Vance confirms U.S. Navy has lifted Iran blockade as part of deal built on action, not trust

Vice President JD Vance announced Thursday that the U.S. Navy has lifted its blockade on Iranian ports, allowing more than a dozen ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz as part of the memorandum of understanding signed overnight between Washington and Tehran. The move marks the most tangible early concession from the American side, and the administration is betting that a structure built on verified conduct, not diplomatic promises, will hold.

"We don't trust words," Vance told reporters at a White House briefing. "We trust action and we trust conduct."

The deal, formally called the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, starts a 60-day negotiating clock aimed at reaching a final agreement on the future of Iran's nuclear program. In exchange for waiving U.S.-backed sanctions and reopening the strait, Iran is expected to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium under supervision from the International Atomic Energy Agency. Sanctions have been waived, not eliminated, a distinction the administration has emphasized as its insurance policy.

Oil flows and gas prices move immediately

The results showed up fast. More than 12.5 million barrels flowed through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday night, the highest volume since the conflict began. Tankers controlled by major owners, Grimaldi Group, Cosco, Knutsen, and NYK, transited the strait for the first time in 110 days, according to Lloyd's List Intelligence. Two Iran-flagged crude oil tankers owned by the National Iranian Tanker Company also entered the waterway.

Richard Meade, editor-in-chief of Lloyd's List, said ships owned by major companies had been effectively marooned since February. That logjam broke within hours of the agreement's signing.

Gas prices at home responded in kind. AAA reported the national average fell to $3.999 per gallon on Thursday, the first time it dipped below $4 since March. The relief is uneven: California drivers still face an average of $5.64, while South Carolina motorists pay $3.58. And prices remain roughly 25 percent higher than the same period last year, a reminder that the conflict's damage to energy markets has not been fully unwound.

Still, the direction matters. Under the blockade imposed in April, Iran's oil exports had nearly ground to a halt. Iran earned an estimated $45 billion from oil sales last year, and the stranglehold on that revenue was the core leverage that brought Tehran to the table. The administration's gamble is that the threat of reimposing that pressure, sanctions waived, not lifted, will keep Iran honest through the 60-day window.

The strait is open, but the highway is not clear

The physical reality in the Strait of Hormuz is more complicated than the diplomatic language suggests. Phillip Belcher, marine director of Intertanko, the trade group for global independent tanker owners, said the main central shipping route remains closed, with an estimated 80 mines still in place.

"This is like a highway where the road in the middle is closed and you're using that hard shoulder. That's now being used as the main route. We need to get back to having the highway open."

Ships are currently using a Northern route through Iranian waters and a Southern route through Omani waters. Who will clear those 80 mines, and on what timeline, remains an open question, one the administration has not publicly addressed.

That gap matters. A deal that reopens commerce but leaves a minefield in the world's most important oil chokepoint is not yet a finished product. It is a down payment. The administration appears to understand this, which is why the MOU was structured as an interim framework rather than a final settlement.

What the deal requires, and what it leaves open

The agreement calls for a permanent end to hostilities. It requires Tehran to dilute, or "downblend", its highly enriched uranium under IAEA supervision. It calls for an end to the war in Lebanon and requires Iran to restrain Hezbollah from attacking Israel. It promises the eventual lifting of all international sanctions, going further than the 2015 nuclear accord that Trump previously scuttled. And it includes a $300 billion fund for postwar reconstruction, though Trump stated the United States would not contribute to it.

The specific enrichment level of Iran's stockpile, its current quantity, and the precise mechanism for destruction remain undisclosed. The New York Post reported that Trump spent over two hours in the Situation Room with Vance, Secretary of State Rubio, and other senior officials to finalize the deal's details. Trump posted on Truth Social that Iran's enriched material, which he called "Nuclear Dust", "will be unearthed by the United States... in close coordination and conjunction with the Islamic Republic of Iran, plus the International Atomic Energy Agency, and DESTROYED."

That language is blunt. The execution will be harder. A two-phase framework is in play: Phase One lifts the blockade in exchange for unrestricted shipping through the strait, with the 60-day negotiating window for further talks. Phase Two addresses the nuclear program directly. China may play a role in the extraction process for Iran's buried enriched uranium, a detail that will draw scrutiny from hawks on both sides of the aisle.

Congress left waiting

The White House sent the MOU text to lawmakers on national security committees Thursday morning. But as of Thursday, the administration had not formally briefed members of Congress, including leadership. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he anticipated a briefing "early next week." House members were not even in Washington this week.

Vance said the administration feels "quite confident" that congressional approval is not needed to waive sanctions. He added that officials have been "informally" keeping members up to date and pledged a formal briefing soon.

"We're going to ensure that the team briefs Congress and of course answers their questions."

The delay is notable. Trump previously indicated openness to letting Congress review an emerging Iran deal, but the timeline suggests the administration moved to lock in the agreement before that review could shape its terms. Whether that was strategic urgency or executive overreach depends on where you sit, but the constitutional question of who controls sanctions policy will not go away quietly.

Vance defends 'gentlemen's agreements'

Vance acknowledged that some elements of the deal with Iran rest on spoken commitments rather than written provisions. He defended the structure by pointing to the performance-based design of the agreement.

"So some of them are written down, but fundamentally, whether they're written down or spoken, this is why we structured the deal that we did, because we don't trust words."

The vice president also addressed Trump's statement from Wednesday that it was acceptable for Iran to have ballistic missiles. Vance framed it as a matter of practical realism rather than a concession.

"And look, I mean, it's very simple. You can't tell a country, whether Israel or Iran, they're not allowed to have any self-defense."

He drew the line at intercontinental capability: "They are not going to be able to build the kind of missiles that can broadly threaten the entire world, and that's what the president of United States said yesterday." The distinction between regional deterrence and global threat is real, but it will face sharp questioning from lawmakers who view any Iranian missile capacity as unacceptable.

Hegseth: 'The War Department will be right here'

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking before boarding a plane after meetings at NATO headquarters in Brussels, made clear that the military option has not been shelved. He cast the armed forces as the backstop to diplomacy.

"Iran's going to have every opportunity to cut the kind of deal they should at the table, and if they don't, the War Department will be right here ready to go."

Hegseth drew a direct contrast with the Obama administration's approach to the 2015 nuclear accord. "We're going to be the big stick behind the negotiations that never existed under President Obama," he said. He described the entire framework, military posture and economic incentives alike, as "all performance based."

At the same Brussels meeting, Hegseth announced a six-month Pentagon review of American forces in Europe and criticized NATO allies for insufficient support during the Iran conflict. The details of that review remain thin, but the message was pointed: the United States expects its partners to share the burden, not just the benefits, of Western security.

Trump's earlier declaration that Iran hostilities were over set the diplomatic stage for this moment. The MOU formalizes what that letter previewed, but adds binding mechanisms and a clock.

Netanyahu holds the line in Lebanon

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his first public remarks since the deal was signed, and they were not about Iran's nuclear program. They were about southern Lebanon.

Netanyahu vowed that Israeli forces would "maintain a security zone in southern Lebanon, and it requires that we must not leave there as long as Israel's security needs require it." Israeli troops currently occupy territory up to 10 kilometers, roughly 6 miles, from the Lebanese border.

The MOU calls for an end to the war in Lebanon and requires Iran to restrain Hezbollah. But what that means in practice remains unclear. Netanyahu has made similar statements before about refusing to withdraw from southern Lebanon. Iran's supreme leader endorsed the agreement despite reservations, but whether Tehran can or will actually rein in Hezbollah is a question the next 60 days will have to answer.

A deal built on leverage, not faith

The administration's theory of the case is straightforward: maximum pressure brought Iran to the table, and the threat of reimposing that pressure will keep it there. Sanctions are waived, not eliminated. The blockade is lifted, not dismantled. The military is postured, not withdrawn. Every concession is reversible.

That architecture is the opposite of the 2015 accord, which front-loaded relief and back-loaded verification. The Trump administration's approach puts conduct first and rewards second. Whether Iran will hold up its end, diluting its uranium, restraining Hezbollah, negotiating in good faith over 60 days, is the trillion-dollar question.

Vance put it plainly: "Words don't matter."

For American drivers paying less at the pump, for shipping companies moving cargo through the strait for the first time in months, and for a region exhausted by conflict, the early returns are real. But so is the risk. A deal that depends on the good behavior of a regime that has broken every previous agreement it has signed is only as strong as the consequences for cheating.

The administration says the consequences are loaded and ready. The next 60 days will show whether that is a credible deterrent, or an optimistic assumption dressed up as strategy.