US-Iran MOU to include Lebanon in 60-day ceasefire, Netanyahu kept in dark during talks — report

The US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding that is to be signed in the coming days — at least according to US President Donald Trump — will extend the ceasefire for 60 days, and will include Lebanon, according to Axios.

The Strait of Hormuz would be fully reopened immediately, reports the US outlet, and sanctions on Iran will begin to be lifted if it complies with the terms of the MOU.

Pre-war shipping volumes would be reached within 30 days, under the deal.

Nuclear talks will be held during the two-month ceasefire, including on Iran’s 440 kilograms of highly enriched uranium. Iran will make a commitment never to acquire a nuclear weapon and to come to an agreement on its enriched uranium stores.

According to a senior US official, Trump accepted an Iranian demand that the uranium would not leave the country, but would instead be blended down inside Iran under UN supervision. But that would only happen in practice if a more comprehensive deal is reached.

The MOU “goes into details on all the nuclear issues,” says the US official, and “satisfies all US requirements.”

Diplomats from mediating countries and from the US say that the agreement — to be called the Islamabad Agreement — was reached on Wednesday night in talks between Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Qatar’s Ali Al-Thawawdi, who spoke by phone several times with Trump’s top envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

A source with direct knowledge tells Axios that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not updated, and had to call contacts in the Trump administration to learn details of the emerging deal.

A diplomat from one of the mediating countries tells Axios that both the US and Iran have agreed on the text of the MOU, but two sources caution that Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has likely not approved it yet.

The MOU does not deal with the fate of Iran’s billions of dollars of frozen assets around the world, according to the report.