The US and Iran have agreed to cease the latest round of hostilities and meet in Qatar on Tuesday to address their dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, according to media reports.
According to the US news site Axios, renewed fighting stemmed from differing interpretations of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that ended the war, particularly provisions concerning the Strait of Hormuz.
“We decided to stop all the kinetic activity,” a senior US official told Axios, using the military term for strikes and other attacks.
Under the memorandum, 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.
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, according to the report.
Tuesday’s meeting had initially been scheduled for Switzerland to discuss Iran’s nuclear program, but the latest escalation prompted a change of venue to Doha and shifted the focus to the Strait of Hormuz.
