Activation of peace deal

BETTER sense prevailed as latest reports suggest the United States and Iran have agreed to halt recent hostilities in the Gulf and renew talks regarding their dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, raising hopes of saving an interim peace deal that was under pressure from days of tit-for-tat strikes. Axios quoted an American official as saying that technical talks are slated to continue on all areas of the Mo U. A reference to the 14-point Islamabad memorandum of understanding that was agreed on June 17 under which the Strait would be reopened for traffic. Both sides will stand down for now and vessels can move freely. The tit-for-tat strikes threatened the interim peace agreement besides slowing progress on technical level talks that are supposed to lead to a comprehensive accord in sixty days. The latest escalation followed US allegations that Iran was behind attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Washington responded with strikes on Iranian military targets, prompting retaliatory missile and drone attacks by Tehran against US facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait. The violations of the deal are regrettable as it was signed at the highest level by the presidents of the United States and Iran after exhaustive backdoor negotiations. There is, of course, an impression that the two sides are persisting with their hard stances to make the accord acceptable to their people and squeeze maximum concessions during technical level talks. However, frequent and serious violations are a tricky business, can trigger wider and deeper conflict and raise questions about sincerity and commitment of the leadership of the two countries. The frequent violations are all the more unfortunate as the MoU envisages bodies, platforms and mechanisms to forestall deviations. The very fact that the two sides continue to exchange strikes is reflective of the fact that relevant provisions of the deal have not yet been activated. What for the high level monitoring committee and deconflicti