Iran announced on June 24 that technical negotiations with the United States and intermediary parties in Switzerland have concluded successfully, laying the groundwork for the next phase of talks aimed at ending the more than 100-day conflict between the two countries.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, who led the technical negotiation team, said the four-party talks concluded with an agreement on arrangements for future negotiations, including working groups and enforcement mechanisms. The news was reported by Iran's official IRNA news agency on June 24.
Gharibabadi said the discussions followed a high-level committee meeting on June 23 to oversee the implementation of the Islamabad Memorandum, a framework agreement virtually signed by the US and Iranian presidents on June 17 to end the war. He stressed: "The technical discussions were held to determine the mechanism for implementing the memorandum and the statement concluding the high-level meeting, and the necessary agreements were reached."
Earlier, senior Iranian negotiator Mohammad Ghalibaf said an agreement had been reached with the US to unfreeze $12 billion in frozen Iranian assets. US President Donald Trump stated that the funds would be used to purchase American agricultural goods, specifically corn, soybeans, and other products from American farmers.
The US Treasury also announced a 60-day waiver allowing Iran to sell its oil and petrochemical products. Journalist Alan Fisher, reporting from Washington DC, noted this was a major turning point as it marks a reversal of the years-long policy of sanctions on Iranian oil. "Previously, Iran could sell oil at a large discount because countries were afraid of violating US sanctions. Now Iran can sell oil at full price, bringing hundreds of millions of dollars to Iran's economy," Fisher analyzed.
Regarding the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway that carries about one-fifth of global energy, Tehran has agreed to establish a communication line with the US to ensure maritime safety. However, Ghalibaf insisted that the situation in the strait will not return to pre-conflict conditions: "People should know that the management of the strait will never return to what it was before the war, even though we fully comply with international law." Previously, Tehran had tightened control of the narrow strait by attacking or threatening to attack passing vessels as part of its response to the US-Israel war against Iran.
