Washington moved quickly to reopen Iran’s sea lanes after President Donald Trump signed an agreement aimed at ending the Middle East war, lifting a wartime blockade that had choked traffic in and out of the country’s ports.
In a post on X, US Central Command said: “Today, U.S. forces lifted the blockade on all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas.”
The command said American warships “will remain in the general area to make sure that all aspects of the agreement are adhered to”.
Today, U.S. forces lifted the blockade on all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas, in accordance with the President’s direction. American forces are not impeding the transit of vessels to or from Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of…
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) June 18, 2026
The announcement came as questions swirled around planned talks in Switzerland intended to build on the accord.
The path forward remained hazy, with no certainty that the two countries — which have lacked diplomatic ties since the 1979 Islamic revolution — would attend a signing ceremony and hold talks in Switzerland tomorrow, as previously announced.
Oil prices fell sharply after the deal was struck, although shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remained subdued. The narrow waterway, a critical artery for global energy supplies, was blockaded by Iran during the war and is meant to reopen immediately under the agreement.
The US military said it had also ended its own naval blockade of Iranian ports, which had stopped vessels from travelling to and from the Islamic republic, while stressing that American warships “will remain in the general area”.
Three Saudi oil tankers sailed out of the Gulf through the strait today, according to maritime trackers, while the loaded liquefied natural gas vessel (LNG) Mraikh became the first such French vessel to complete the passage since the conflict began.
US Vice President JD Vance said the American military, which imposed its own blockade after Iran closed the Strait at the outset of the war, had already permitted at least 12 ships to pass.
Before the war, roughly 120 vessels crossed the strait each day, according to shipping journal Lloyd’s List.
Mr Vance said he now expected to travel to Switzerland for “technical negotiations” with Iran “this weekend” rather than tomorrow, while cautioning that the plan “could change”.
In Iran, the Tasnim agency reported that “nothing has been confirmed” regarding the Iranian delegation’s trip to Switzerland.
‘Maybe they start fighting again’
The agreement is intended to close the chapter on the current US-Israeli conflict with the Islamic republic, after five weeks of full-scale war that lasted until a ceasefire was reached in early April.
Yet in Tehran, not everyone sounded convinced that peace would hold.
“I have no hope that this is a lasting agreement. Maybe after the 60 days they start fighting again,” said Mina, 54, a psychologist from Tehran.
Under the terms of the deal, Washington agrees to immediately waive oil sanctions that have battered Iran’s economy.
The text also says that once a final agreement is secured on Iran’s nuclear programme, the United States will help unlock a $300 billion reconstruction fund backed by regional countries.
US officials said Iran would also dilute its enriched uranium stockpile, potentially through “down-blending on site” under the supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog.
The agreement makes no mention of Iran’s ballistic missile programme, despite years of pressure from Israel for it to be dismantled.
US Vice President JD Vance said that he will go to Switzerland for ‘technical negotiations’
‘Either jealous or stupid’
Mr Trump’s decision to stop the war — a conflict in which 13 US service members were killed and large portions of US ammunition stockpiles were consumed — has rattled some of his allies at home.
US Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican, called it the “worst foreign policy blunder in decades”.
“Iran’s nuclear ambitions were not curbed, and they have learned that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works,” he said.
Seemingly bracing for that line of attack, Mr Trump said at a G7 summit that he was ready to “bomb the hell” out of Iran if it broke the agreement.
“These fools, who think I haven’t been tough enough on Iran, when the Stock Market Just Hit A RECORD HIGH, and Oil prices are ‘tumbling’ down, are either jealous, bad people, or stupid,” Mr Trump added on social media.
Hardliners inside Iran have also voiced criticism, where the conflict was cast as an “imposed war” and likened to the 1980-1988 war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
Still, parliament speaker and top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf argued the agreement marked a US “failure”, while Pezeshkian hailed it as “historic”.
Mr Vance, meanwhile, sharply criticised Israeli opponents of the deal, saying Mr Trump is Israel’s only ally in a pointed rebuke that invoked the billions of dollars in US defence aid the country receives.
He was responding to a report that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was furious about the agreement.
Mr Vance said he had not heard those remarks directly from Mr Netanyahu, but he rebuked members of the Israeli prime minister’s cabinet, saying they had attacked the deal and personally targeted Mr Trump.
“My message to them would be twofold. No. 1: 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,” Mr Vance told reporters at the White House.
“If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.”
‘Just one thing’
Agnes Lavallois, president of France’s Institute for Research and Studies on the Mediterranean and the Middle East, said the prevailing view was that the Americans “wanted just one thing – the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.”
“The other issues that were put forward to justify this war are no longer relevant at all,” she told AFP.
Israeli Merkava tanks driving along a road past destroyed buildings in southern Lebanon
Although the deal says Lebanon should be part of the broader picture, it remains uncertain whether the war between Israel and Hezbollah on that front will be addressed over the next 60 days.
After reports of strain with Washington, Mr Netanyahu stressed the need to preserve close relations with the United States, saying “the struggle is not yet over, and further challenges lie ahead.”
