partially

The move, expected under the MoU, comes as Vice President JD Vance says there’s a ‘good foundation’ for a final deal.

The United States has partially lifted sanctions on Iranian oil exports following “encouraging” talks over ending their conflict.

The US Treasury issued a 60-day sanctions waiver on Monday, paving the way for the production, delivery and sale of Iranian oil to the US. The move came amid positive reports from mediators and the US vice president regarding talks in Switzerland between Washington and Tehran aimed at establishing a full peace deal.

The waiver is a condition included in the 60-day memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by Tehran and Washington on June 17.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the US-Iran talks have been “productive” and that several of the MoU’s stipulations are moving ahead.

“Iran has committed to free and open transit in the Strait of Hormuz and to permit International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors into their country,” he wrote on social media. “As part of the framework, Treasury has issued a temporary 60-day general licence authorising the production, delivery and sale of Iranian oil.”

The licence lasts through August 21 and covers crude oil, petrochemical products, or petroleum products of Iranian origin. It permits Iranian oil to be imported into the US but does not authorise transactions involving US-sanctioned North Korea or Cuba, or Russian-occupied Ukraine.

There was no immediate response from Iranian government officials.

Oil prices continued their recent decline upon news of the waiver, with Brent crude dropping over 3.5 percent to $77.7 per barrel.

‘Good foundation’

Bessent’s announcement came as US Vice President JD Vance voiced optimism over the Tehran-Washington discussions in the Swiss resort of Burgenstock.

“We laid a very good foundation for a successful final deal,” he told reporters and shrugged off yesterday’s online tit-for-tat between President Donald Trump and top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

“Social media threats that they would walk out” did not come to fruition,” Vance noted. “There was a little bit of threatening, there was a little bit of whining, but at the end of the day the talks continued and we made great progress.”

Mediators at the talks said that Washington and Tehran had made “encouraging progress” at the first round, according to Reuters.

The vice president did not give a firm timeline for when nuclear inspections may start, but said conversations with the IAEA could happen as soon as Monday.

The US has said that the need to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon was a key driver of its attacks, and demands that Tehran reopen its nuclear facilities to international oversight.

Iran has persistently rejected accusations that it seeks to develop a nuclear arsenal, insisting that its nuclear programme is purely for civilian purposes.

A busier waterway

Shortly before the waiver announcement, the Strait of Hormuz was reported to be seeing an increase in oil and gas tanker traffic, just two days after Iran said it would close the waterway again because of Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

Four Qatari-operated LNG tankers headed into the Gulf and through the strait on Monday, while two supertankers – which can carry up to four million barrels of crude oil – entered. One indicated its destination as the Iraqi port of Basra, according to ship tracking data.

Two smaller crude oil tankers, laden with just under two million barrels, sailed out of the waterway and into the Gulf of Oman on Monday, according to MarineTraffic.

“While daily transits remain below the 125 crossings prior to the Iran hostilities, the trend is positive,” said the shipping firm Clarksons.

The US has maintained that the strait was never closed for the second time and tracked 55 merchant ships loaded with more than 17 million barrels of oil on Saturday.

The hacker group, ShinyHunters, threatened to leak student data after breaching the educational platform Canvas.

An educational platform used by thousands of schools and universities has been partially restored following an international cyberattack that caused major chaos as students prepare for end-of-year exams.

ShinyHunters, a hacking group, claimed responsibility for crashing the web-based educational platform Canvas, created by tech firm Instructure.

The group said it had stolen 3.5 terabytes of data, including names, email addresses, student ID numbers and private messages, and threatened to release this if ransoms were not paid by May 12.

Instructure’s website said on Saturday that Canvas is now “available for most users” and no incidents were reported on Saturday. It is not clear if a ransom was paid.

The University of Sydney reported on Saturday that Canvas had been restored but was not yet “accessible to staff or students, as we need to complete checks”.

Canada’s University of Alberta said Canvas was partially restored with “reduced functionality”.

The countries that have been affected include the United States, the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia and the United Kingdom.

According to Canvas, about 30 million people across the globe use its system. The breach reportedly targeted close to 9,000 institutions across the globe.

Breach came at ‘worst time’

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was “aware of a service disruption” impacting a learning system, although it did not name Canvas, in a statement Friday.

“This disruption has impacted schools, educational institutions, and students across the country,” it said.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Florida, Phil Lavelle, said the hack could not have “come at a worse time” as many US schools are in the middle of exam season.

Institutions like Penn State, Harvard, Illinois, Columbia and Georgetown are all “scrambling” to extend or change exam deadlines, said Lavelle.

The Harvard Crimson, a student newspaper, said it could not access the platform since Thursday, with the University of Cambridge also saying it had “temporarily suspended access” to Canvas on Friday.

The Reuters news agency reported that, on May 5, the group posted a message saying Instructure had “not even bothered speaking to us” to prevent a data leak, and that their demand “was not even as high as you might think it is”.

Who are ShinyHunters?

The group is a global cybercrime syndicate that was established in 2019.

Over the years, they have claimed responsibility for cyberattacks, with the most recent data breach being Rockstar Games, a gaming giant that owns Grand Theft Auto.

“This goes to show how vulnerable schools are, how vulnerable other institutions are by individuals who seek to exploit or extort at the worst possible time – armed with just a keyboard and a mouse,” said Lavelle.