Negotiators from the United States and Iran have reportedly reached a 60-day ceasefire that has landed on President Trump’s desk.
A report from Axios described the possible signing of the memorandum of understanding as the “most significant diplomatic breakthrough.”
A U.S. official told the outlet, “This is an agreement to get everybody to the table. We will work out the details in the negotiations.” Officials said terms of the deal were largely concluded as of Tuesday, although senior leadership from both countries needed to approve the matter. “The president relayed to the mediators that he wants a couple of days to think about it,” a U.S. official added.
The 60-day MOU says that shipping through the Strait of Hormuz will be “unrestricted,” the report explains. The agreement also lifts the U.S. naval blockade as well as waives several sanctions.
President Trump has held that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. He said, “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. With Operation Epic Fury, our warriors are ensuring that the world’s number one state sponsor of terror never obtains a nuclear weapon. And they won’t.” He also noted during a Cabinet meeting that Iran is “negotiating on fumes. Maybe we have to go back and finish it, maybe we don’t.”
Ebrahim Azizi, the head of Iran’s National Security Commission in its parliament, wrote on social media this week that the country “will not back down from its red lines—such as the right to enrichment and enriched uranium, management of the Strait of Hormuz, and the lifting of sanctions—in the face of Trump’s rhetoric. Everyone now knows that Trump, in order to save himself from this strategic deadlock, resorts to the tool of threats one day and begs for an agreement the next!”
