President Donald Trump is angrily accusing Iran’s leadership of undermining delicate diplomacy after details of what he described as an emerging peace agreement were leaked to the media.
Speaking out on Friday, Trump said Tehran had acted in a “very dishonorable” manner by circulating terms that he insists do not reflect the actual understanding reached between the two sides.
A day earlier, the president had indicated that Iran agreed to a memorandum of understanding that would prolong the current ceasefire for another 60 days. The proposed window was intended to give both governments time to negotiate the next phase of talks, including the future of Iran’s nuclear program and other unresolved issues.
The memorandum is said to address Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium and reportedly includes discussion of billions of dollars in sanctions relief. A senior White House official said Friday that while the agreement was not yet complete, negotiators believed they were close. “We’re not quite at the finish line yet, but we’re very close,” the official said.
That optimism was quickly overshadowed by Trump’s public frustration after reports surfaced about the leaked terms. In a social media post, he rejected the version of the deal that had been made public, saying it “ha[s] nothing to do with the terms that were agreed to.”
“The terms that Iran leaked out to the Fake News have nothing to do with the terms that were agreed to, in writing,” Trump wrote. “What they said, including their weak and pathetic statement on having a deal, bears no relation to the truth.”
Trump also said that Iran’s drone attack on Thursday evening against Indian ships leaving the Strait of Hormuz ‘is totally unacceptable’.
As the deal is nearing the finish line, Trump has reportedly iced out Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
President Donald Trump has signalled that a deal with Iran to end hostilities is imminent
As Trump was closing in on the deal, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu frantically phoned the President’s allies to discern what was going on, but he was left in the dark, Axios reports
The memorandum of understanding reportedly would demand an end to hostilities between the US and Iran, as well as Israel and Lebanon
The President’s announcement that a deal was finalized shocked PM Netanyahu, Axios reported.
The PM has recently found himself phoning Trump allies to discern what Trump’s deal entailed, but he was left in the dark as the process played out, a source told the news website.
Netanyahu’s sidelining highlights the administration’s reluctance to bring the Israeli leader into the final stage of negotiations to begin winding down the three and a half month long war.
The administration has said on countless occasions over the past months that a deal was close at hand, but this time, there may be more traction as Vice President JD Vance is expected to sign a deal in Europe as soon as this weekend.
Four US Air Force C-17 transport planes flew to Europe on Thursday, carrying equipment for a possible VP trip to Geneva, where a signing ceremony is planned in the coming days.
The MOU between the US and Iran to halt the war could be signed as soon as Sunday, a source told Reuters, the same day as Trump’s birthday.
‘We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran,’ Trump told reporters on Thursday. ‘The documents are in pretty final shape, so we’ll see. It should be done over the next few days. We’ll probably have a signing, maybe in Europe, and it’s a great thing.’
The agreement would waive US sanctions on Iran’s oil industry, unfreeze billions of the Islamic Republic’s funds and require the ending of all hostilities in the conflict, including between Israel and Lebanon, an Iranian source told Reuters.
A projectile flies across the sky over central Israel during an Iranian missile attack on Sunday
On Thursday, Trump warned that he would bomb Iran before backing off, citing progress in the negotiations to land a deal.
‘Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have, as President of the United States of America, canceled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening,’ he posted on social media Thursday.
Before that, he threatened to unleash a furious bombing campaign larger than the $250 million worth of munitions dropped on Iran on Wednesday evening.
That bombing campaign was in response to Iran shooting down a US Apache helicopter and its two crew.
The two pilots were eventually rescued near the Gulf of Oman with an autonomous US Navy vessel.
