US-Iran Peace: Done or Delayed?

President Donald Trump announced that a short-term peace deal with Iran was reached on Sunday, June 14. This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) - a formal but typically nonbinding agreement viewed as a stepping stone toward a final deal - is scheduled to be signed on Friday, June 18. But wait, didn’t the president announce earlier in the week that it would be signed on Sunday? Iran's state-run media warned over the weekend that the deal was closer than ever, but not quite so close as Trump implied. Now the president’s first announced signing day has come and gone, with a new one declared almost a week later – and a good deal of uncertainty regarding the terms.

Peace With Iran – Eventually

“The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social Sunday evening. “Congratulations to all! I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow! President DONALD J. TRUMP”

But will the agreement ever actually get signed? Liberty Nation News National Security Correspondent – and former Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Comptroller – Dave Patterson explained that President Trump had announced a Sunday signing, but Iranian and Pakistani leaders were less definite. “We are closer to a peace deal than ever before,” Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif posted on X on Saturday. “With finalization likely expected in the next 24 hours, Pakistan is preparing for the electronic signing of the peace deal immediately after …”

However, Iranian news agency Fars reported that Tehran had not yet made a final decision.

Now here we are, the day after, and there’s a whole new schedule and yet more apparent disagreement. “From unofficial reporting, the key elements of the MOU are a 60-day ceasefire, the Strait of Hormuz opened for transit, and Iran giving up its nuclear weapons ambitions,” Patterson wrote. But that’s the kicker – unofficial. The Trump administration stated that the actual terms of the agreement would not be made public until after the signing.

The Iranians, however, didn’t feel the same need for secrecy.

A Grain of Salt and a Shot of Penicillin

The Mehr News Agency followed up President Trump’s Sunday announcement with one of their own, publishing what they claim is the 14-point agreement between the US and Iran. State-run media in a rogue nation is a funny thing: You never can tell what to believe. That said, President Trump sure made Sunday’s signing seem like a certainty, while Iranian media cautioned otherwise – and it turned out they were right.

According to Mehr, the agreement would “immediately and permanently” bring an end to the war, including attacks on Lebanon, and kick off 60 days of negotiations to reach a final deal on issues related to nuclear weapons and sanctions.

Under the MOU, the US would suspend sanctions on certain Iranian exports, such as oil and petrochemicals, and would lift its naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz within 30 days, Mehr claimed. The deal’s price tag is a bit of a shocker: Iran would get access to $12 billion in frozen funds immediately; another $12 billion would be made available during negotiations; and the US and its allies would create “reconstruction plans for Iran” worth, at minimum, $300 billion.

Mehr reported that the MOU also included conditions that the US would “commit to non-interference in Iranian affairs and respect for Iranian sovereignty” and remove all US forces from “areas around Iran.”

Perhaps most importantly, though, the Hormuz Strait would reopen within 30 days under the agreement, and Iran would “reaffirm its NPT commitment not to produce nuclear weapons.”

Around the same time that Iran disclosed the MOU's terms, an official statement from the nation's Supreme National Security Council, reportedly released on Telegram, read:

“The Islamic Republic of Iran, under the leadership of its martyred leader, has completed its success over the American-Zionist enemy.”

But take this with a grain of salt and a shot of penicillin. Rarely does any government come out and say it lost – it’s simply not how this is done. Leaders almost always spin the situation so that, to their own people, they seem to come out on top. It’s kind of hard to justify staying in power otherwise. As well, the Iranian state media is no stranger to “facts” that are questionable at best.

That said, what’s true for Iran here could be true for America, as well. While it seems unlikely that Trump would agree to these terms – no matter how badly Iranian leaders may want him to – the fact remains that the Trump administration is hiding its version of the agreement until after it’s signed on Friday. So perhaps hold off on the celebrations for now – let’s see how next weekend goes.