The Iranian regime wants to pocket $1million for each ship that passes through the reopened Strait of Hormuz for two weeks, while the US and Iran negotiate a peace deal, regional officials have claimed.
President Donald Trump announced last night that Iran has agreed to a two-week ceasefire and will reopen the crucial waterway, while a ten-point peace plan is considered by both sides.
The exact terms of the deal have not been revealed. Trump told Sky News this morning: ‘They are very good points – and most of them have been fully negotiated. If it isn’t good, we’ll go right back to it very easily.’
However, earlier, an unnamed regional official told the Associated Press that Iran wants to charge tolls of up to $1million on ships that pass through the Strait during the two-week period.
The ten-point plan also says that the US should accept Tehran’s continued control over the Strait, recognise its right to uranium enrichment, lift all sanctions, pay compensation, and withdraw all troops from the region.
Iran would then use the money it raises for reconstruction following the weeks-long conflict.
On Tuesday, Trump described the deal as ‘total and complete victory.’
It comes after claims that Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had instructed his negotiators to move towards a deal, according to Axios.
Three sources with knowledge of the matter told the news outlet that by Monday night, mediators had US approval for an updated proposal for the ceasefire before Khamenei, who was actively involved in the decision-making process, gave his blessing for his negotiators to cut a deal.
‘Without his green light, there wouldn’t have been a deal,’ one of the sources said.
In a Truth Social post just past midnight, Trump said the US would be ‘helping with the traffic buildup in the Strait of Hormuz,’ adding: ‘Big money will be made.’
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said that if attacks against Iran stop, Iranian operations will cease as well.
The country’s military will coordinate safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz during the ceasefire, he added in a post on X.
The US and Iran will now engage in negotiations over the next two weeks, buying some time to try to reach a permanent settlement.
It is unlikely to be smooth sailing, but in after-hours trading, the price of a barrel of oil dropped below the $100 mark for the first time in days, and US stock futures soared.
Following the confirmation of the deal, the US President hailed ‘a big day for world peace’ after agreeing to pause the attacks.
Iran has ‘had enough’ of the conflict, the US president said on Truth Social, and there will now be ‘lots of positive action’.
Israel has also agreed to halt attacks on Iran for two weeks, a senior White House official told Axios, with the ceasefire taking effect once the Strait of Hormuz is reopened.
Iran accepted the Pakistan-brokered deal after a last-minute Chinese intervention urged Tehran to show flexibility over the war’s economic fallout, three Iranian officials told the New York Times.
However, the ceasefire deal has also received heavy criticism with US representative Maxwell Frost saying of the deal: ‘A last-minute ceasefire doesn’t erase President Trump’s reckless decisions that got us here.
‘We should’ve never been in this illegal war. Trump is a dangerous warmonger who pushed us into this crisis and threatened to commit war crimes.’
Victor LaGroon, a former US Army intelligence analyst and national security expert, echoed these concerns, telling theGrio that details remain unclear regarding Iran’s 10-point plan and ‘what the U.S. achieved in this agreement.’
‘I, like every American, believe that peace is a good thing, but, given the number of times this administration has moved the goal post of what success looks like, I fear this war will continue to cost us billions of dollars and possibly American lives,’ said LaGroon.
US crude oil prices plunged after Trump’s announcement, with West Texas Intermediate contracts falling by more than 15 percent to $95 per barrel after hitting $116 earlier Tuesday.
Trump had warned Tuesday morning that ‘a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again’ if no deal was reached by his 8pm ET deadline.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is also heading to the Middle East this morning, where he will meet with RAF crews protecting allied airspace, before addressing troops.
In the first comments on the deal, Sir Keir Starmer said: ‘I welcome the ceasefire agreement reached overnight, which will bring a moment of relief to the region and the world.
‘Together with our partners, we must do all we can to support and sustain this ceasefire, turn it into a lasting agreement and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.’
He will be holding bilateral meetings with ‘Gulf partners’ and ‘regional leaders’ today – although Downing Street is yet to say who exactly he’ll be meeting.
Number 10 has said these will focus on ‘practical efforts to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz’.
Trump said that the 10-point proposal ‘is a workable basis on which to negotiate,’ despite saying on Monday that the deal was not ‘good enough.’
Vice President JD Vance, along with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, have been leading US negotiations to end the war, which was launched on February 28 – dubbed Operation Epic Fury.
The deal came after Pakistani PM Sharif posted on X that major breakthroughs had been made between US and Iranian negotiators.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: ‘There are discussions about face-to-face meetings between the United States and Iran, but nothing is final until it is announced by the President or the White House.’
Following the reaching of the deal, Israel’s main opposition leader, Yair Lapid, sharply criticised the move, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to achieve the war’s objectives.
‘There has never been a political disaster like this in our entire history. Israel was not even close to the table when decisions were made concerning the core of our national security,’ Lapid wrote on X.
‘The army carried out everything that was asked of it, and the public showed remarkable resilience, but Netanyahu failed politically, failed strategically, and did not achieve any of the goals he himself set.’
Iran proposed the 10-point counter-proposal to US negotiators via Pakistani officials on Monday after the US gave Islamabad a 15-point proposal to begin a ceasefire.
The President refused to comment on the 10-point plan earlier on Tuesday, telling Fox News: ‘I can’t comment, because right now we’re in heated negotiations.’
Trump said on Monday at a White House press conference that the plan was a ‘significant step,’ but he added that it is ‘not good enough.’
Sharif had called on both Trump and the Iranian regime to accept the two-week ceasefire before the President finally relented.
‘To allow diplomacy to run its course, I earnestly request President Trump to extend the deadline for two weeks. Pakistan, in all sincerity, requests the Iranian brothers to open Strait of Hormuz for a corresponding period of two weeks as a goodwill gesture,’ Sharif said on Tuesday afternoon.
‘We also urge all warring parties to observe a ceasefire everywhere for two weeks to allow diplomacy to achieve conclusive termination of war, in the interest of long-term peace and stability in the region.’
Even before the deadline expired, airstrikes had already hit two bridges and a train station. American forces also struck military infrastructure on Kharg Island for the second time, a key hub for Iranian oil production.
Israel’s military warned of an increased risk of inbound attacks as Trump’s deadline approached.
Before the announcement, blasts were heard in the Qatari capital Doha, while the UAE said its air defenses were responding to missile threats.
