Thousands of Deaths Later, MoU Betrays Pointlessness of US-Israeli War; No Respite Yet For Mamata Over Ritabrata's Rebellion; Verdict Reserved on Modi's Sweeping Telegram Ban
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Snapshot of the day
June 18, 2026
Anirudh S.K.
Early today US President Donald Trump put his signature on a hard copy of the ‘Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding’ in Versailles, as did Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran – later, in the interim agreement’s namesake city, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed it as mediator and guarantor. With that, Iran is to immediately begin rolling back its blistering, retaliatory closure of the Strait of Hormuz and Washington is to both lift its blockade of Iranian ports and issue sanctions waivers for the export of Iranian energy. Iran and Oman are also to hold talks towards defining the “future administration” of the Hormuz strait.
Right off the bat the MoU declares that the two sides and their allies will permanently end their military operations, although this is subject to confirmation through a final deal they’ve agreed to hammer out in two months, by which time they are to reach a consensus on the future of Iran’s nuclear programme. The interim agreement’s clauses on Washington lifting all sanctions on Iran and releasing frozen assets too seem linked to progress on the nuclear front. The termination of military operations clause explicitly refers to Lebanon – as demanded by Tehran – whose territorial integrity and sovereignty the two sides are to ensure. But Israel has continued to hit Lebanon and just today Israeli airstrikes in the country’s south killed three people per local media.
Overall thousands of people have been slain by the US-Israeli war on Iran, including several Indian nationals, and given that the war hasn’t achieved America’s (shifting) objectives the following question, as Edward Luce puts it, will
