President Donald Trump announced the memorandum of understanding during a press conference at the G7 summit in France, framing it as a major win for the US. The agreement, which a senior US official described as a “significant concession” by Iran, requires Iran to downblend its stockpile of highly enriched uranium under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The scheduled signing is set for Friday.
But the text of the agreement, which was read aloud by US officials on a call with reporters, falls short of Trump’s stated goal of ensuring Iran will never develop a nuclear weapon. All technical details of the downblending process and its timeline must still be negotiated during the 60-day period.
The agreement also leaves unresolved the question of Iran’s support for regional proxy groups. When the war started, Trump said a top priority was preventing Iran from funding groups like Hezbollah, a priority shared by Israel, which joined the US in launching the war and has waged a separate conflict with the Iranian-backed militia in Lebanon. The cessation of hostilities under the initial agreement extends to Hezbollah, but the group received little other mention in the deal.
Iran’s missile program, another issue Trump and Netanyahu said was a priority at the start of the war, also goes unaddressed in the text.
The question of reconstruction financing presents a potential political problem for Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who campaigned on a promise not to start new “forever wars.” The agreement states the US will work “with regional partners to develop a definitive mutually agreed plan with at least USD $300 billion” for Iran’s reconstruction. A senior US official said the deal does not commit the US to paying Iran a single cent, but the language in the agreement appears to leave the door open for the US to eventually make some payments as part of a negotiated settlement to the war.
Trump has been critical of the Obama administration’s $1.7 billion payment to Iran in 2016 and has used the money issue to argue he has taken a stronger stance against Tehran. “If it doesn’t get done in 60 days, it’s all right,” Trump said at his G7 press conference. “We go back to bombing.”
The text gives both sides a 60-day deadline but notes it is open to extension if necessary, a provision that could suggest neither country is deeply optimistic about reaching a more comprehensive agreement. It took the Obama administration 20 months of negotiations to reach the original Iran nuclear deal in 2015.