After a night without mutual attacks, there were signs of movement in negotiations between Washington and Tehran on Friday. Iran’s Mehr news agency reported that a draft memorandum of understanding envisages a “permanent and immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”
After signing a declaration of intent, Iran and the USA would hold talks for 60 days, the Irna news agency also reported. These then aimed at an “agreement on nuclear issues and the complete lifting of US sanctions”.
Citing Iranian negotiating sources, Mehr also reported that the draft envisages the “release of $24 billion (around €21 billion) in frozen Iranian funds during the final 60-day negotiation phase.” Half of this amount should be made available to Iran “before negotiations begin,” it said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that he and US President Trump “completely agree” on preventing Iran from producing nuclear weapons. “As long as I am Prime Minister of Israel, Iran will not have nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said.
According to Israeli sources, Trump had assured that Iran would be deprived of the uranium it had enriched as part of an agreement. But according to the Iranian statement, this is not up for debate in the current draft.
As Irna reported, “issues such as Iran’s right to enrich uranium and the storage of enriched material (…) are being brought to the forefront for their inclusion in the final agreement.” Furthermore, Iran insists on continuing to control shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which it has de facto closed since the start of the war.
Trump, however, had told reporters in the Oval Office just a few hours earlier that Iran would “never have a nuclear weapon.” In addition, the Strait of Hormuz, an economically and strategically extremely important trade route in the Gulf region, will be reopened. Trump said he assumed that Iran’s new supreme leader, Moschtaba Khamenei, had personally approved the agreement. “As I understand it, the answer is yes.”
Trump’s statements caused significant price increases on the Asian stock exchanges. Stock prices on Wall Street in New York had previously soared and the price of oil fell. According to Trump, the relevant documents should be completed in the “coming days” and the agreement will be signed “perhaps in Europe”.
Tehran initially denied Trump’s comments. However, Irna later reported that the “main features of the current text” were currently being finalized. Accordingly, in this draft, Iran “makes no commitment to cede control of the Strait” or to restore pre-war conditions in the Strait of Hormuz.
The stability in the region, the development of the global economy “and also our own economy” depend on diplomatic success, said the deputy spokesman for the federal government, Sebastian Hille, on Friday in Berlin. “And therefore we support everything that leads towards a diplomatic solution in the region.”
He formulated the following conditions for the federal government: Iran must stop threatening Israel and its neighbors; In addition, there is a need for “a quick and clear agreement on freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and a verifiable end to the Iranian nuclear program.”
kas/ju
