides to ease their clamps immediately. The text leaves room for Iran to charge passage fees after two months.

Iran could regain access to frozen US assets and overseas markets once sanctions lift. A new US-backed fund for Iran's economic recovery is worth $300 billion. US officials said financial relief would be calibrated to Tehran's behavior. The MoU ties relief to final-pact talks and is vague on the fund's details. Its language tracks Iran's positions closely. The truce covers Lebanon, as Tehran insisted, to Israel's displeasure.

On the core issue that drove the US to war, Washington extracted only an Iranian pledge not to build a nuclear weapon. That was already part of the Obama-era deal Trump scrapped. It has long been Iran's stated position. What Tehran does with its enriched uranium stockpile was left for final negotiations.