Agencies
Washington/Islamabad
Vice-President JD Vance said on Thursday that the US Navy has allowed more than a dozen ships through to Iranian ports, lifting a blockade as part of an agreement to end the war.
Vance made the announcement at a White House press briefing, where he said more oil is now flowing through the Strait of Hormuz. The Republican Vice-President said more than 12.5 million barrels went through the shipping channel on Wednesday night.
“So we’re also honouring our end of the early part of the agreement on the military side,” Vance said, citing it as an immediate benefit of the deal as he downplayed criticism that the agreement tilts in favour of Iran.
And in an extraordinary rebuke, he warned US critics in Israel against “attacking the only powerful ally” it has left. He lashed out at members of the Israeli government, warning them that “Donald J Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time.”
Vance said he plans to travel to Switzerland for talks on the Iran deal but he doesn’t know when that will happen. He had been expected to lead talks on implementing the agreement with Iran aimed at diluting its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and restarting oil traffic through the Strait of
Hormuz.
On Tuesday, two oil tankers left Iran and crossed the US military blockade without being stopped. A merchant shipping tracking website said the ships were carrying a combined total of 3.8 million barrels of Iranian
crude oil.
Iranian state media said that shipping has “normalised” at Iran’s southern ports but added that the Strait of Hormuz remains supervised and under the control of the Iranian military and transiting through the vital waterway still requires coordination.
Major shipowners have begun moving vessels through the Strait of Hormuz since the agreement was signed, according to maritime data company Lloyd’s List Intelligence – though they did not give data on how many ships have passed through the strait as of Thursday.
It is pertinent to note that Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday signed the Islamabad memorandum of understanding – aimed at restoring peace in West Asia – as the key mediator of the negotiations, his office said.
The document was already signed by US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday.
Sharif’s signing of the MoU, in which Washington and Tehran are the two main parties, comes a day ahead of a planned ceremony in Switzerland, where key negotiators from the US, Iran, Pakistan and Qatar are expected to gather.
Pakistan has officially signed as a guarantor.
“Prime Minister of Pakistan Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif signed the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding as a guarantor. Signatures of US President Donald Trump and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian are present on the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding,” Sharif’s office said in a post on X.
The Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday also shared photographs and videos of him signing the document.
Trump on Wednesday signed the memorandum of understanding at the Palace of Versailles in France, where he had dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron after the G7 summit. Later, Iranian media posted photos of President Pezeshkian holding a copy of the signed document before a camera.
Sharif on Thursday said that the signing of the agreement at the highest level of the respective governments demonstrates the commitment of both sides to a diplomatic resolution of the conflict, as he thanked West Asian countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkiye and Egypt for their contribution.
