US blockade of Iran’s ports still in place despite Trump claimspublished at 18:51 BST

18:51 BST

By Thomas Copeland

In a post on his Truth Social platform stating that the US and Iran had agreed a deal on ending the war, President Donald Trump said he had authorised “the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade” of Iranian ports.

But a, externaln, external, externala, externaldvisory to seafarers and ship owners this afternoon, external from US Naval Forces Central Command, external (Navcent) states “a military blockade of Iranian ports remains in effect”.

Navcent says the blockade will continue “pending execution of a US-Iran ceasefire agreement schedule for 19 June 2026”.

“Enforcement actions include disabling and destructive fires upon vessels who do not demonstrate immediate compliance with blockading forces and/or boarding directions,” the warning added.

BBC Verify has asked US Central Command, the Pentagon and White House for comment.

The war has revealed the limit of US dominance over Iranpublished at 18:45 BST

18:45 BST

Jeremy Bowen
International editor

Image source, EPA

The war has been President Donald Trump's worst foreign policy blunder – so far.

Turn the clock back to 27 February, as American and Israeli forces were preparing to strike, arming their aircraft, briefing their crews and programming targets for their missiles.

Both Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made video appearances to announce the start of a war that they believed would be short, sharp and victorious. It was a stunning misjudgement.

The war has damaged the US's alliances with the oil-producing Arab monarchies of the Gulf, whose business model as islands of stability in the turbulence of the Middle East will take years to repair.

China will have been watching closely as the United States burned through hard-to-replace stocks of weapons and came up against the limits of its power.

The agreement, assuming no more last-minute hitches, ends a war that was based on America and Israel's misreading of the strength of their enemy in Tehran. It is not a peace deal. It defers the thorniest issues to future negotiations. That agenda will include the future of Iran's nuclear programme and the level of sanctions relief it will get in return for concessions.

The memorandum of understanding clears the way for the nuclear negotiators to reconvene and for ships to transit the strait. That is exactly where they were 24 hours before the US and Israel went to war.

• Iran deal ends Trump's war that revealed limit of US dominance

Daniel Bush
Washington correspondent

What exactly happens after the signing ceremony on Friday remains unclear.

Washington wants Iran to abandon forever any hopes of developing nuclear weapons, but senior administration officials on Monday would not say what specific concessions the US is demanding from Iran. For its part Tehran has also not signalled publicly how far it’s willing to go on the issue in the upcoming negotiations.

The administration will consider some form of sanctions relief for Iran if it agrees to abandon its nuclear programme in a final peace deal, a US official said. The official did not specify what that might look like, or when the sanctions relief might come -- only saying that it would be tied to Iran’s compliance with the terms of a final peace deal, if one is reached.

“The more the Iranians are willing to work with us on their nuclear programme, on verifying they’re not building a nuclear weapon” the more the US will do to help the Iranian economy, the official said.

It’s also still an open question how Iran will dispose of its highly enriched uranium. All the core issues around Iran’s nuclear ambitions will have to be hammered out in talks over the next two months, a senior official acknowledged Monday. “Well see what happens,” the official said.

Daniel Bush
Washington correspondent

Hours after the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the deal remains shrouded in mystery with few details made public about what both sides agreed to - and major questions remaining about whether both sides can reach an actual long-term peace deal.

A senior US official said Monday on a call with reporters that details of the MOU will be released publicly in “24 to 48 hours". Donald Trump later suggested the text could be released after the official signing ceremony on Friday.

A formal signing ceremony will take place on Friday in Geneva, launching a 60-day period for both countries to negotiate a final peace agreement. The US plans to keep its current military forces in the region in place during the two-month negotiating period.

The Strait of Hormuz will be opened “immediately” once the MOU is signed in person, a senior US official said. The US naval blockade of the strait will also be lifted right away. Maritime traffic through the waterway won’t be tolled during the two-month negotiating period. Iran had insisted on collecting revenue from ships that use the strait, which carried roughly 20 percent of global oil before the war.

“The strait will be open toll-free for 60 days and we expect that to be part of the final agreement,” a US official said.

Image source, Reuters

Trump says the deal between the US and Iran is "all signed".

He made the remarks during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron earlier.

"I am very happy to say: 'it's signed, the deal is all signed'", Trump said.

It came after senior administration officials said the MOU was signed electronically by Trump and Vice President JD Vance, and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

An official signing ceremony will take place later this week in Geneva.

Back in Washington, a senior US official has told the BBC that the deal does not include Lebanon, but direct discussions between Israel and Lebanon are happening.

"If Iran is not able to control Hezbollah and if they attack Israeli positions or Israeli towns, Israel will have the right to defend themselves and respond," the official says.

Iran and its allies, along with the US and its allies, are seeking to end hostilities and have a final peace deal that "will hopefully include a lot of these proxy groups", the official added.

Image source, Reuters

Referring to US strikes on Iran last week, Trump says he "felt badly that we had to back on the attack for two nights".

He says he hopes the US and Iran would develop a good relationship but "if we don't, we go back to where we started but I don't think that's going to be necessary".

Asked if he would attend the formal signing ceremony in Geneva, Trump says Vice President JD Vance will be the one to sign the deal.

Trump is asked whether the deal with Iran involves sanctions relief for Iran.

"No, it doesn't", he replies.

The president adds: "It's really a behavioural thing. If they do what they're supposed to do, that starts taking effect."

He then speaks about the difficulties around the fighting between Lebanon and Hezbollah, and says the US want to see if they can "straight out" this conflict.

"It just seems to just never end," he adds.

Image source, Reuters

We're now turning our attention to France, where US President Donald Trump is meeting with President Emmanuel Macron ahead of the G7 Summit in Évian-les-Bains.

Asked about the memorandum of understanding agreed between the US and Iran, Trump says that the text will be released "pretty soon", adding it will probably be sometime after it is signed on Friday.

And the Strait of Hormuz will be fully open by Friday, he adds.

Daniel Bush
Washington correspondent

A senior US official said Monday on a call with reporters that details of the memorandum of understanding signed by the US and Iran will be released publicly in "24 to 48 hours".

Senior administration officials said the MOU was signed electronically by President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, and by Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

An official signing ceremony will take place later this week in Geneva, kicking off a 60-day window for both countries to reach a final peace agreement.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

We still don't know a lot about the exact framework of the US and Iran's deal to end the war - but there's early signs of movement in the Strait of Hormuz.

US President Donald Trump says ships are "starting to move" through the waterway, and while there's not been a major spike in traffic, shipping data analysed by BBC Verify shows a number of vessels are attempting to cross the strait.

That's as Vice President JD Vance says ships won't have to pay a toll to Iran to cross the vital shipping lane.

Iran also claims it's taking "necessary measures", alongside Oman, to guide vessels safely through the Strait of Hormuz. Additionally, its foreign affairs spokesperson Esmail Baghaei says the US has committed to taking action to rebuild Iran and to lifting economic sanctions.

Meanwhile in Lebanon, photos show smoke rising from the southern village of Kfar Tibnit, although Israel hasn't commented on this reported attack. Lebanese media reports one person was killed.

One Israeli MP told our Middle East correspondent Lucy Williamson that "we will do what we need to do" - as Israel says it intends to keep a military presence in Lebanon.

And for the markets, the framework deal announcement has been a sigh of relief.

US markets opened sharply higher today and while the price of oil remains high, the agreement has come in the nick of time - our deputy economics editor Dharshini David writes.

The first deadly Israeli strike in Lebanon since of a framework deal between the US and Iran was announced has been reported by Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) and daily newspaper L'Orient-Le Jour.

The NNA reports that an Israeli drone attack in the southern village of Kfar Tebnit targeted a car, and subsequently killed the driver.

Israel have not yet commented on the reported attack.

Image source, WANA/ Reuters

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says the memorandum of understanding - if implemented properly - will be seen as an "honourable document" for Iran, according to reports by state-run news agency IRIB and the semi-official Fars news agency.

Fars also cites Pezeshkian as saying that 90% of the members of the Supreme National Security Council voted in favour of the agreement, and the details will be approved at the "appropriate time".

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

US Vice President JD Vance says ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz will not need to pay a toll to Iran as part of the framework deal reached on Sunday.

"Our expectation is that the strait is going to be opened in a toll-free way for the long term," Vance tells CNBC.

Following the start of the conflict, Iran has implemented a system to collect levies from ships passing through the vital shipping lane.

Vance acknowledges that toll-free access may be temporary but the plan is to continue discussions with Iran in the coming days for a more permanent solution.

“That’s the sort of thing that we are going to figure out in these technical negotiations,” he adds.

“There are a lot of very important details to figure out that we are actually going to sit at the table and discuss together and figure out a path forward on these details."

Are ships 'starting to move', as Trump says?published at 15:53 BST

15:53 BST

By Joshua Cheetham

We've yet to see a major spike in traffic through the Strait of Hormuz despite US President Donald Trump posting on his Truth Social platform earlier that “ships are starting to move, many loaded up with oil”.

Data from MarineTraffic shows just one vessel has fully crossed from west to east: the Japanese-owned liquified natural gas tanker Disha. It left Qatar's Ras Laffan port on 13 June laden with cargo.

Two other vessels appear to be attempting the same crossing - cargo vessels Kaiser and Blue Ocean 1.

We’re monitoring eight other vessels that have crossed the western edge of the strait and another sailing from the Bandar Abbas area in Iran. It’s unclear if any of them will attempt to make the crossing into the Arabian Sea.

Another ship, MSV Al Fazal, may also be crossing but its position disappeared from MarineTraffic while north of Oman making it harder to track its location.

Signals can disappear because of poor coverage or jamming.

It is also possible that the tracker has been turned off by the crew. Under UN regulations, a ship’s tracker must be on at all times. The only exception is when the captain believes keeping it on will pose a threat to the ship and crew safety.

Image source, gett

More now from Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmail Baghaei, who says that both Oman and Iran will be taking "necessary measures" to ensure the "safe" passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

He says this will be conducted "in consultation with other stakeholders".

Baghaei also claims that the US has committed to taking action when it comes to rebuilding Iran following the damage it has seen during the war, and for lifting economic sanctions on Iran.

He says that the US had committed to taking action in both cases.

Archie Mitchell
Business reporter in New York

Image source, Getty Images

US markets opened sharply higher amid hopes over the US and Iran’s agreement to end the war.

Investor optimism drove the S&P 500 1.6% higher on Monday morning, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed by 1.2%. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq index, which had fallen last week, jumped by 2.5%.

The conflict has pushed up Americans’ energy bills, inflation, and led to fears of interest rate hikes, heightening fears among investors.

A deal to end the conflict, and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, raises the likelihood rates will be left on hold instead when the US central bank meets on Wednesday.

Lucy Williamson
Middle East correspondent, reporting from Jerusalem

Israel’s prime minister is facing fierce criticism from across the political spectrum – from the far-right to the liberal left – in the wake of the US ceasefire agreement with Iran

Allies and opponents see it as side-lining Israeli interests and exposing deep divisions with Israel’s key ally, the US.

“Israel will continue to protect itself,” Ariel Kallner, a lawmaker from the prime minister’s own Likud party, told me today. “Anything we should do, we will do.”

Asked to clarify whether Israel would continue to attack either Iran, or Hezbollah in Lebanon, in defiance of the US agreement, he said: “We will do what we need to do. And we expect our friends to understand us.”

“Sometimes there are disagreements between allies, and allies should also understand their allies when they are in danger.”

Israel’s defence minister said earlier today that Israeli troops would remain in areas they have occupied in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza.

A spokesperson for Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs says ending the conflict in Lebanon is a pivotal part of the framework agreement Tehran and the US reached.

• As a reminder, negotiator Pakistan says both the US and Iran "declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations" in Lebanon as part of the deal

Speaking at a weekly news conference, Esmail Baghaei says: "Lebanon and the end of the war in Lebanon are an inseparable part of the agreement to end the war."

He also says the US "must ensure" that Israel follows suit, adding that "any violation of the agreement by other actors and the United States’ allies in the region will also fall under the responsibility of the American side".

Earlier, Israel's defence minister said the IDF intended to maintain its presence in Lebanon without any time restraints.

Smoke was seen rising in Lebanon's southern village of Kfar Tibnit on Monday, the day after the deal was announced.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that the towns of Kfar Tebnit and Nabatieh al-Fawqa were targeted early on Monday.

Image source, Getty Images