The US has dropped its naval blockade of Iran after the two countries signed a deal to end the war in the Middle East.

US Central Command confirmed the end of the blockade on X "in accordance with the President's direction", and said some US vessels would remain "in the general area".

Soon afterwards, Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said he had approved the deal with the US despite having a "different view", without elaborating. He said he allowed it to go ahead after assurances from Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian that he would "protect the rights of the Iranian nation".

Khamenei said President Trump had "out of desperation, used all kinds of leverage" to bring the deal about.

The supreme leader said that while there would be "in-person negotiations in the future" between Tehran and Washington, this "will not mean acceptance of the enemy's position".

This is the first time Khamenei has responded to the agreement. He has not been seen in public since he took office in March following the killing of his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the 28 February US-Israeli strikes on Iran that sparked the regional war.

Trump did not directly respond to Khamanei's statement, but posted on Truth Social that he expects a ceasefire to take effect "on all fronts", including between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, and that he expects countries in the Middle East to "maintain their commitment to allowing our negotiations" to take place.

The US-Iran deal centres around 14 core points, including the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a requirement that Iran should never have a nuclear weapon, and a commitment to a $300bn (£227bn) fund for the "reconstruction and economic development" of the country - although the US is not required to contribute.

It also binds both sides to achieving a final deal in a "maximum" of 60 days, which could be extended with mutual consent.

The official signing ceremony had been set to take place in Switzerland on Friday. However, mediator Pakistan told the BBC it had been cancelled because the deal had already been signed remotely. US and Iranian representatives are still expected to meet in Switzerland for further talks.

Speaking to reporters at a White House briefing, US Vice-President JD Vance said the deal had come into effect, triggering the 60-day period of further talks, and that he would likely head to Switzerland for "technical negotiations".

He did not confirm when, adding that Iran was "not an easy country to get out of" and that they were "trying to figure out exactly when that was going to happen".

Trump's decision to end the war with Iran has raised criticism from some in the US, including Republicans dismayed by the terms of the deal - especially the provision of a reconstruction fund for Iran.

Republican Senator Bill Cassidy described the agreement as the "worst foreign policy blunder in decades".

"Iran's nuclear ambitions were not curbed, and they have learned that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works," he said.

Vance defended the deal on Thursday, saying that Iran will not receive money or sanctions relief unless it meets obligations set out in the agreement.

He said the deal, known as the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), requires Iran to destroy its stockpile of enriched uranium, and show it will not fund proxy groups in the region.

Vance also castigated members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet for criticising the Iran deal, saying they should "wake up and smell the reality".

"If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world," the vice-president told reporters.

In an interview with the New York Times also published on Thursday, Vance named Israel's national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich as critics of the deal.

He said: "I guess my response to them would be - what is your exact proposal? You're a country of nine million people. You can't just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have."

Netanyahu himself stressed the importance of maintaining Israel's close ties with the US on Thursday, saying Washington had stood "shoulder to shoulder" with the country during the war with Iran.

But both Israel and Hezbollah have carried out strikes against each other since the US-Iran agreement was announced, including strikes reported in Lebanon on Thursday that killed three people.

Israel argues its conflict against Hezbollah is separate from its war on Iran. Hezbollah has also rejected the terms of the deal between Iran and the US.

Vance told reporters that Israel would have to respect the peace process with Iran, which he said was good for them, stating that attacks in Lebanon's capital Beirut that kill civilians are "not acceptable".’

Source: BBC

--Agencies