The presidents of the United States and Iran signed a provisional framework agreement to end the war in the Middle East, according to reports by Iranian state media that were confirmed by two US officials to the news website Axios.
According to a senior US source, American President Donald Trump signed the agreement during a dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles.
"The text of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding has been finalised with the presidents’ signatures," said a spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, quoted by the Irna news agency.
The spokesperson stated that the signing had taken place digitally and that a signing ceremony was "not really appropriate".
The so-called memorandum of understanding stipulates that the Strait of Hormuz will be reopened and that all conflicts in the region will be brought to an end, including those in Lebanon.
The US also promised to lift sanctions against Iran and to set up a fund worth billions of dollars for Iran's reconstruction. The text of the provisional agreement was leaked to US media on Wednesday and was later also shared by Iranian state media.
'Immediate effect'
According to Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the US-Iran agreement is coming into force "with immediate effect", he said on social media early Thursday morning.
Pakistan played a key role as a mediator in the peace negotiations between Washington and Tehran. Sharif was the first to report, during the night from Sunday to Monday, that both parties had reached an agreement.
According to him, as a first step under the agreement, Iran will immediately open the Strait of Hormuz. The US, in turn, will immediately lift its blockade of Iranian ports.
In an earlier version of his social media post, Sharif claimed that a signing ceremony was still scheduled for Friday in Switzerland, as previously announced. In a later version of his post, that statement was no longer to be found.
