Shipowners are cautious about returning to the Strait of Hormuz after a preliminary U.S.-Iran deal, with key security and verification details unresolved.
Shipowners welcomed a U.S.-Iran agreement aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz, but said they would need stronger security assurances before resuming transits through the waterway.
The caution from shipping firms reflects the still-uncertain shape of a deal that U.S. officials described as preliminary. Vice President JD Vance said Monday that the agreement would extend the U.S.-Iran ceasefire for 60 days and create a framework for further talks on Tehran’s nuclear program and other issues, including the strait.
Vance told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that the two major prongs of the arrangement are reopening the Strait of Hormuz and securing a long-term commitment that Iran will never develop a nuclear weapon. He said the text has not been released and acknowledged that “a lot” of important details remain unsettled.
“That’s the sort of thing that we’re going to figure out in these technical negotiations,” Vance said when asked about expectations that the strait would stay open without tolls over the long term.
Vance said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf are expected to take part in upcoming discussions. He also said Iran had committed to destroy and dispose of its stockpile of highly enriched material, but that the process for doing so still must be negotiated. Any relief from sanctions or other economic barriers, he said, would require a long-term inspection and verification regime.
The status of the deal remained less than fully clear. CNBC reported, citing Vance’s remarks, that the preliminary agreement had not yet been signed and that its text had not been released. CBC reported separately that Pakistan, described as a key mediator between Tehran and Washington, announced early Monday local time that a deal had been struck calling for the “immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”
That uncertainty is especially important for shipping companies weighing when to send vessels back through the strait. The agreement’s promise to reopen the route is significant, but shipowners’ response suggests they are waiting to see whether the political announcement is matched by enforceable security guarantees at sea.
The deal also appeared to affect fighting tied to the wider conflict. CBC reported that fighting in southern Lebanon eased Monday after the announcement, though local authorities warned displaced residents not to rush home. Lebanese and foreign security sources said the area was relatively calmer, while some artillery fire was still reported in southern Lebanese towns and at least one drone was heard above Beirut and its southern suburbs.
Israel is not a party to the U.S.-Iran deal, and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israeli troops would remain “indefinitely” in areas Israel holds in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza. A spokesman in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office told The Associated Press that Israel and the United States remain aligned on preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, while saying Israel would continue to act against Hezbollah attacks.
For now, the next test is whether negotiators can turn the framework into written terms that satisfy governments, armed actors and commercial operators. Until those details are clearer, shipowners appear unlikely to treat the Strait of Hormuz reopening as a settled security guarantee.
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