U.S. lifts blockade of Iran and Iranian supreme leader endorses direct talks with American officials

Vice President JD Vance points to a reporter to take a question in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Thursday, June 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)2026-06-18T15:34:44Z WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. on Thursday lifted its blockade of Iran, and oil tankers began freely moving through the Strait of Hormuz after months of being unable to use the critical channel, as the tentative agreement to end the war took effect.Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance announced that he may postpone a trip to Switzerland that had been planned for Friday and included a ceremonial signing of the deal. The visit might have helped start talks on the next, potentially even more critical, round of negotiations between the two sides.Hours later, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtab Khamenei endorsed direct negotiations with the U.S. in a statement read by state media. It was Khamenei’s first reaction to the deal recently reached between Iran and the U.S. to end hostilities.“It is obvious that the face-to-face negotiations that will be held in the future will not mean accepting the enemy’s opinion,” he said.The supreme leader has not been seen in public since he was wounded in a strike at the start of the war. Uncertain timeline could make it more difficult to promote dealThe now uncertain timeline could raise new questions and make it even more difficult for the Trump administration to promote a deal that many in the U.S. — including some congressional Republicans — have criticized as too favorable to Tehran.“Our plan is to go to Switzerland. I don’t know exactly when,” Vance said during a briefing with reporters at the White House when asked about not flying, as planned, to the signing ceremony.“I suspect this weekend, but I’m not sure,” he added.That injected new doubt into an agreement that President Donald Trump said he signed to avoid “economic catastrophe” in the U.S. Vance’s announcement came a day after Trump signed the pact with Iran while dining with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles. The deal is slated to take immediate effect and extends a ceasefire while giving each side 60 days to hammer out broader agreements on larger issues. Read More Trump said the deal would avoid continued stress on the U.S. economy after the war caused oil prices to skyrocket, made financial markets skittish and fueled inflation. He repeatedly said he did not want to be compared to Herbert Hoover, whose policies helped exacerbate the Great Depression of the 1930s. Vance defends U.S.-Iran dealThe vice president, who was initially personally skeptical of the U.S. going to war with Iran, has increasingly become the administration’s face of the conflict and has been outspoken in defending the deal. Asked about concerns it concedes too much, the vice president said repeatedly that the accord would force Iran to “change their behavior.”Shortly before Vance said his trip was being delayed, Pakistan said it was postponing a visit by its top officials to Switzerland’s resort near Lucerne, where Islamabad was to host the signing ceremony. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and top officials had been set to make the trip, but officials said that a ceremonial signing became less urgent after both sides had already signed.Vance defended the agreement and shrugged off accusations that its rollout has been piecemeal and sometimes contradictory, saying, “I don’t think our public messaging has been chaotic.” He also offered a surprisingly blunt warning to Israel, which has pushed the U.S. to take a harder stance against Iran and launched attacks on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon throughout the war, including just before the deal extending the ceasefire was reached. Those attacks complicated the peace efforts with Iran.Trump “is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time,” Vance said. “And he happens to be the head of state of the world’s superpower.”The vice president said more than 12.5 million barrels went through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday night. That could further soothe oil prices that spiked during the war but have been falling since the U.S. and Iran announced a tentative deal to end the conflict.He said the U.S. easing its blockade of Iran means “honoring our end of the early part of the agreement on the military side.” U.S. Central Command said American warships “will remain in the general area to make sure that all aspects of the agreement are adhered to, obeyed and in full force and effect.” Shipping starts to pick upAt least two oil tankers left Iran and crossed the U.S. military blockade without being stopped. A merchant shipping tracking website said the ships were carrying a combined total of 3.8 million barrels of Iranian crude oil.Iranian state media said shipping had “normalized” at Iran’s southern ports but added that the strait remains supervised and under the control of the