Trump's Iran Deal: How Paragraph 5 Has Triggered a Strait of Hormuz Dispute

A vaguely worded clause in President Trump’s ceasefire deal with Iran has become the center of a bitter dispute over who controls the Strait of Hormuz, with Washington and Tehran interpreting the same paragraph in opposite ways. The disagreement has kept shipping traffic through the vital waterway far below prewar levels.

President Trump’s agreement with Iran was billed as the fix that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and calm jittery global markets. Three weeks later, ships are still avoiding the waterway, and gunfire has broken out twice. The reason traces back to a single paragraph that both sides read completely differently.

Buried in the deal is Paragraph 5. It says Iran will take steps to restore shipping through Hormuz and then coordinate with Oman on how the strait should be run going forward. It also has Iran promising safe passage for vessels and the removal of hazards like mines.

Trump’s team read that as the green light. Once Iran cleared the mines and guaranteed safety, the strait would reopen, full stop. That was supposed to be the deal’s signature win.

Iranian hard-liners had a different idea. They latched onto the same wording to argue that Iran, not the U.S. or anyone else, gets final say over the waterway. In their reading, the clause hands Tehran a permanent bargaining chip rather than a one-time obligation to clear the way.

That disagreement has swallowed the negotiations. Instead of hammering out a lasting nuclear agreement, U.S. and Iranian officials are stuck arguing over who actually controls Hormuz, the passage that carries a massive share of the world’s oil and gas.

That framing helps explain why the numbers on the water have barely moved. Kpler, a ship-tracking firm, recorded only 25 crossings through Hormuz on Wednesday, down from 49 the day before, as the U.S. and Iran traded fire. Before the war, more than 100 ships passed through daily.

A U.S. official involved in the negotiations described the two countries as being on “different planets” over what the paragraph actually means, as per a report from the Journal. The official also pointed out a gap in the text itself: it never says the U.S. is responsible for arranging safe passage. Iran, the official said, has used that omission as justification for targeting ships traveling a route the U.S. helped set up.

Iran’s top negotiator, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, made the country’s position plain on social media, citing the clause directly to insist that Hormuz reopens on Iran’s terms, not America’s.

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Iran was the one that shut down traffic through Hormuz in the first place, using drones and missile strikes on shipping when the war began. It has claimed control of the waterway ever since and has stuck to its position that any future arrangement for managing the strait will be worked out with Oman, its smaller neighbor across the water. That claim is essentially baked into how Paragraph 5 is worded.

Mediators reportedly said all sides accepted the vague language at the time because it was the only way to get the deal signed. The plan, or so negotiators assumed, was that everyone would sort out their competing interpretations later. Once ink hit paper, the Revolutionary Guard pressed Iran’s civilian leadership to take the hardest possible line, insisting Iran should be the one calling the shots.

The Guard didn’t stop there. Mediators said it has also pushed for Iran to start charging service fees on ships that cross through its route. Documents reviewed by the publication back that up, showing that vessels are now required to fill out paperwork listing their size and cargo and to get permission before crossing.

Washington and its allies in the Gulf aren’t willing to accept that setup. The Arab monarchies that border the Gulf rely on Hormuz to export most of their oil, and they’re pushing for the strait to go back to how it worked before the war, open to everyone, with no single country calling the shots.

Washington and its allies in the Gulf aren’t willing to accept that setup. The Arab monarchies that border the Gulf rely on Hormuz to export most of their oil, and they’re pushing for the strait to go back to how it worked before the war, open to everyone, with no single country calling the shots.