The price of peace: what kind of deal with Iran would Trump accept?

April 18, 2026 — 12:57pm

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The bombs have stopped, the strait is notionally open and the price of oil is down. Donald Trump called it “a great and brilliant day for the world”.

And we are told – by the US president at least – that a peace deal is all but done. So, is this the end of his Iran “excursion”? Or is it too good to be true?

A certain scepticism might arise from the fact that Iran has quickly disputed much of what Trump has claimed about where things stand.

That includes his claim that Iran has agreed to surrender its “nuclear dust”, or the highly enriched uranium still in its possession – most of which is believed to be buried under what’s left of the nuclear facilities at Isfahan.

Iran’s powerful parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led negotiations in Islamabad, said the Strait of Hormuz would not remain open so long as the US blockade continued.

Indeed, the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, only guaranteed safe passage through the strait “for the remaining period of the ceasefire”. Trump claimed Iran had promised never to close it again.

Much of this is likely bluster from the Iranian regime. But as Brett McGurk, a former Middle East adviser to multiple US presidents, pointed out on CNN, competing claims about the strait will be set straight by the evidence – we can see whether ships are passing through or not. It may........

© The Age