Iran and the United States seem to be approaching, slowly but gradually, the signing of some type of pact that will allow them to conclude, at least, this phase of the war. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced this Friday that he would decide after a meeting in the crisis room at the White House whether he accepted the content of a proposal to extend the ceasefire for 60 days and open talks on the Iranian nuclear program, the great obstacle in contacts throughout the three months of war. But the presidential office later limited itself to confirming that the meeting had ended, without indicating whether the Republican had spoken.
This Friday, Iran confirmed the existence of this pre-agreement through its Fars agency, which emphasizes that the pact must still be ratified by the authorities in Tehran.
“I am going to meet right now in the White House Crisis Room to make a final decision,” says the Republican in a message published on his social network, Truth.
That the pre-agreement exists seems to be the only thing on which the parties agree. When describing its content, both parties offer very different interpretations—opposing, even—in what represents an indication of the difficulty of the negotiations and how complicated it will be to get it started if the two enemies manage to sign it. According to Fars, Trump’s version mixes “truths and falsehoods” that seek to present a “fictitious victory.”
But the mere fact that the two parties recognize that they are very close to achieving results already represents progress compared to the situation just a couple of weeks ago. “They are already negotiating some of the most difficult variables, such as what will happen with the nuclear material and other aspects of the Iranian nuclear program. But it is important to understand that there is always a certain level of nervousness in the moments immediately before signing, so there may still be surprises,” assesses Trita Parsi, co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft think tank.
The US president has indicated in his message the conditions that must be included in the agreement, including the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, “without tolls” and without restrictions on maritime traffic in any direction. In addition, the Islamic Republic must remove any mines that may still remain in the waters of the strait and that it placed to block access during the war. Iran “will complete the immediate removal and/or detonation of any remaining mines, which will not be many!” writes the Republican.
In turn, Trump says in the message, US forces will raise , to allow the departure of merchant ships trapped in the waters of the Persian Gulf as a result of the war and the closure of the strait.
But Iran, according to Fars, has stressed that it will only reopen the strait once the United States has lifted its blockade. He also denies that the memorandum of understanding between the two adversaries prohibits the implementation of toll mechanisms and assures, on the contrary, that Iran plans to carry out inspections on ships, provide services and have security measures at the bottleneck.
Esmail Baghaí, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, also insists that a definitive understanding with the United States has not yet been reached. “What the Americans describe as a naval blockade was, from the beginning, an illegal measure; it not only constituted a violation of the ceasefire, but also a disturbance of international freedom of navigation. It will remain to be seen in practice whether they will actually comply with what they say or if it is simply a propaganda claim,” the spokesperson said.
Under the conditions Trump lists, Iran also “must agree that it will never have a nuclear weapon or bomb.” Tehran’s nuclear activities, real or potential, and the highly enriched uranium that the Ayatollah regime has have been one of the great concerns of the American president since the beginning of the war, one of the few constants in a position that has been changing lurchingly throughout the three months of conflict, sometimes even in the same day.
Uranium recovery
In his message, the US president assures that Washington will take charge of the recovery of the highly enriched uranium that is buried under the rubble of the Iranian nuclear facilities destroyed in the US-Israeli attack in June last year.
This radioactive material rescue operation, he maintains, will be carried out in “close coordination and jointly with the Islamic Republic and the International Atomic Energy Agency.” “We are, along with China, the only country with the mechanical capacity to achieve this,” he emphasizes. Once recovered, that uranium will be destroyed, the president has pointed out.
Iran, however, denies this assumption. The Fars agency cites “informed sources” who reject that the memorandum includes a provision to destroy Tehran’s nuclear material. Trump’s statement to that effect, he says, “is basically baseless.”
“In addition, other terms have been agreed upon,” the US president indicates in his message, although he considers them to be “much less important” and does not list them. It makes no mention of the possibility of easing sanctions against Iran, Tehran’s top priority throughout the negotiation process since before the war. But it is, on the American side, one of the most difficult and one that encounters the most opposition among Trump’s political allies. Speaking at an economic forum, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent insisted that any steps taken to ease these punitive measures will be “gradual.”
A senior Republican administration official who revealed the pre-agreement on Thursday had indicated that the issue of sanctions would be addressed in nuclear negotiations. Also, according to the senior official, the unfreezing of Iranian funds from the sale of oil and paralyzed as a result of these punitive measures would be discussed. In his message on social networks, Trump emphasizes that “no money will be exchanged” between the two adversaries.
Here too, Iran offers a very different version. According to Fars, the memorandum of understanding includes the payment of $12 billion from frozen Iranian funds. The agency assures that this provision is the most important of the entire document.
Moments before the American president published his message on networks, his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, met with the Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Ishaq Dhar, to discuss the negotiations between the United States and Iran, in which Islamabad acts as the main mediator. “The secretary thanked the minister for the constructive role that Pakistan continues to play in realizing President Trump’s vision of peace in the Middle East and his mediation efforts with Iran,” said State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott.
