US and Iran Agree to Halt Strikes, Plan Tuesday Talks in Qatar

Tehran, MINA – The United States and Iran have agreed to halt attacks and meet in Qatar on Tuesday to resolve their dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, according to a report from Axios news website .

A senior US official told Axios that Washington has decided to stop all “kinetic activity”, the military term for strikes and other attacks . The agreement comes after several days of tit-for-tat strikes that threatened to unravel the fragile ceasefire reached earlier this month.

The renewed fighting stemmed from differing interpretations of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that ended the war, particularly provisions concerning the strategic waterway .

Under the MOU signed on June 17, Iran pledged to make its best efforts to ensure the safe passage of commercial vessels through the strait, while the US agreed to lift its blockade of Iranian ports .

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The Tuesday meeting in Doha was originally scheduled to take place in Switzerland to discuss Iran’s nuclear program. However, the recent escalation prompted a change of venue and shifted the focus to shipping security in the Strait of Hormuz.

During talks in Switzerland last week, US Vice President JD Vance and the Iranian delegation agreed to establish a hotline between the US military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to coordinate maritime traffic through the waterway .

By Saturday, however, the hotline was still not operational, even as Iran resumed asserting that ships must coordinate their passage through the strait.

The latest hostilities began Thursday when an Iranian projectile hit a cargo vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, with both sides accusing the other of breaking the ceasefire . The US responded with strikes on Iranian military targets, while Iran launched attacks on US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain .

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Iran maintains that it has the exclusive right to manage traffic in the Strait of Hormuz under the preliminary peace arrangement. The US disputes that interpretation, arguing that the agreement does not grant Iran control over the waterway.

A US official confirmed to Axios that both sides will stand down “for now” and that vessels will be able to move freely through the strait. []

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)

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