Iran’s chief negotiator and parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, warned Washington on Sunday that “the era of one-sided deals is over,” telling US officials to honour the Islamabad memorandum of understanding (MoU) or “pay the price.” The ultimatum, posted on social media with an image of Clause 5 of the 18 June accord, came after a third wave of US strikes hit southern Iran and Iranian forces launched coordinated missile and drone attacks on American military sites across the Gulf. The cited clause states that “the Islamic Republic of Iran will make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels … for 60 days only,” a formulation Tehran now reads as confirmation of its sole authority over the Strait of Hormuz.

According to US Central Command, the latest American strikes—part of over 300 targets hit since the start of the week—aimed to degrade Iran’s ability to control the strait. In retaliation, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) reported strikes on Jordan’s Prince Hassan Air Base, Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base, and logistical facilities at Oman’s Port of Duqm, as well as an attack on a second “offending vessel” inside the strait. Simultaneously, the Iranian Army said it launched drone operations against air-defence, radar and communications sites in Kuwait and Bahrain. Tehran maintains the operations were a response to repeated US violations of the ceasefire and an “illegal movement of vessels” south of Hormuz, which triggered an initial Iranian naval response. The strait—chokepoint for a fifth of global oil supply—remains closed by Iranian forces, who say it will not reopen until “the US ends its interventions in the region.”

The Islamabad MoU, brokered after weeks of confrontation, was designed to halt hostilities, lift the naval blockade, reopen the waterway, and pave the way for unfreezing Iranian assets and issuing US licences for oil exports. Western diplomatic observers note that the text deliberately left maritime management provisions ambiguous, allowing Iran to assert that the “arrangements” clause gives it the final say over passage, while Washington insists it will guarantee freedom of navigation. From Tehran’s perspective, the US strikes—justified by American officials as necessary to protect commercial shipping—represent a unilateral abrogation of the deal. In American statements, however, the military operations are cast as a limited, parallel track to ongoing diplomacy, not a return to full-scale war.

The escalation unfolds against the backdrop of the collapsed 2015 nuclear accord, which the US abandoned in 2018, and a year of clandestine Israeli–Iranian strikes, including reported 2025 attacks on Iranian enrichment sites. Moscow-based analysts argue that control of the strait remains Tehran’s principal leverage: while closure exacts an economic cost on Iran, the global energy disruption gives it bargaining power that few capitals can ignore. No new round of talks has yet been announced, though both sides have signalled a readiness to keep channels open. The immediate next step, according to a European assessment, rests on whether Washington refrains from further strikes and allows the MoU’s temporary safe-passage provision—set to expire in 60 days—to be tested on the ground.