After weeks of war between the United States and Iran, the two countries reached a memorandum of understanding over a weekend in 2026, and then faced public pressure to release its actual text.
The document, titled the “Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” was eventually read out in full by a senior US administration official. It is not a final peace treaty. It is a 14-point framework intended to halt the fighting immediately and open a 60-day window for negotiating the deal that would follow.
The senior official summarized the document’s purpose bluntly: “This is fundamentally an agreement that allows us to open the Strait of Hormuz immediately, commit the Iranians to destroying the nuclear dust, and then gives us a dial where if the Iranians dial up their good behavior, we respond by dialing up the kind of economic and sanctions relief that can make them a more prosperous country.”
At its core, the memorandum does five things.
Read more about this topic: China:”Next phase of US-Iran peace deal will be more complicated”
It ends the fighting. The first point declares the “immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” with both sides committing not to threaten or use force against each other going forward, and affirming Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
It reopens the Strait of Hormuz. The US agrees to begin lifting its naval blockade immediately and end it fully within 30 days, with shipping traffic restored in proportion to pre-war levels. Iran, in turn, commits to clearing mines and technical obstacles within 30 days to allow free commercial passage between the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, and to begin talks with Oman and other Gulf states on the strait’s longer-term administration.
It puts a price tag on reconstruction. The US commits, alongside regional partners, to a reconstruction and development plan for Iran worth at least $300 billion, with implementation mechanics to be finalized within the 60-day window. All licenses and waivers needed to move that money would be issued by Washington.
It sets, but doesn’t resolve, the nuclear question. Iran reaffirms it will not pursue nuclear weapons, and both sides agree to address the disposition of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile through a mechanism to be negotiated — with a “minimum methodology” involving down-blending the material on-site under International Atomic Energy Agency supervision. The broader question of enrichment rights is explicitly left to the final deal, not resolved by the memorandum itself.
Read more about this topic: Iran War: Washington and Tehran peace agreement signed electronically
It builds in a freeze, not a rollback. Until a final deal is reached, both countries agree to hold the line: Iran maintains its current nuclear program as-is, without escalating, while the US agrees not to impose new sanctions or send additional forces to the region.
Frozen Iranian funds and assets are also unlocked for use, with procedures for their release to be worked out during negotiations, and Washington agrees to issue all necessary authorizations to make that happen. An oversight mechanism is established to monitor compliance with both the memorandum and whatever final agreement follows.
What the memorandum does not do is end the underlying dispute. Iran’s right to enrich uranium, the full sanctions relief structure, and the lasting terms of the relationship between the two countries are all pushed into the 60-day negotiating period that follows signing — extendable by mutual consent if talks run long.
Several of the document’s most consequential provisions, including the naval blockade removal, the Strait of Hormuz reopening, the oil export waivers, and the unlocking of frozen funds, are conditioned on actually beginning to implement those steps before broader talks on the remaining issues even start.
