US President Donald Trump signed the document late on Wednesday, 17 June, at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris, on the margins of this week's Group of Seven (G7) summit in France. Video released by French President Emmanuel Macron showed Trump signing the text. Asked by a reporter as he left Versailles, Trump confirmed it was signed and called the agreement hard-won.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed separately, according to Iranian state media. The Islamic Republic News Agency and the state broadcaster IRIB published an image early on Thursday showing Pezeshkian holding up a copy bearing his signature. The prime minister of Pakistan, which mediated between Washington and Tehran, also signed the text, according to copies of the agreement reported by US outlets. Pakistan's prominent role as broker, alongside Qatar, is notable given the diplomacy now unfolding on India's doorstep.
When and where it was signed
The signing came earlier than scheduled. The MoU had been due to be formalised in a ceremony in Switzerland on Friday, 19 June, with hundreds of journalists already gathering in Lucerne. Instead, Trump signed in Versailles on Wednesday night and Pezeshkian signed in Tehran. The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed the signing, describing it as an important step towards de-escalation and saying implementation talks would begin in Switzerland.
Under the Swiss-described plan, the US and Iran, together with mediators Pakistan and Qatar and other parties, were expected to meet at the Bürgenstock resort for the first round of negotiations. US Vice President JD Vance, who is leading the American team, delayed his trip, and the opening of talks slipped at short notice. Officials gave no clear public reason for the delay, which raised questions about how durable the framework would prove.
Impact on India
For Indian readers, the most consequential clause is the one reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Nearly half of India's crude oil and a large share of its gas imports pass through the narrow Gulf chokepoint, and India imports roughly 90 per cent of the crude it consumes. The disruption since Iran shut the Strait earlier in the conflict had pushed up India's import bill, freight rates and shipping insurance premiums.
Markets responded quickly to the agreement. Benchmark Brent crude fell more than 5 per cent to about 82 dollars a barrel after the deal was reported, easing fears of an inflation and current-account shock for India. Analysts cautioned, however, that relief would be gradual. Madhavi Arora, chief economist at Emkay Global, said normalisation of Hormuz flows would take weeks if not months because of tanker availability, insurance costs, mine clearance and the time needed to restart shuttered oil wells. Mine-clearing operations are expected to run for roughly 40 to 50 days before insurers and shipping firms regain confidence. Ajay Srivastava of the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) had earlier warned that any prolonged closure would inflate India's import bill and strain its fiscal position.
The human dimension is immediate. Indian officials have said around 13 Indian-crewed vessels remained stranded in or around the Strait, with the LNG carrier Disha among the few to have exited so far. Shipping-tracker data cited by Indian officials showed only about 40 to 50 vessels passing through the western section of the Strait between 16 and 18 June, against 80 to 100 in normal times. The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri have been tracking the resumption of traffic.
The war had also reshaped India's import mix. With Gulf supply squeezed, Washington granted a 30-day waiver easing sanctions to let India buy Russian crude stranded at sea, a measure US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described as short-term. Analysts noted the waiver did not change India's underlying dependence on West Asian supply routes. A lasting reopening of Hormuz, alongside the prospect of sanctions relief for Iran, could also revive Indian commercial interests in Iran, including the Chabahar port, which New Delhi has developed as a trade gateway to Central Asia and Afghanistan.
What the 14-point memorandum says
Neither government released a physical copy immediately. A US official read the text to reporters, and several news organisations later obtained copies. The MoU runs to 14 points. Its main provisions, as described by US and Iranian officials and in media reports, include:
Ceasefire on all fronts. The first clause calls for the immediate and permanent end of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and commits both sides to respect Lebanon's territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Mutual non-interference. Both countries pledge to respect each other's sovereignty and to refrain from interfering in each other's internal affairs, language widely read as the US stepping back from any goal of regime change in Tehran.
Naval blockade. The US agrees to begin removing its naval blockade immediately and to lift it fully within 30 days, with traffic restored in proportion to pre-war levels.
Strait of Hormuz. Iran commits to make its best efforts to ensure safe passage for commercial vessels, free of charge, for 60 days, and to hold talks with Oman on the future administration of the Strait.
Reconstruction. The US undertakes, with regional partners, to develop a plan worth at least 300 billion dollars for Iran's reconstruction and economic development. The text does not say who would fund it.
Sanctions. The US agrees to lift all types of sanctions on Iran on a schedule to be set in the final deal, without specifying whether UN-mandated measures are included.
Nuclear programme. Iran reaffirms that it will not procure or develop nuclear weapons. The two sides agree to resolve the fate of Iran's enriched-uranium stockpile, with down-blending on site under IAEA supervision cited as a minimum approach.
The MoU extends the existing ceasefire for 60 days, during which negotiators are to reach a final agreement. The hardest issues, above all the long-term future of Iran's nuclear programme, remain unresolved.
The IAEA welcomes the deal
Speaking at the United Nations in Geneva on Thursday, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi welcomed the signing and offered to bring the agency to the table to help verify Iran's nuclear programme, which he called a critical sticking point. He said recognition of the agency's role in the text was a sound starting point and that the technical work was only now beginning.
Grossi said several options existed for reducing the enrichment level of Iran's stockpile and that specifics would depend on what the parties agreed. He acknowledged that the agency's access to Iranian sites was not yet at the level or in all the locations it should be, but said contacts with Tehran were ongoing. He declined to speculate about obstacles, saying talks should begin on the assumption of good faith.
Iran is believed to hold roughly 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 per cent, below weapons-grade but well above the level needed for civilian power. Down-blending, the process named in the MoU, is irreversible. The IAEA, set up in 1957 to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, is an autonomous body within the UN system with 180 member states.
Background to the conflict
The war began on 28 February 2026, when the US and Israel launched strikes on Tehran. Trump said the aim was to halt Iran's nuclear and long-range missile programmes, which he described as a threat to US allies and troops. Soon after, Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz, through which a large share of the world's oil and gas passes, and in April the US imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports, disrupting global energy supplies.
The conflict drew in Lebanon, where Israel has carried out near-daily strikes since early March in fighting linked to the Iran-backed group Hezbollah. The US and Iran held their first direct talks since Iran's 1979 revolution in Pakistan in April. Tehran had repeatedly said an end to Israeli operations in Lebanon and the unfreezing of Iranian assets abroad were preconditions for any wider settlement.
Reactions
Responses were mixed and, in places, sharply divided.
In Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei confirmed he had authorised the agreement while signalling a different view of it, saying in a message read on IRIB that Trump had resorted to pressure out of desperation. Iran's lead negotiator, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said the Strait of Hormuz would not return to pre-war conditions and that Iran would charge a fee for services to shipping, a point not fully settled in the text.
In the US, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy called the deal the worst foreign policy blunder in decades, arguing Iran's nuclear ambitions had not been curbed. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, called it a fiasco and said Trump had given away too much.
Israel, not a party to the agreement, was cautious. Its UN ambassador, Danny Danon, said Israel trusted Trump to negotiate a peace deal, even as Israeli leaders said they would not withdraw forces from Lebanon and strikes there continued. Because Israel and Hezbollah are not signatories, it remained unclear how the Lebanon provisions would be enforced.
Trump celebrated on his Truth Social platform, urging the world's ships to get moving and let the oil flow. Soon after the signing, US Central Command said on Thursday it had ended its naval blockade of vessels travelling to and from Iran.
What comes next
The MoU sets a 60-day clock for a permanent agreement. The toughest questions, including the long-term status of Iran's enriched uranium, the scope and sequencing of sanctions relief, the future management of the Strait of Hormuz and the durability of the Lebanon ceasefire, are still to be settled. For New Delhi, the immediate test will be how quickly tankers return to Hormuz and stranded Indian vessels reach home, and whether crude prices hold their post-deal fall. As Grossi put it in Geneva, the framework is in place, and the technical work is only now starting.