Top US officials say yet unclear if follow-up nuclear agreement with Iran can be reached

A pair of top officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration hold a background phone briefing with reporters, as Washington tries to sell the deal it inked yesterday with Iran.

The MOU established the “structure” for how negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program will unfold over the next 60 days, but one of the senior US officials on the call says that Washington will know “over the next two or three weeks” whether a follow-on agreement can actually be reached.

Another official says that while the deal provides for the “immediate” reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, that will still “take a little time” to operationalize, as mines allegedly need to be removed and ship operators have their own judgments regarding the risk for using the waterway.

“We probably won’t return to normal in two weeks, but we will see a significant increase in strait traffic,” the senior US official says.

The US official says he will be attending the Friday signing ceremony along with top Trump aides Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Counterparts from Iran will also attend.

The US official says the direct relationships that he and other Trump officials built with Iranian leaders at the highest levels are what enabled Sunday’s deal, rather than exclusive reliance on mediators.

The direct relationships were necessary for the US to understand where Iran’s red lines were and where they would be willing to compromise.

The US official insists that the deal would not have been possible without the economic, military, and diplomatic pressure exerted by Washington across both of US President Donald Trump’s terms in the White House.