Despite Trump pronouncement, Iran signals no final decision made on deal

Iran indicated on Sunday it had still not made a final decision on signing a framework agreement with the US, despite an announcement the night before from US President Donald Trump that the deal had been finalized and would be signed on Sunday.

According to Iran’s Fars news agency, which cited an informed source, Tehran was still conducting reviews of the political, legal and technical aspects of the agreement, with discussions still ongoing by experts and decision-makers.

Amid efforts to finalize the deal, Qatari negotiators flew to Tehran Sunday morning to meet with Iranian officials, a source with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.

Iran’s ISNA news agency reported an adviser to Qatar’s foreign minister had been dispatched, and the Tasnim news agency said the purpose of the visit was to “go over the latest developments regarding the diplomatic process.”

The visit came after Trump announced Saturday that “The Deal is scheduled to get signed tomorrow, and immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL.” He added that Iran will not attain nuclear weapons, claimed the regime no longer wanted them, but indicated that Iran’s uranium stockpile will not be retrieved at this stage.

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Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had said earlier on Saturday that a final text of the deal had been agreed on and that an electronic signing was expected on Sunday, followed by technical-level talks throughout the week.

Pakistani and Qatari mediators were set to join US and Iranian officials for a virtual meeting to sign the memorandum of understanding, the Axios news site reported Saturday evening, which will extend the ceasefire by 60 days, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and kick off negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran did not immediately confirm the announcements, which ran counter to earlier comments by Iran’s Foreign Ministry earlier that the deal would not be signed that day.

While Iran has not officially confirmed the agreement or specified its terms, a senior Iranian official told Reuters Sunday that a final draft of the deal included the following points:

• Iran immediately reopens the Strait of Hormuz to all commercial vessels, while the US lifts its naval blockade on Iranian ports.

• The US agrees not to impose any new sanctions on Iran until a final deal is reached.

• The US will waive oil sanctions on Iran for a specified period, allowing Tehran to sell oil and receive revenue.

• The US agrees to release $25 billion of Iran’s frozen assets, including via direct cash transfers, cooperation among regional countries, and financial credit lines.

• Tehran agrees that it will neither produce nor acquire nuclear weapons.

* Tehran agrees to maintain the nuclear status quo until a final deal is reached, including by not enriching uranium and not expanding nuclear facilities.

• The US agrees Tehran will dilute its highly enriched uranium stockpile inside Iran, with a mechanism for doing so to be discussed within 60 days.

Iran has repeatedly denied desiring nuclear weapons, but has enriched and stockpiled uranium to near weapons-grade levels, while openly seeking to destroy Israel.

The announcements of the impending deal have left Israel deeply concerned, with officials warning that the terms of the MOU endanger Israel’s security interests and fail to address any of the key issues in the conflict. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who played no direct role in the negotiations, will reportedly convene his security cabinet on Sunday evening to discuss the agreement.

Senior Israeli officials quoted by Channel 12 said that the emerging agreement indicated that Washington has agreed to Tehran’s “main conditions,” adding that “the Iranians aren’t agreeing to this without good reason.”

“The uranium extraction has become uranium dilution and the missile system is not part of the agreement at all,” the officials lamented, noting that the main issues that Israel was hoping to deal with in the war remained unaddressed.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday said the only way to deal with Iran’s enriched uranium “is to dilute it inside Iran.”

Trump, who has justified the war as necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, previously said the US would remove and destroy the uranium.

In Saturday’s post, he said: “When all is calm, we will go in and get the Nuclear Dust… and downblend and destroy it, whether in Iran or the United States.”

Israel and the US launched their campaign against Iran on February 28 in a bid to destabilize the regime and destroy its nuclear and ballistic missile capacities. Iran responded with missile and drone strikes across the region, and its terror proxies in Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon have also carried out attacks.

Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, a vital conduit through which about a fifth of the world’s oil supplies are shipped, while charging tolls for vessels that wanted passage and attacking others that tried to pass.

The US, in response, blockaded Iranian ships and ports to prevent Tehran from shipping any oil itself. The halt in movement through the strait rattled global economies.