In a major diplomatic breakthrough, the US and Iran have reached an agreement on a 60-day memorandum of understanding (MoU) to extend the ceasefire and launch further negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme, reported Axios.
However, US President Donald Trump has not yet given his final approval, and the Iranian side has also not confirmed its acceptance, the report said.
The US and Iran have broken down their negotiations into two parts. First, they are negotiating issues like the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and stopping the attacks on all fronts. The issue of Iran’s nuclear programme and the enriched uranium will be taken up after the first part is completed.
“This is an agreement to get everybody to the table. We will work out the details in the negotiations,” the report quoted a US official as saying.
The terms of the MoU were mostly agreed to on Tuesday, but both sides needed final approvals from their leadership.
US negotiators have briefed Trump on the deal, but the President told them that he needs time to think about it.
“The president relayed to the mediators that he wants a couple of days to think about it,” the US official said, according to Axios.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump told a Cabinet meeting that Iran wants to make the deal, but he is “not satisfied” yet with it.
The US President has also sought to tie the signing of the US-Iran deal to the Abraham Accords. Trump has said that he will not sign the deal if Gulf countries don’t sign the accords and normalise ties with Israel.
“I’m not sure we should make the deal if they don’t… join the Abraham Accords,” Trump said.
The US President has listed Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Pakistan, Türkiye, Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain as the countries he wants to see join, noting the UAE and Bahrain were “already members.”
The Abraham Accords, brokered by the Trump administration in 2020, normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states.