Iran said Tuesday it would reciprocate if the United States honoured its commitments under a June interim deal aimed at ending their conflict, though tensions remained high after President Trump threatened Tehran with further strikes.
“I am stating clearly that if the U.S. returns to its commitments under the Memorandum of Understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately reciprocate,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said, speaking in Bishkek during a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
The memorandum, signed in June, called for an end to fighting on all fronts, the lifting of the U.S. naval blockade on Iran and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. It quickly unravelled and was followed by a 60-day negotiation period that ended without further agreement. Tehran has said it will allow free navigation through the Strait only once Washington implements the deal’s terms.
The offer came a day after the first direct exchange of strikes between the two countries since late July. The U.S. attacked Iran’s Larak Island on Sunday, prompting Iran to fire missiles overnight at two American air bases in Jordan. “We’re going to hit them hard … There will be a response,” Trump told Fox News on Monday, though he separately told reporters the renewed strikes did not signal a full return to war.
Oil prices rose following the exchange and reports that two tankers came under fire while leaving the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has largely closed to shipping throughout the six-month conflict. The fighting, which began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, has killed thousands of people, mainly in Iran and Lebanon.
Washington has increasingly turned to economic pressure in place of military escalation. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that countries doing business with Iran could face American sanctions, saying new secondary sanctions targeting banks are likely to be rolled out weekly. Iran’s central bank governor, Abdolnaser Hemmati, said Tehran had sufficient foreign currency reserves and that the bank was prepared to inject up to $2 billion into foreign exchange markets to calm recent volatility.
