DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Leaked copies of a tentative agreement between the United States and Iran indicate that Tehran will immediately move to reopen the Strait of Hormuz once the deal is officially signed, and will be permitted to sell its oil without any restrictions, according to officials who say the leaked text closely reflects the actual document.
The agreement is scheduled to be formally signed at a ceremony in Switzerland on Friday. Under its terms, the U.S. would work to secure at least $300 billion to help rebuild Iran following the war, and would pursue the removal of all American and United Nations sanctions against Tehran — provided a final agreement on Iran’s nuclear program is eventually reached.
The U.S. concessions — including immediately allowing Iran to sell oil freely and the eventual lifting of all sanctions — go further than the terms Iran received under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of that earlier agreement during his first term, calling it the “worst deal ever.” The new accord is expected to face sharp criticism in Washington and appears to be a significant blow to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who launched the war alongside Trump on Feb. 28.
The agreement also calls for an immediate halt to all fighting in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah. That provision is among the most sensitive in the deal, as Israel has insisted it retains the right to defend itself and continues to occupy large portions of Lebanon. Iran has stated that Israel must withdraw under the terms of the deal, though the leaked versions contain no specific language about a withdrawal.
Both sides are expected to begin 60 days of negotiations aimed at reaching a final agreement — one that the Trump administration says will permanently prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. The generous U.S. offers appear designed to draw Iran into striking a longer-term deal.
In the near term, however, Iran appears to be receiving significant benefits upfront while giving up relatively little. Much of the interim agreement would restore conditions to what they were before the war began, including the cessation of hostilities and the reopening of the strait — a critical passage for global oil and natural gas supplies whose closure triggered a historic energy crisis.
Other major concessions to Iran — including reconstruction funding, full sanctions relief, and the release of frozen assets — appear tied to the outcome of future negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.
A person briefed on the memorandum of understanding after it was signed, and another who reviewed a copy beforehand, both said the leaked text largely matched what was published by Saudi-owned broadcaster Al Arabiya, which reported details of the deal on Tuesday. Both individuals spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. Two additional officials in the Middle East, also speaking anonymously for the same reason, confirmed that versions published by Al Arabiya and Bloomberg broadly matched the final agreement.
The White House and other American officials have not released the terms of the deal and did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Iran has also not published an official version. Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency, which has close ties to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, claimed Wednesday that Bloomberg’s version was missing sections, without providing a complete accounting of what was absent.
The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz represents a major victory for the global economy. The narrow waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf once carried a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded worldwide before the war began. Iranian attacks on shipping and threats to vessels effectively shut down the strait, driving up energy prices globally and making everyday goods — including food — more expensive. Iran allowed some vessels to pass after paying tolls, an unprecedented practice in the strait, which sits in the territorial waters of Iran and Oman and has long been regarded as an international waterway. The U.S. later provided military assistance to help other tankers through, but traffic never returned to prewar levels.
Under the deal, the U.S. would lift a blockade on Iranian ports, and the strait would be expected to return to its prewar traffic levels within 30 days. The agreement also acknowledges that Iranian mines may still be present in the waterway and will need to be cleared.
While full sanctions relief for Iran will depend on future negotiations, the U.S. will immediately issue waivers allowing Iranian oil sales to proceed. Granting those waivers at the outset of the 60-day talks removes a significant point of leverage for the U.S. In the years leading up to the 2015 nuclear deal, Iranian oil faced international sanctions that sharply limited sales, and those sanctions were only lifted upon the completion of that overall agreement.
The interim deal also opens the possibility of ending all sanctions Iran faces from both the U.S. and the United Nations — though the timeline for that would be determined in later talks. That goes well beyond the 2015 deal, which only lifted certain sanctions in exchange for Iran significantly scaling back its uranium enrichment and stockpile.
The accord would also provide Iran with at least $300 billion for reconstruction following an intensive U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign. U.S. Vice President JD Vance has said Gulf Arab nations would supply that amount in the form of investments in Iran.
The interim deal establishes a 60-day window — which can be extended — to negotiate limits on Iran’s nuclear program, a topic that has been discussed across multiple rounds of talks during Trump’s second administration without a breakthrough. Iran maintains its nuclear program is peaceful, though the International Atomic Energy Agency has said Iran possesses enough highly enriched uranium to construct multiple atomic bombs if it chose to do so.
In the interim deal, Iran reaffirms that it will never produce nuclear weapons — a pledge it also made in the 2015 accord. Iranian diplomats have long pointed to statements from the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Iran would not build an atomic bomb. Whether Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, will uphold that position remains uncertain.
Trump has cited varying goals for the war at different points, including vowing to eliminate Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, end its support for Hezbollah and other proxy groups, and at times suggesting the conflict could lead to the fall of the Iranian government. The interim deal falls short of all of those objectives.
The negotiations have also exposed a growing rift between Netanyahu and Trump — Netanyahu’s closest and most powerful international ally — at a time when Netanyahu is facing a reelection campaign and heavy domestic criticism over the emerging deal. Despite that pressure, Netanyahu will find it difficult to oppose Trump given Israel’s deep dependence on U.S. diplomatic and military support.
