The ink on the U.S.-Iran peace deal wasn’t even dry before Iran started breaking it.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has launched multiple drone attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz every single night since President Donald Trump announced the peace agreement Sunday.
The Strait is a key part of the deal. According to the deal, Iran must permanently reopen toll-free for global shipping. U.S. forces have intercepted the drones before they reached their targets, but the attacks have continued without pause.
Critics of the peace deal have warned that Iran frequently negotiates in bad faith, and will violate any terms until they are stopped.
The Times of Israel has confirmed drone attacks on shipping every night since Sunday’s announcement, with no sign of Iranian forces stopping.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine publicly acknowledged the full scope of Iran’s post-ceasefire behavior, and the threshold the U.S. has set for tolerating it.
“Since the ceasefire was announced, Iran has fired at commercial vessels nine times and seized two container ships, and they’ve attacked U.S. forces more than ten times,” Caine said, “all below the threshold of restarting.”
This is a familiar script for Iran. Fox News reported at the time that Trump’s first Iran ceasefire was “rocked within hours amid reported missile, drone attacks,” and America’s Gulf state allies were attacked before the agreement had even been formally announced to the American public.
Now they’ve done it again, this time to a deal Trump announced on his 80th birthday as his greatest diplomatic achievement.
Vice President JD Vance appeared on the Megyn Kelly Show and Fox News on Tuesday to defend the agreement, which reportedly would unlock over $300 billion in funds for Iran’s terrorist regime.
He rejected the argument that Iran was receiving too much in exchange for too little, saying critics were “making the same mistake that a lot of Iranian propagandists are making.”
“Not a single cent of American money under any circumstance, no matter what the Iranians do, goes to Iran,” Vance said. “If the Iranians have done everything we require them to do, then we will allow third countries such as the UAE to invest in infrastructure projects in Iran.”
Bloomberg separately reported new details of the draft MOU, including immediate oil export waivers, the dropping of almost all sanctions against the regime, and Strait of Hormuz reopening within 30 days.
A 60-day negotiating framework then beings meant to address Iran’s nuclear program, which the country has refused to stop or surrender.
Iran has already begun to push how much it can extract from the deal without providing anything in return. Two Iranian tankers carrying a combined 3.8 million barrels of Iranian crude oil have already left the blockade perimeter, according to Tanker Trackers, marking Iran’s first crude exports in two months.
Iran got its oil exports back. Iran got its naval blockade lifted. Iran’s drones are still flying at civilian ships every night.
The formal deal signing is scheduled for Friday in Geneva.
Sen. Lindsey Graham expressed measured skepticism about the arrangement on Tuesday.
“I am not yet sure whether the initial agreement is a good or bad idea,” he told CBS News, “but I support efforts to reopen shipping lanes and end the conflict. You never know till you try.”