Trump’s secret deal with Iran leaves world leaders in the dark: not even allies know the details

As they headed to an alfresco dinner on Monday night overlooking the turquoise waters of Lake Geneva, the leaders of the world’s most powerful nations hoped to gain clarification on what, exactly, Donald Trump’s new deal with Iran entails.

After almost two hours, the sun was practically set. At least some of the leaders left the pavilion built for the dinner as intrigued by the details of the plan as they were when they entered, according to two officials familiar with the matter.

A day after Trump applied his electronic signature to the agreement, the exact terms of the pact remain known only to a small number of people. Neither party published the page-and-a-half text that was formalized in Sunday’s virtual signing, leading to sometimes contradictory statements between Washington and Tehran. Even officials within the Trump administration have offered slightly different interpretations of how the plan will work.

It remains to be seen whether any of these issues will be clarified by the formal signing ceremony scheduled for Friday in Switzerland, which Vice President JD Vance is expected to attend. According to a senior North American official, the text of the memo will be released well before that date, following a calendar of one or two days before final publication, in the name of “transparency”.

But just hours later, Trump, sitting next to French President Emmanuel Macron, pointed to a different deadline.

“I want it out. So probably very soon,” Trump said. “I would say sometime after Friday.”

Macron and the other G7 leaders gathered in the Alpine resort of Évian-les-Bains would certainly like to consult on the agreement before then. Neither they nor anyone else outside the negotiating parties appear to have read the text, although they warmly congratulated Trump on the role he played in reaching the understanding.

Prior to a remark made by Vance in a television interview on Monday morning, it was not even clear whether the document had actually been signed. A senior administration official stated that Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, president of the Iranian Parliament and Tehran’s main negotiator, signed on behalf of Iran. The supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, according to the same source, “simply does not sign these types of agreements”.

Tuesday’s meetings, in a luxury hotel overlooking Lake Geneva, represent a new opportunity to get answers. Macron invited the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to participate in a working lunch with the G7 leaders. Officials from these countries, especially Qatar, were deeply involved in the negotiation process. Furthermore, the United States expects Gulf countries to contribute to financing a $300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran.

Monday’s dinner was presented as an opportunity to “work together on resolving key international challenges”. Trump sat between Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, two leaders he has repeatedly criticized in recent months for, in his view, not having done enough during the war with Iran and, in some cases, for openly questioning their decisions.

Trump aides said before the summit that they expected European countries to contribute to the removal of mines placed in the Strait of Hormuz now that the active conflict is over — something France and the United Kingdom have already indicated they are willing to do.

However, without clarity on what was actually agreed, some European officials find it difficult to make commitments and move forward with concrete measures without knowing better how the understanding addresses the future of the strait.

The secrecy surrounding the agreement generated concern even among some of Trump’s conservative allies.

“I’ve been asking for a few days: Why can’t we, the people, see this damn memo? Not through people informed by anonymous sources. Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like it. If it’s a great result for peace, then publish it,” wrote conservative commentator Mark Levin on the social network X. Trump has frequently praised Levin and his weekend show on Fox News.

Without a public text available, divergences in the interpretation of the agreement also began to emerge.

With regard to the Strait of Hormuz, for example, Trump declared that the passage would operate “permanently without tolls”. The Iranians insisted that they would maintain control of the maritime route and could impose taxes if they considered it necessary. And Vance, another of the North American signatories to the agreement, stated that, although the US expectation is a toll-free strait, the final decision will only be made in future negotiations.

“That’s the kind of issue we’re going to resolve in these technical negotiations,” Vance told CNBC, in the first of several television interviews designed to promote the agreement and explain its contents.

Tolls are not the only topic that should be discussed in future “technical negotiations”. Also on the table will be the future of Iran’s nuclear program: the fate of the approximately one thousand pounds of uranium enriched close to military grade, the use of advanced centrifuges and the inspection regime that will be permitted.

Trump’s advisers guarantee that Iran will not receive any financial relief before fulfilling its part of the agreement. However, with so many aspects still to be negotiated, not even North American officials seem to know exactly what measures Tehran will have to adopt to satisfy the United States’ demands.

“The lifting of sanctions is not specifically linked to any particular behavior,” a senior administration official said on Monday. “It is linked, in general, to more appropriate behavior on their part.”

Exactly what constitutes this “most appropriate behavior” has not been specified. Still, another administration official suggested that relatively quick economic relief measures could be taken as a way to bolster trust between the two parties.

“We will make some small gestures at the beginning, if they also make some small gestures that demonstrate their willingness to fulfill their commitments,” he said. Among these potential “gestures” are the lifting of some sanctions and the unlocking of frozen Iranian assets.

Many of the Gulf countries that Washington hopes to see contribute to the reconstruction fund will be represented at Tuesday’s expanded talks in Geneva.

One of those responsible described the initiative as an attempt to “mobilize other countries to make investments”.