Trump, Vance sign Iran-US framework
A US official said that the US president and vice president and Iran's parliament speaker signed the MoU electronically on Sunday.
WASHINGTON — The United States and Iran will begin technical talks this week after signing an interim agreement on Sunday, a senior administration official said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity in a phone briefing with reporters, said that President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf signed the memorandum of understanding electronically on Sunday.
Trump said the memorandum’s text would be released “sometime after Friday,” when Vance and other senior officials are expected to attend a formal signing ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland.
“A lot of great things are going to happen with the Middle East right now. Very importantly, the oil is plummeting down, and the stock market is shooting up like a rocket," Trump told reporters in Evian, France, ahead of his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Iran’s Tasnim News Agency quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as saying that the two sides’ negotiating teams would likely hold a round of talks in Switzerland on Friday.
The newly reached deal calls for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the lifting of the US naval blockade on Iranian ports. While Trump said the strait would be “completely open” on Friday, the senior US official acknowledged it would take “a little bit of time” to clear the Iranian-laid mines.
The MoU mediated by Pakistan and Qatar will include some sanctions relief and the release of frozen Iranian assets in exchange for Iran’s compliance. A second senior US official said that the Trump administration would make “small gestures” early on, provided the Iranians demonstrate they are “willing to meet their commitments as well.”
Iran is estimated to have somewhere between $100 billion and $120 billion considered frozen under US sanctions in bank accounts across countries including Qatar, Iraq and Japan. Most of the funds accumulated after Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear accord in his first term and reimposed sweeping sanctions on Iran.
The MoU is meant to pave the way for negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, including its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful and has shown little appetite for significant US restrictions on it.
“We'll know over the next two to three weeks whether those understandings will turn into an actual agreement,” the official said. “If not, President Trump has a lot of tools in his arsenal that he’ll be able to use.”
This developing story has been updated since initial publication.
