Trump pressures to sign this Sunday the agreement with Iran

BarcelonaIran and the United States are on the verge of signing an agreement that would essentially allow the resumption of cargo ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a key passage for global hydrocarbon transport. Messages sent by both sides indicate that the two parties have agreed on the text, but the final ratification by the leaders of both countries has not yet occurred, and contradictions persist regarding when it might happen. Both from Washington and Islamabad, the main negotiator of the process, optimistic messages were repeated this Saturday, stating that the signing could be made official in the coming hours, although Tehran has cooled expectations.

Trump stated in a message on Truth Social that the agreement is scheduled to be signed this Sunday. Initially, it was suggested that there might be an official ceremony in Geneva. However, the spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmaeil Baghaei, assured that no delegation from the Islamic Republic plans to travel to either the capital of Pakistan or Switzerland in the next two days. "We must wait to know the exact date of the signing of the memorandum of understanding," he said in statements collected by the official IRNA agency. "Although it will not be tomorrow, it cannot be ruled out that it will take place in the coming days," he added, but said that caution should be exercised with any comments about the signing date due to the other party's doubts. According to the American portal Axios, the signing will take place this Sunday, but in a virtual meeting.

Hours earlier, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had said that the agreement was "ready to be signed" and could be finalized "very soon." "We are closer than ever to a peace agreement. With the probable finalization scheduled for the next 24 hours, Pakistan is preparing for the electronic signing of the peace agreement immediately thereafter, followed by technical talks next week," he said in a message on X, which Donald Trump reposted on his social network, Truth Social.

Iran has stressed that the text being discussed at this point "is not a final agreement" of peace between Tehran and Washington, but rather "an understanding that outlines the general framework of the dispute and establishes that the war will end," in Baghaei's words. The issue of the development of Iran's nuclear program and the fate of enriched uranium, points that seemed essential to Trump, are for now left out of this preliminary agreement and will have to be discussed during the next sixty days.

Trump has again criticized the agreement signed by Barack Obama in 2015, which he said was "an easy, beautiful, and simple path to a nuclear weapon." "My agreement with Iran is exactly the opposite [...]. In fact, they no longer want nuclear weapons," he added. And he said that, "at the right time, when everything is calm," the US will go in search of "buried nuclear dust" and destroy it, "whether in Iran or in the United States."

Frozen assets and war in Lebanon

According to the terms filtered in recent days, once the memorandum of understanding is signed, Iran will lift the blockade on Hormuz, and the US, the blockade on Iranian ports. Trump's main goal is for oil tankers to circulate again through the strait. But one of the main stumbling blocks in this matter is the management of the Strait of Hormuz: Tehran claims its right to charge a toll, while the US does not accept any control by the Iranian regime. According to some American media, Trump intends to talk about plans to clear mines from the strait with his European allies during the G7 meeting, which begins Monday in France.

For Iran, there are two other essential issues: the unblocking of Iranian assets frozen abroad and the end of hostilities on all fronts, including Israel's bombings in Lebanon, which continue.

The blockade on Iranian oil tankers has added pressure to the ayatollahs' regime, which at the beginning of the year harshly repressed massive protests in the country initially motivated by the precarious economic situation. "We are currently under sanctions and our routes have been blocked. We are facing a difficult test," said President Masoud Pezeshkian in a speech on state television on Wednesday. "Governing the country is not an easy task in the current circumstances, given the shortages we are suffering, the unrest we have experienced, and the problems that persist," he admitted.

"The release of frozen Iranian funds is an integral part of the agreement," insisted Baghaei. The Reuters agency, citing four anonymous sources, has reported that the United Arab Emirates has agreed to unblock at least 10 billion dollars for Iran, a move that also seeks to protect the Gulf country from Iranian attacks, although the Emirati government has denied it.

According to the British agency, the Emirates have already delivered more than 3 billion dollars to Tehran. The frozen funds mostly come from Iranian oil, and are blocked in foreign banks under US sanctions.