Iran and U.S. Sign Memorandum of Understanding After April Cease-Fire

Iran and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding ending their war after an April cease-fire and nearly 70 days of indirect talks brokered by Pakistan and Qatar. The two sides held their first round of talks under the MOU in Switzerland this month.

They produced a road map to a final agreement within 60 days, working groups on nuclear enrichment, sanctions, and implementation, and new channels to keep the Strait of Hormuz open and the Lebanon cease-fire intact. The hardest questions were deferred to the 60-day window, with Tehran insisting that implementation comes first.

The blockade on the Strait of Hormuz has been lifted, and the Iranian rial gained more than 15 percent against the dollar in the days after the announcement.

Iranian commentary across the political spectrum described a closing of ranks during the war. Former lawmaker Mansour Arami spoke in April of alignment across political, military, and social spheres. The foreign ministry said every organ of the state acted with one voice.

Hard-line newspapers stated the talks proceeded under the personal oversight of the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. Esmail Qaani, commander of Iran’s Quds Force, described the country’s negotiators and soldiers as men cut from the same cloth of armed resistance.

In late May, the Paydari Front and the network around Saeed Jalili mounted an effort to strip Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf of the parliamentary speakership. Ghalibaf survived and secured the speakership for a seventh year. Reformist commentators described persistent calls for Masoud Pezeshkian to resign as a strategy of attrition.