Iranian President Pezeshkian says Tehran will ‘immediately’ reciprocate if US returns to June MoU commitments
Iran Signals Immediate Reciprocity if Washington Honors June Ceasefire Framework
Theindiapostdaily.com – With fresh exchanges of fire between American and Iranian forces marking the first direct military contact in roughly thirty days, the prospect of a broader Middle East escalation has sharpened once again. Speaking from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where he was attending the 26th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian declared that Tehran would move without delay to mirror any American step back toward the obligations laid out in the June memorandum of understanding designed to halt the two nations' war.
"I state explicitly that if the United States returns to its commitments under the aforementioned memorandum of understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately take reciprocal action."
The June Framework and Its Fragile Aftermath
The agreement in question is a fourteen-point memorandum of understanding signed in June by US President Donald Trump and Pezeshkian. Its central purpose was to end active hostilities between the two countries, and it also established a sixty-day negotiation window intended to produce a permanent settlement. For several weeks after the signing, a tentative calm held. That calm collapsed when both sides resumed offensive operations: Washington imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports, while Tehran shut the Strait of Hormuz to commercial transit. The waterway, through which roughly a fifth of global oil shipments pass, has remained a flashpoint ever since negotiations first opened, and its continued closure represents one of the most consequential economic pressures in the region.
According to available reporting, Iran has kept the strait closed while simultaneously stating that it stands ready to reopen the passage and resume its other treaty obligations, provided Washington lifts the blockade and returns to its own signed commitments. The conditional posture gives both governments a face-saving off-ramp, but it also means that neither side has yet taken the first unilateral step.
Diplomatic Pressure from Tehran's Foreign Ministry
The day before Pezeshkian addressed the SCO delegates, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi pressed the same point in sharper terms, insisting that the United States must return to its signed obligations and to whatever its president committed under the deal. Araghchi's remarks underscored that Tehran's leadership is treating the MoU not as a dead document but as a living instrument whose revival depends on American action first.
Accusations of International-Law Violations
In his Bishkek address, Pezeshkian went beyond the bilateral dispute to frame the broader conflict in legal terms. He pointed to two specific dates of American and Israeli strikes against Iranian territory — June 13, 2025, and February 28, 2026 — and characterized them as breaches of foundational norms.
"The attacks carried out by the United States and the Zionist regime [Israel] against Iran on June 13, 2025, and February 28, 2026, were a clear violation of the fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter and international law, against the principle of prohibition of the use of force, and against the right to life."
He cited civilian casualties as evidence of the scale of harm, naming strikes that struck a school in Minab and a stadium in Lamerd, both located in Fars Province. By invoking the UN Charter's prohibition on the use of force, Pezeshkian positioned Iran's grievances within the same legal vocabulary that smaller states typically deploy at multilateral forums, lending rhetorical weight to Tehran's position ahead of any renewed multilateral discussion.
Broader Regional Framing
Pezeshkian extended his critique beyond the Iran–US axis, pointing to the latest developments across West Asia — in Iran, Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank — as examples of what he described as the dangers of ignoring international law and substituting force and coercion for negotiated order. He warned that unilateral military action, unlawful sanctions, and great-power rivalry were eroding stability not only in the immediate neighborhood but across wider global systems. At the same time, he emphasized what he called Tehran's "brilliant record" of honoring international treaties and commitments, a claim designed to contrast Iran's stated posture with what he portrayed as American inconsistency.
Before boarding his flight to Bishkek, the president offered a more personal note: Tehran does not seek war, but it will answer any aggression with strength and determination. He added that regional instability harms every nation in the area and urged convergence of economic and security objectives among neighboring states.
Washington's Calculated Tone
The Iranian remarks landed a day after Trump told Fox News that "there will be a response" to the latest Iranian attacks. In a separate Oval Office exchange with reporters, however, the American president tempered that language, stating that the renewed strikes did not constitute a return to full-scale war. The mixed messaging — firm enough to deter further escalation, restrained enough to keep the MoU technically alive — mirrors the conditional posture Tehran has adopted regarding the Strait of Hormuz. Both capitals appear to be managing a narrow corridor between renewed combat and a negotiated return to the June framework, with each side waiting for the other to move first.
What the Next Weeks May Bring
The sixty-day negotiation window embedded in the original MoU has, by most accounts, already lapsed or been rendered moot by resumed hostilities. Whether the parties will reopen that window, negotiate a successor instrument, or simply continue a cycle of limited strikes and conditional threats remains uncertain. What is clear from Pezeshkian's Bishkek speech is that Iran's leadership intends to keep the June document on the table as its preferred exit from the current standoff, while simultaneously signaling that patience has limits. The SCO Summit, with its emphasis on multipolarity and non-interference, provided a natural stage for that message, and the timing — days after fresh exchanges of fire — suggests Tehran wants the international community to witness its position before any further escalation narrows the diplomatic space.
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