Islamabad Memorandum ends US-Iran war

On 17 June 2026 the United States and Iran signed the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran, a 14-point framework agreement to end the war begun on 28 February (see US-Israeli strikes on Iran kill Khamenei; war begins); President Trump signed at the Palace of Versailles, during a dinner with President Emmanuel Macron after the G7 summit, and President Masoud Pezeshkian signed in Tehran, with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif — the mediation’s host since April — also signing as broker, and Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Egypt as additional facilitators.¹ A senior administration official released and read out the 14-point text on 17 June — after several days of criticism that terms agreed the previous weekend had not been made public — and news organisations published it the same day, with NPR publishing it in full on 18 June; the White House did not post the text on its website, and on 19 June released a statement of endorsements titled “President Trump’s Iran Agreement Is America First in Action.”²³ Per the published text, the memorandum provides for the “immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon”; a 60-day negotiating window, extendable with mutual consent, toward a final agreement to be endorsed by a binding UN Security Council resolution; removal of the US naval blockade within 30 days — a term US Central Command discharged early, announcing removal of the blockade on 18 June; Iranian “best efforts” to permit toll-free commercial transit of the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days “only,” with Iran reserving the question of transit fees beyond that window, and demining within 30 days; a plan of “at least” USD 300 billion for reconstruction and economic development; a commitment to a sanctions-termination schedule to be agreed as part of the final deal, with immediate Treasury oil-export waivers; release of frozen assets; and Iran’s reaffirmation that it shall not “procure or develop” nuclear weapons, with its enriched-uranium stockpile to be downblended on site under IAEA supervision.³⁴ The memorandum does not address Iran’s ballistic-missile programme or its regional proxy forces.³

1. The instrument is a memorandum of understanding, not a treaty: it binds as a political framework rather than through Senate advice and consent under Article II § 2 cl. 2, and its durability turns on the 60-day final-deal negotiation and the contemplated Security Council endorsement rather than on domestic ratification. The deferred sanctions-termination schedule intersects statutory sanctions — including those under IEEPA-based executive orders and country-specific statutes — whose termination or waiver runs through existing presidential waiver authorities; the immediate oil-export waivers operate through Treasury licensing.³⁵

2. The memorandum’s cessation clause reaches Lebanon, where Israeli forces have held positions south of the Litani since March; implementation on that front depends on Israel, which is not a signatory. The dual-blockade unwind — the US naval blockade of Iranian ports and Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz — is scheduled asymmetrically: the US removal within 30 days, Iranian demining within 30 days and toll-free transit on a 60-day “best efforts” basis.³

3. The signing follows a war whose cost to US taxpayers through the formal 108-day conflict was estimated at $113.3 billion by the Iran War Cost Tracker (a public tracker built on the Pentagon’s own $11.3 billion six-day figure briefed to Congress), and amid congressional war-powers pressure: the House had adopted H.Con.Res.38 — sponsored by Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), directing removal of US forces from hostilities against Iran under 50 U.S.C. § 1544(c) — by 215-208 on 3 June, with the measure pending in the Senate at the signing.⁶⁷