What would an agreement ending the conflict between Iran and the United States look like?

“Tehran should use its influence not to continue fighting, but to declare victory and achieve an agreement that ends this conflict and prevents a new one,” Zarif writes in his op-ed for Foreign Affairs.

He proposed that the peace agreement would include limits on Iran’s nuclear capabilities and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a key global trade route, in exchange for the lifting of all economic sanctions on Iran. Zarif described it as “an agreement Washington would not have accepted before, but could accept now.”

He also suggests binding Tehran never to develop nuclear weapons and reducing its enriched uranium capacity below 3.67 percent. Iran would open the Strait of Hormuz and sign a permanent non-aggression pact with the United States, while China, Russia, and potentially regional states would serve as guarantors of the agreement.

“But U.S. officials must allow the Strait of Hormuz to be open to Iran as well. The greatest geographic irony is that, despite bordering Iranian territory, the strait has effectively been closed to Iran for years due to U.S. sanctions,” writes Zarif, who served as Iran’s foreign minister from 2013 to 2021 under President Hassan Rouhani.