Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an X post today, late morning US eastern time, that the U.S.-Iran MOU is indeed being finalized, but he avoided confirming any of its contents. “The Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding has never been closer,” he claimed. “Pending its finalization, the media should refrain from entering speculation about its content. In line with our responsible and transparent approach, all details will be shared with the public in due course.”
A little over an hour later, the Pakistani Prime Minister backed up Araghchi. “Setting aside the noise, we can confirm that a final, agreed upon text of the peace deal has been reached and Pakistan is now working closely with both sides to finalize the next steps,” he said in his own posting on X. “Peace has never been this close as it is now.”
But a day earlier, there was nothing but skepticism about Trump’s announcement. “The probability of deception by Trump is high,” said lawmaker Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesperson for the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, in a post on X. He added that the US president instead “wants to keep the situation calm for now,” reported CNN overnight. Rezaei said Iran should instead “strike harder, destroy and annihilate the enemy’s infrastructure, economic centers, and artificial intelligence in the region so they feel more pain.”
Tasnim made a mockery of Trump’s announcement. “Trump has announced 38 times in the past two months that an agreement is imminent!” it said. “Within 3 days, he had imagined sending Vance to Pakistan 4 times. Until the possible understanding is announced by Iran, any news from Trump in this regard should be considered as part of his previous messages.”
Even Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei was cautious. “So far, Iran has not reached a final conclusion on the agreement,” he said, this morning, reported Tasnim. He added that “whenever we reach a conclusion that the text of the understanding is in the interest of the Iranian nation, we will announce it.” Baqaei further stated that “the status of negotiations was clear to us from the beginning and a major part of the text had been finalized, but the Americans kept changing their positions.”
“Iran has proven that it does not compromise on what it defines as its red lines,” he underlined.
