President Donald Trump signed a new agreement with Iran on Tuesday that halts nearly four months of conflict and reopens the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping. The deal includes a 60-day ceasefire, a framework for navigation in the strategic waterway, and commitments to future nuclear talks. The signing, conducted remotely with intermediaries, marks a sharp departure from the lengthy multilateral negotiations that produced the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
A quicker path than the JCPOA
The 2015 accord took roughly two years to finalize, spanned 159 pages, and involved the United States, the UK, France, Germany, Russia, China, and the European Union. Trump’s deal was brokered faster, using Qatar and Pakistan as intermediaries. The formal signing is planned later in Geneva. Signatories include Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf.
Under the JCPOA, Iran could enrich uranium domestically — capped at 3.67% purity for 15 years — while limiting its operating centrifuges to 5,060 and its enriched uranium stockpile to 300 kilograms. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitored compliance. But that deal included sunset clauses: centrifuge limits began easing after 10 years, enrichment terms after 15.
When the US withdrew in 2018, those constraints collapsed. By May 2025, the IAEA reported Iran had stockpiled more than 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%, a level just short of weapons-grade and near zero breakout time.
Phased sanctions relief and the $24 billion dispute
Trump structured sanctions relief as phased and reversible. The current framework suspends US penalties on Iranian oil and petrochemical exports. European governments agreed to lift their measures only after verifiable action by Tehran. Iranian outlets reported that about $24 billion in frozen funds are tied to the 60-day window, but Vice President Vance disputed that figure, stating that no money moves until Iran meets compliance benchmarks.
The JCPOA, by contrast, allowed immediate sanctions relief and kept penalties on terrorism and human rights untouched; only nuclear-linked measures were eased. Trump’s approach appears more conditional, though the exact triggers for lifting European sanctions remain unspecified.
The enrichment question
The biggest unresolved issue is uranium enrichment on Iranian soil. The JCPOA permitted it at low levels under IAEA watch. Trump’s team pushes for zero or tightly restricted enrichment in Iran — and wants longer, firmer limits without the sunset clauses that weakened the old deal. Negotiators have not yet detailed what kind of monitoring regime would replace the JCPOA’s snapback mechanism, which allowed the UN to restore sanctions quickly if Iran violated terms.
Iran is now far closer to a nuclear weapon than it was in 2015. The IAEA’s May 2025 report documented over 400 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium — enough, if further enriched, for multiple warheads. The new deal’s success hinges on whether it can freeze and reverse that progress.
The 60-day ceasefire buys time. The next step is the formal signing in Geneva, where the parties are expected to hash out the enrichment limits and the sequence of sanctions relief. Until then, the Strait of Hormuz is open, but trust on both sides remains thin.
