Washington DC: A letter of intent or memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran is expected to be finalised early next week, paving the way for advanced diplomatic talks towards a long-term bilateral accord, CBS News reported, citing two sources familiar with the ongoing manoeuvres.<\/p>\n
The signing of the memorandum would kick off 60 days of talks to negotiate details of a US-Iran agreement, CBS News reported. According to multiple sources, that initial negotiating window could be extended as needed.<\/p>\n
Early measures outlined in the text focus on securing \u201cfreedom of trade\u201d by conducting demining operations to clear and reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s foreign ministry spokesperson said that major sections of a potential understanding aimed at ending the imposed war are close to completion, despite Washington\u2019s contradictory positions and repeated acts of military aggression aimed at disrupting the diplomatic process.<\/p>\n
In principle, Tehran would commit to a lockout of 15-20 years during which it would not enrich uranium and would dismantle its nuclear sites. In exchange for taking these steps, Iran would receive financial relief staggered over time and sequenced to correspond with compliance.<\/p>\n
Regarding regional threat capabilities, the US intelligence community does not assess that Iran has a nuclear weapon or sought one, but rather that it sought to be at the threshold of one, CBS News reported.<\/p>\n
The Iranian establishment has additionally refused to allow International Atomic Energy Agency nuclear inspectors into Iran to verify what it claimed was the peaceful nature of its programme, though Israeli intelligence maintains a different assessment.<\/p>\n
The diplomatic process gained sudden momentum on Thursday when President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he had \u201ccanceled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president noted that the decision followed confirmation that the final points of a potential deal have been approved by \u201call parties involved.\u201d He added that this consensus included the US and a specific list of Middle East countries, though Iran was not among them.
\nThe president indicated that a \u201ctime and place\u201d for a signing would be \u201cannounced shortly.\u201d He is scheduled to travel next week to France for the G7 summit, where the widespread disruption to global trade caused by the war is expected to be a primary topic of discussion among world leaders.<\/p>\n
President Trump previously highlighted the impending diplomatic breakthrough during an unrelated Oval Office event on Thursday afternoon, clarifying that he would not be present for the signing ceremony, but Vice President JD Vance would attend.<\/p>\n
The president noted that the high-level meeting could take place as early as this weekend in Europe. While the vice president\u2019s office referred policy questions to the White House, the administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe strait will open as soon as we have it signed,\u201d the president emphasised.<\/p>\n
However, the narrative coming out of Washington was quickly contested by Tehran.<\/p>\n
Shortly after President Trump\u2019s social media post on the potential deal, the Fars News Agency, which is associated with the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, quoted a \u201cknowledgeable source close to the Iranian negotiating team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The source flatly denied the president\u2019s claims regarding an initial agreement, stating that \u201cno text of the initial memorandum of understanding with the United States has been approved.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Israeli authorities have not yet commented on the developments, the president confirmed he had held direct consultations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, alongside discussions with several Arab leaders.<\/p>\n
The understanding between the US and Iran would mandate United Nations inspectors from the IAEA to dispose of what President Trump refers to as \u201cnuclear dust\u201d and to inspect the nuclear sites.<\/p>\n
This follows a joint military action last June when the US and Israel bombed three nuclear sites, at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. Intelligence analysts assess that the enriched nuclear material remains buried under the rubble at those specific locations.<\/p>\n
Reiterating Washington\u2019s firm stance from the Oval Office, the president said of Iran, \u201cThey will not have a nuclear weapon \u2014 they\u2019ve agreed to that,\u201d adding that the regime would not purchase or develop a nuclear weapon \u201cin any way shape or form.\u201d<\/p>\n
The draft memorandum also factors in the ongoing war in Lebanon involving Iranian proxy Hezbollah, though specific details remain scarce, multiple sources told CBS News.<\/p>\n
Israel launched a ground invasion into Lebanon in March after Hezbollah launched rockets across the border, and just this past week, Israeli forces bombed outside Beirut.<\/p>\n
The persisting violence has threatened to disrupt US diplomatic attempts to get the Lebanese and Israeli governments to normalise relations and work together against the Hezbollah militia.<\/p>\n
The framework aligns with broader strategic parameters laid out earlier this month by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio during his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.<\/p>\n
Detailing the core requirements for a baseline deal, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that Iran must reopen the Strait of Hormuz and allow international ships to sail through \u201cwithout being fired upon without paying a toll.\u201d<\/p>\n
Addressing the panel on the subsequent stages of the roadmap, he added that in phase 2, Iran must commit to \u201cvery specific negotiations on highly enriched disposition of the highly enriched uranium that still is buried deep in a mountain somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the regime must \u201cagree on negotiating severe and long-term limitations, and or cancellation of enrichment in activity,\u201d stipulating that any prospective sanctions relief would be \u201cassociated with their commitment and compliance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington DC: A letter of intent or memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran is expected to be finalised early next week, paving the way for advanced diplomatic talks towards a long-term bilateral accord, CBS News reported, citing two sources familiar with the ongoing manoeuvres. The signing of the memorandum would kick off 60 days […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-international"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncrfrontlinenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncrfrontlinenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncrfrontlinenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncrfrontlinenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncrfrontlinenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncrfrontlinenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13791,"href":"https:\/\/ncrfrontlinenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13789\/revisions\/13791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncrfrontlinenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncrfrontlinenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncrfrontlinenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncrfrontlinenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}