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Opaquely worded memorandum of misunderstanding at risk of collapsing amid fresh hostilities
The Guardian
|June 29, 2026
The eruption of fresh hostilities in the Gulf - 10 days after Iran and the US signed a memorandum of understanding to end the conflict - threatens to put the countries back on the path to war.
It appears the opaque wording in the memorandum has been unable to withstand the pressure of conflicting interpretations. Statements to the effect that Iran’s government should never have agreed to reopen the strait of Hormuz are proliferating - and not just among the country’s hardliners.
The wording of the 14-point document was deliberately broad on the Lebanon ceasefire and the strait of Hormuz in the hope that, as trust developed between the two sides, a modus vivendi could be found. Instead, the agreement is crumbling, with each side accusing the other of violating its terms.
In Lebanon, the difficulty is that two ceasefire agreements had been agreed - and they are pulling against each other.
The first, mentioned in the memorandum of understanding, gave a new role in Lebanon for Iran, and hence its proxy Hezbollah. Iran was to join a new deconfliction mechanism, and it seemed as if Israel was being squeezed out.
This story is from the June 29, 2026 edition of The Guardian.
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