President Donald Trump described the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding as "probably unconditional surrender" for Tehran in an Axios interview published Thursday, while disclosing a covert two-month U.S. naval operation that eliminated 159 Iranian ships and all 200 of the country's aircraft and killed successive tiers of Iranian leadership. The 14-point MOU, signed by Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, calls for an end to the war, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and 60 days of nuclear negotiations. Trump cited a stock market rally over the past four to five days and oil prices returning to pre-conflict levels as immediate economic dividends.
Military Toll: Ships, Aircraft, and Leadership
Trump detailed a systematic elimination of Iran's armed forces in the interview with Axios reporter Marc Caputo. Iran's navy — 159 vessels — is, in Trump's words, "all at the bottom of the sea." Its air force, which he put at 200 aircraft, has been entirely destroyed. The country's first-tier leadership, including a figure he identified as Khomeini and successive replacement groups, have also been killed. "They're all gone," Trump said of each command layer installed after initial strikes.
The Covert Operation: Radar First, Then Ships Nightly
The naval campaign ran for roughly two months and was shielded by first destroying Iran's radar and detection infrastructure. With Iranian sensors offline, U.S. Navy destroyers departed at 1 a.m. each night with all lights extinguished. In a single week, the operation sank 25 ships one night, 22 the next, then 19 and 21 on consecutive nights. Trump said the campaign went undetected until approximately one week before the interview, when he publicly acknowledged it.
Hormuz Reopening: The Positioning Signal
The MOU's most direct market consequence is the Strait of Hormuz. Trump said 700 to 800 ships are positioned to transit the strait once it reopens, directly linking that flow to the equity gains logged over the past four to five days. He also noted oil prices have pulled back to roughly pre-conflict levels. The counterfactual he offered was unambiguous: a resumed U.S. strike on Iran would halt all those transits.
Nuclear Clause and the 60-Day Window
The MOU launches a 60-day window for nuclear negotiations. Trump identified preventing Iran from ever acquiring a nuclear weapon as the campaign's defining strategic objective — distinct from, and in his framing more significant than, the economic and market effects. Those two deliverables, the Hormuz reopening and the nuclear clause, set the benchmarks traders and policymakers will track through the negotiating period.