A memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran is closer than ever, a report claims, while President Trump warns if Iran doesn’t sign “the bombing starts” again.
The United States and Iran are at the closest point yet of being in agreement over ending the conflict in the Middle East and are on the verge of signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU), it is claimed.
Publisher Axios, citing several anonymous sources they claim are familiar with the matter, states the one-page MOU contains 14 points and would place the conflict on ice, end Iran’s nucleal ambitions, and allow the region to reopen to maritime traffic.
President Trump tacitly endorsed the report in a Truth Social post on Wednesday morning, stating that while it is a “big assumption” that Iran would actually sign, assuming they did, the war and blockade of the Persian Gulf would end. Offering his personal encouragement for Iran to play ball, the President added: “If they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before”.
President Trump’s cautious approach in not calling the signing inevitable was echoed by White House officials, reports CNN, which states they cautioned that previous attempts to reach an understanding with Iran had collapsed “at the last minute”.
Per Axios, putting the war on a “limbo” footing for 30 days would give space for U.S. and Iranian negotiators time to conduct much more in-depth talks about the exact terms of Iran surrendering its nuclear ambitions.
In return for Iran ending nuclear enrichment, potentially for decades, surrendering what highly enriched uranium is already has, and submitting to snap nuclear inspections by United Nations officials, the United States would end the blockade, lift sanctions on Tehran, and unfreeze billions in assets, it was stated.
President Trump has already offered something of an olive branch to Iran in the past 24 hours, suspending the ‘Project Freedom’ escort of merchant vessels through the Strait of Hormuz under the guns of U.S. warships and planes.
Explaining why he’d made the move, the President said on Tuesday evening that he was responding to a request from Pakistan — one of the main parties enabling negotiations between the U.S. and Iran — by pausing operations for a short period of time “to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed”.
This story is developing, more follows
Read the full article here