Iran offered its most definitive assessment on Friday that it was close to signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the US, as both countries jostled to frame the deal as a victory.
The signing of the MOU would trigger a 60-day period for “technical” negotiations, according to the Trump administration.
“The Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding has never been closer. Pending its finalization, the media should refrain from entering speculation about its content,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote in a social media post.
US President Donald Trump shared Aragchi’s remarks.
Araghchi’s comments came after Iran’s Mehr news agency said the deal would secure the release of $24bn in frozen Iranian assets and cement Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz.
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“The terms that Iran leaked out to the Fake News have NOTHING to do with the terms that were agreed to, in writing,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network.
“Very dishonorable people to deal with,” he added. “They better get their act together, and FAST!”
Competing narratives
A senior Iranian source reiterated Mehr’s report to Reuters, saying the draft would waive sanctions on Iran’s oil, unfreeze billions of dollars of its funds, and require a cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, a senior Trump administration official told the press that Iran had agreed to five key points, including the destruction of its nuclear material inside the country and subsequent removal.
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The official said Iran’s frozen funds will not be released until the deal’s conditions are met, and that the Strait of Hormuz will be reopened. They added that Iran will not fund allies in the Middle East, such as Hezbollah.
“This is what they have agreed to. This is a performance-based deal,” the official told the press.
US Vice President JD Vance also waded into the narrative war.
“I’m seeing a lot of fake information about a potential deal to reopen the Strait and end Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” Vance wrote in an X post.
“First, the Iranians are not receiving any cash, and no funds are being released for simply signing a deal or attending a meeting.”
One common denominator from both US and Iranian statements is that the ceasefire will include Lebanon, which Israel has pummelled with strikes and sent its soldiers deeper into. Iran has long insisted that Lebanon be included in any ceasefire.
‘Peace has never been this close’
While the deal’s terms are disputed by both sides, Pakistan, a key mediator, confirmed that both sides were on the cusp of an agreement.
“We can confirm that a final, agreed upon text of the peace deal has been reached,” Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wrote on X.
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“Pakistan is now working closely with both sides to finalize the next steps,” Sharif added. “Peace has never been this close as it is now.”
Oil prices sank, and stocks surged on the hopes that Iran and the US would enter into wider negotiations to settle differences, including over Tehran’s nuclear programme and the fate of the Strait of Hormuz – through which a quarter of the world’s energy flows.
Trump said on Thursday that the two sides had almost reached a deal and that a signing ceremony could take place in Europe. The US president has made dozens of similar comments in the past only for hopes of a deal to fizzle.
But in a further sign that the talks had progressed, Switzerland’s foreign ministry said on Friday it was in contact with both the US and Iran, and had “proposed Switzerland as the venue for a possible signing, should the parties agree to it”.
A senior US official told reporters that they were close to “signing this agreement over the next few days”.
“If I were to give you a confidence that we were going to be signing this agreement, I maybe would have said 75 percent this morning. It’s probably more like 80-85 percent now, but it’s not 100 percent,” the official told reporters in a call.
