Washington, DC – A newly struck deal to end the US-Israel war on Iran is being hailed as a strategic victory by US President Donald Trump and his allies, though the specific terms of the agreement remain unknown.
Praise from supporters poured in for the US president on Sunday, despite questions over which commitments would be included in the initial memorandum of understanding to be signed on Friday, and which issues, such as Iran’s nuclear programme, would only be opened for negotiations after the deal is inked.
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US Vice President JD Vance pointed to falling oil prices in the immediate aftermath of the announcement as he touted what a “new era” for the Middle East.
“What the president has done is create the real space to transform that region,” he told Fox News, adding, “I think we can safely say, with confidence, that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio connected the announcement to Trump’s 80th birthday on Sunday.
“America is lucky to have a leader with such incredible courage, remarkable strength, an unmatched sense of humor, and an unparalleled love of country,” he wrote on X.
Several Republicans took to social media to hail Trump as the “deal-maker in chief”.
Congressman Robert Aderholt echoed Trump’s claims that a pending deal with Iran would place more limits on Tehran’s nuclear programme than the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
That deal, from which Trump withdrew in 2018, was reached under the administration of US President Barack Obama. It saw Tehran curtail its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. Tehran has for years maintained that it does not seek a nuclear weapon.
“Unlike the agreement reached under the Obama administration, this deal will not allow Iran to continue enriching uranium and build up the components necessary to build a nuclear weapon,” Aderholt said.
But there was no indication that the memorandum would include any immediate commitments on Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Both sides have said the initial deal would halt fighting on all fronts, including in Lebanon.
US, Pakistani and Iranian officials have also said that the signing of the deal would resume traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and lift the US naval blockade of Iran’s ports.
But Iranian officials have for days said the initial agreement would only serve as a launching point for 60 days of negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme, as well as other deeply entrenched issues, including the future administration of the strait.
Both sides have also offered varying accounts on when the US would begin releasing frozen assets and lift sanctions as part of any agreement. US officials have maintained that those actions would not be immediate and would occur only if certain commitments are met after a deal is signed.
US Senator Lindsey Graham, who has long been a supporter of harsh military action against Iran, was among those celebrating the apparent breakthrough on Sunday.
Still, he pointed to the divergence in US and Iranian messaging.
“I am somewhat concerned that Iran’s view of the agreement seems different than what the American negotiating team is claiming,” he wrote in a post on X.
Democrats call for clarity
Democrats, meanwhile, have for months questioned whether launching the war alongside Israel on February 28 did in fact advance US interests.
The Trump administration had said its objectives included degrading Iran’s military capabilities and destroying its nuclear programme.
Trump and his top officials also said they hoped the war would foment regime change. That did not happen, with experts saying the hardline government has become only more calcified in the war, despite the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and dozens of other officials.
Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, has since assumed his father’s role.
Speaking to NS Now on Saturday, Representative Seth Moulton decried the terms of the memorandum of understanding as “basically a surrender document from Donald Trump to the supreme leader of Iran”.
“I mean, $100 billion of taxpayer money already put into this war, 14 Americans dead, and we get a deal that just reopens the strait that was already open before he started the war? How is that a win?” he said.
The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Representative Gregory Meeks, on Sunday said Trump’s “war of choice was misguided and detrimental to American interests”.
Still, he said he welcomed the newfound focus on diplomacy, even as he called for more clarity on any deal.
“The American people deserve more than vague announcements or political spin,” he said in a statement.
“They deserve security, clear answers and the confidence that this administration will not repeat the failures that led us into this unauthorised and costly war”.
Prospect of more war
Robert Malley, the lead negotiator of the JCPOA under Obama, also said the deal to be signed on Friday was “an important and welcome achievement” because it was expected to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“But the MOU also is a clear & damning indictment of the war that preceded it, chiefly because its main accomplishment is to reopen a waterway that was only closed due to that war,” he wrote in a post on X.
“As for the issues that will have to be addressed after the MOU – the fate of Iran’s nuclear program; the disposition of its enriched uranium; the scope of sanctions relief – they almost certainly will be left for later, and will almost certainly be harder to resolve than prior to the war,” he said.
Sina Toossi, a senior fellow at the progressive Center for International Policy Think Tank, echoed the assessment.
“Make no mistake: if you’d told the war’s loudest cheerleaders in February that this would be [the] outcome, they’d have been horrified,” he said in a post on X.
“No regime change. No Iranian capitulation on their many maximalist demands. This is their worst-case scenario,” he said.
And while falling oil prices offered a glimmer of hope for Trump, who has seen his approval fall to an all-time low amid the economic toll of the war, it remained to be seen if negative views of the war would shift.
The 60-day deadline on several key issues would expire in August, as the US enters the final campaign stretch before the midterm elections in November.
In an interview with the New York Times late Friday, Trump said he could restart attacks on Iran if a nuclear agreement is not reached by then.
In turn, he said he could make the US “the guardian of the Middle East”, if the region paid Washington 20 percent of its revenue.
