US and Iran reach preliminary nuclear agreement in Islamabad; Hormuz monitoring agreed

ISLAMABAD — The United States and Iran initialed a preliminary nuclear agreement here Tuesday, formally ending six weeks of open conflict and establishing an international monitoring regime for the Strait of Hormuz, according to officials from all three governments.

The framework, signed at the Prime Minister's House after eleven days of shuttle diplomacy mediated by Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, caps Iranian uranium enrichment at 3.67 percent, requires Tehran to ship out approximately 380 kilograms of stockpiled material enriched above that threshold, and restores continuous IAEA access to the Natanz and Fordow facilities within 45 days. In exchange, Washington will lift sanctions on Iran's central bank and authorize the release of roughly $9.6 billion in frozen oil revenues held in escrow accounts in Doha and Seoul, according to a four-page joint statement released by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry.

"This is a foundation, not a finish line, but the guns are silent and the ships are moving," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in the Foreign Office briefing room, flanked by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Iran's lead negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi. "President Trump's instruction was simple: stop the war, secure the waterway, prevent the bomb. Today we did all three."

Under the Hormuz provisions, a joint monitoring cell composed of Omani, Pakistani, and Emirati naval officers, with American and Iranian liaisons, will operate from a coordination center in Muscat beginning June 1. Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps fast-attack craft will withdraw from the Hengam and Abu Musa exclusion zones agreed during the April 22 ceasefire extension, and the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group will pull back from the Gulf of Oman to the central Arabian Sea, two U.S. defense officials confirmed.

Araghchi, speaking through an interpreter, called the accord "a recognition that pressure has limits and that dialogue, however bitter, remains the only road." President Trump, posting on Truth Social shortly after the signing, wrote that the deal was "the BEST agreement ever reached with Iran — peace through strength, exactly as promised."

Markets reacted swiftly. Brent crude fell $7.40 to $82.10 per barrel in late London trading, the sharpest single-session drop since 2023, while Tehran's TEDPIX index opened 6 percent higher Wednesday. Lloyd's of London announced it would review the war-risk premiums imposed on Gulf shipping last month, which had pushed insurance costs above $500,000 per voyage.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who hosted the closing session, called the outcome "a victory for diplomacy and for every nation that depends on the free movement of energy." A second round of negotiations, addressing ballistic missile ranges and regional proxy activity, is scheduled to begin in Muscat on May 18.