Sticking points in the ceasefire agreement between Iran and the United States

The United States and Iran have agreed to a ceasefire, and are scheduled to begin negotiations starting Friday in Pakistan aimed at reaching a permanent agreement, but major points of contention still remain.

Tehran presented a ten-item plan to be the main axes of the negotiations, which includes positions that Washington had previously rejected.

Below are the most important points up for negotiation.

– Sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz
In response to the war launched by the United States and Israel on February 28, Iran almost completely closed the Strait of Hormuz, the passage through which part of the world’s oil, gas and fertilizers passes, which destabilized the global economy.

Tehran accepted the temporary reopening of the sea strait – which US President Donald Trump considered a victory for him – but in return it stipulated that it be under its sovereignty.
It is not known how Iranian sovereignty over the Strait will be implemented in practice.

Both Iran and the Sultanate of Oman, which also overlooks this sea corridor and played the role of mediator between Washington and Tehran, announced in recent days that they had held talks to reach a peacetime protocol aimed at supervising shipping traffic through this strait.

For its part, Washington and Tehran announced that they are studying a plan to impose transit fees.

According to an Iranian diplomatic source, the new mechanism provides for a right of transit that will be organized in partnership with the Sultanate of Oman, which has not commented on the issue.

With the exception of Omani oil tankers, ships passing through the strait in recent days have been following a route designated by Iran, off its coast near Lark Island, a route that the navigation data company Lloyd’s List called the “Tehran toll clearing point.”

Before the ceasefire, Tehran had announced that it was preparing to impose new operating conditions on this vital corridor.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard asserts that the Strait “will never return to its previous status, especially for the United States and Israel.”

– Reducing penalties
Iran is demanding relief from the heavy sanctions imposed on it.
Donald Trump reimposed it during his first term, after in 2018 he withdrew the United States from the historic 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran.
The previous agreement stipulated easing sanctions in exchange for imposing strict restrictions on uranium enrichment and strengthening oversight of the country’s facilities.

These punitive measures are stifling the Iranian economy, which is in a state of recession and were the spark that launched demonstrations that were violently suppressed by the authorities in January.
The US President had promised at the time to provide assistance to the demonstrators, and stressed that the war would lead to the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.
But these two topics have no impact on the agenda of the talks. The United States and Israel have also called for imposing restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missile program, and ending Tehran’s support for its allies in armed groups, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthis in Yemen.
There was no mention of either this or that in the Iranian ten-point plan.

– Uranium enrichment
Washington justified its propensity for war by accusing Tehran of being on the verge of manufacturing a nuclear weapon, an allegation that was not confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency and which Iran categorically denied.
Iran defends its right to possess peaceful nuclear energy, especially for energy production purposes, but Donald Trump reiterated on Wednesday that there will be “no enrichment.”
He also proposed a solution to recover Iran’s stockpile of more than 400 kg of highly enriched uranium, which was targeted by US strikes in June 2025.
The two countries will work together to “extract and remove it,” which he described as “nuclear fallout.”
On Tuesday, Trump confirmed to Agence France-Presse that this issue had been “completely settled.”
He added, “Otherwise, I would not have accepted the agreement.”