Pezeshkian says Iran will reciprocate immediately if United States returns to June deal
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday that Tehran would “immediately” reciprocate if the United States returned to a June deal aimed at ending their war.
“I state explicitly that if the United States returns to its commitments under the aforementioned memorandum of understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately take reciprocal action,” Pezeshkian said at a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan, according to the Iranian presidency website.
The memorandum was meant to halt months of hostilities that began in late February with US and Israeli attacks on Iran. The deal later collapsed, with each side accusing the other of violating its terms. Pezeshkian’s remarks came as the Strait of Hormuz remained the central dispute and as the two countries resumed exchanging fire on Monday after more than a month of relative calm. Tehran has kept the waterway closed while saying it would honour the deal—including reopening Hormuz—if Washington did the same.
On Monday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the United States must return to the commitments its president signed. “In that case, everything can be put back on the right track.”
The offer is conditional and sequential: Iran presents reciprocity as automatic once the United States moves first. That framing leaves the timing of any reopening of Hormuz in Washington’s hands, at least in Tehran’s public account. Whether the June text can be revived after the latest strikes and counter-strikes depends on whether either capital treats the memorandum as still binding or as a document already overtaken by events. Until one side acts on the text rather than restating it, the strait stays closed and the diplomatic track remains a statement of terms rather than a working ceasefire.
