President Donald Trump attends a bilateral meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on the sidelines of the G7 summit on June 17, 2026 in Evian-les-Bains, France. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – The White House read reporters on Wednesday a 14-point memorandum with Iran to end the ongoing war and allow further negotiations, but did not release the exact text.
The 60-day memorandum of understanding outlines the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, sanctions aid and reconstruction funds for Iran, and the promise of negotiations to end Iran’s nuclear program. Senior administration officials say an easing of economic and sanctions measures will only occur if Iran “behaves well.”
“If we think that they’re just going to drag us along and bully us in some way, then we’re going to pull the plug very quickly and tighten the screws again very, very aggressively,” a senior administration official, who asked not to be identified, said on a call Wednesday afternoon with reporters.
President Donald Trump told reporters in France he “might” stay in Europe for the memo’s signing ceremony, but cast doubt on this.
“This is a memorandum of understanding. It’s very important, but it may not be the type of document I should sign,” Trump told reporters at his final news conference of the G7 summit, a meeting of the world’s richest capitalist economies.
Earlier on Wednesday, he told reporters at the G7 summit: “If I don’t like it, we will shoot at them again and drop bombs on their heads.”
Trump announced On Monday, he reached a ceasefire agreement with Iranian officials to temporarily end the war that has lasted more than 100 days, but the government had not released any part of the agreement as of Wednesday. Members of the US Senate complained They hadn’t seen the details and some said they wanted to vote on a final agreement.
Iran’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif confirmed announced in a social media post on Monday that an agreement had been reached.
According to a second senior administration official, the Iranians asked the United States not to release the text until the wording was finalized, adding: “It was of course unfortunate that we could not publish it immediately.”
“We’ve tried to take into account their domestic messages and their domestic policies. We’re trying to build trust with them and that’s what they asked us to do, so we agreed to do it.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi warned On social media on June 12, he pushed back against speculation about the deal being “never closer,” saying details would be shared with the public “in due course.”
Nuclear weapons
The 14-paragraph “Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” read by the second senior administration official in the call, declares an “immediate and permanent cessation of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”
The White House declined to provide reporters with a written copy of the memorandum of understanding.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not agreed publicly called for troop withdrawals from Lebanon, which emerged as the second front of the war the United States launched alongside Israel in February.
The US and Iran have 60 days, “extendable with consent,” to reach a final agreement.
According to the agreement, “Iran affirms that it will not acquire or develop nuclear weapons.”
The document calls for the U.S. and Iran to agree on how to deal with Iran’s buried stockpile of enriched uranium, with the minimum agreement being the “downmixing” of the material on site under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“The two parties also agreed to discuss the issue of enrichment and other mutually agreed issues related to the nuclear needs of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the basis of a satisfactory framework agreed upon in the final agreement,” the MoU said.
In 2018, Trump pulled to withdraw the United States from an earlier nuclear deal negotiated by former President Barack Obama’s administration.
Obama expressed skepticism Saturday about Trump’s nuclear negotiations with Iran.
“It is doubtful that any agreement that comes about will be significantly different from, or a material improvement on, the agreement that we originally had and that we had been working toward over a long period of time before we, the United States, withdrew from the agreement,” he said ABC News“Robin Roberts.
Reopening of the Strait of Hormuz
The agreement also requires the US to “immediately” begin lifting its naval blockade of Iranian ports, with a full and final blockade to take place within 30 days.
The U.S. will also have to withdraw its forces from the area surrounding Iran, which means American forces will “return our force posture in the region to the position that existed before the start of the conflict,” the administration official said.
Before the war there were around 40,000 soldiers in the region. This number increased to about 50,000 after February 28th.
Iran, for its part, must “make best arrangements to allow merchant ships to sail freely and safely from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman and vice versa for only 60 days,” the agreement said.
However, the memorandum of understanding continues: “The traffic of commercial vessels will be started immediately when the need to remove the technical and military obstacles is examined, and mine clearance by the Islamic Republic of Iran will be initiated within 30 days.”
From there, Iranian officials agreed to negotiate a plan with the Sultan of Oman and Gulf states for “future administration and naval services in the Strait of Hormuz.”
The war’s virtual closure of the strait has shaken economies around the world, as before the conflict, 20% of global petroleum exports passed continuously through the narrow waterway. At the height of the conflict, oil prices reached $120 a barrel but have fallen to about $79 this week.
Article 38 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea explained Passage through straits is a right that should not be impeded, even if this is not the case either US still Iran are party to the international agreement.
$300 billion in recovery funds
In perhaps one of the most “controversial” parts of the memorandum of understanding, Iran could receive up to $300 billion in reconstruction funds, according to the senior official.
The White House official quickly downplayed the prospect of Iran pocketing billions of dollars.
“Note that we don’t have to do anything, one, to ever pay a dime of money to the Iranians (and) to ever contribute money to this reconstruction fund,” the official said.
“It says if we come to a final agreement and the Iranians behave, we will allow the easing of sanctions, which would allow, for example, the Emiratis to build a power plant in Iran. That’s all it says. If they do what they have to do, we will allow the investment and reconstruction of their country,” the official said.
In addition, after the MOU is signed, the U.S. Treasury Department will immediately issue waivers for the export of Iranian crude oil and other petroleum products and related activities, including banking transactions and insurance, the document said.
