Oh, you’re exhausted with reading about a deal (or an “agreement,” or an “arrangement,” or an “MOU,” or whatever we’re calling it) to end the war with Iran?
Well, God bless you. But spare a thought for yours truly: Imagine how exhausted I am with writing about it.
Mercifully — and not just for the collective sanity of weary observers looking on from a safe distance, but much more so for besieged Lebanese, Iranians and Israelis whose lives are in imminent peril — Washington, Tehran and the hodgepodge of regional parties with a vested interest in hearing the guns fall silent, have reached “a final, agreed upon text of [a] peace deal.”
That’s according to one of those regional parties, Pakistan, whose Shehbaz Sharif said on social media Friday that his country “is now working closely with both sides to finalize the next steps.” Peace, he said, “has never been this close.”
Abbas Araghchi agreed. “The Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding has never been closer,” he wrote, adding that until the details are made public, “the media should refrain from speculation about its content.”
Not surprisingly, it was actually Pakistan’s de facto dictator, Asim Munir, who did the heavy lifting. “The drafting [of the MOU] was done entirely by him on his own personal laptop,” one Pakistani lawmaker claimed on Friday.
IRNA didn’t get Araghchi’s message about not speculating on the details. Indeed, state media leaked quite a few Iran-friendly specifics, including, but not limited to, a provision that frees up a portion of Iran’s frozen assets “immediately” upon signing, with the remainder subject to phased release during two months of discussions around the future of the country’s nuclear program.
JD Vance cast doubt on that characterization. “The Iranians are not receiving any cash, and no funds are being released for simply signing a deal or attending a meeting,” he said. “The deal is structured to ensure that the US and its allies’ concerns are prioritized, and that if Iran meets its obligations, then economic benefits will flow to them and to the entire region.”
There was also quite a bit of confusion about what, exactly, would become of dueling blockades in the Strait of Hormuz, when they’ll be lifted and who, if anyone, would manage traffic through the waterway while the US and Iran negotiate the fate of the latter’s “nuclear dust,” as Trump habitually refers to the near-weapons-grade enriched uranium stored in tunnels below Isfahan.
The figures above are a reminder you don’t need: The sooner the Strait’s open the better.
Trump disputed Iranian media’s account of the deal, calling it “fake news,” among other things, but the world’s known the contours of this nascent agreement for weeks. I think everyone had a pretty good sense of what Trump’s “MOU pertaining to peace” would look like prior to the official unveil.
Meanwhile, Israel Katz essentially said that whatever’s in the deal, Israel isn’t necessarily bound by it. “Israel must ensure that in the future we will have the ability to act independently to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have instructed the IDF to prepare accordingly,” he said, adding that Israel won’t withdraw from security zones (i.e., occupied territory) in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza.
“Our security doctrine is sharp and clear,” Katz went on. “We strive for decisive outcomes rather than compromises and concessions.”



“U.S., Iranian and Pakistani negotiators say an agreement will begin dialogue over Tehran’s nuclear program”…Winning happened even before we begin, what a feat !
Why bother? Israel won’t respect any document Trump signs, and Iran will only wait until US forces have left the region before retaliating one way or another. It was a fool’s errand to get involved in the first place.