US, Iran Set for Electronic Signing Sunday, But Tehran Signals Caution
This is a follow-up to yesterday’s article on the US-Iran peace deal. What follows is the next chapter in that story.
The stage is set for an electronic signing between the United States and Iran on Sunday. Or perhaps it is not. That depends on whom you ask.
President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that a deal with Iran “is scheduled to be signed” on June 14, promising that the Strait of Hormuz would open “TO ALL” immediately afterward. The post on social media was characteristically emphatic: the agreement, Trump wrote, would be superior to the 2015 nuclear pact he abandoned in 2018.
Pakistan, which has acted as the primary mediator between Washington and Tehran, backed Trump’s timeline. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the final text had been agreed upon and that an electronic signing ceremony was expected within 24 hours, followed by technical-level talks to implement the terms. The virtual meeting would include Qatari mediators alongside the US, Iran, and Pakistan.
But Iran says something different.
“We have to wait and see about the exact time of signing; although it will not be tomorrow,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told state news agency IRNA on Saturday. “The possibility of this happening in the coming days cannot be ruled out. However, due to the hesitation of the other side, we must be cautious in making any comments about this process.”
The contradiction matters. Three months of war have produced a document that both sides describe as a memorandum of understanding, not a comprehensive peace treaty. The MoU would extend the fragile ceasefire by 60 days, reopen the Strait of Hormuz to global shipping, and launch negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. But the same dynamic that has defined this conflict from the start – Trump announcing breakthroughs that Tehran then walks back – continues to the very hour of the supposed signature.
Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator for the US State Department, told DW that what is on the table amounts to a first step, not a final settlement.
“What you’ve done is buy yourself a ticket, on both sides, to a negotiation that is going to be long and tedious,” Miller said. “All of these issues contain a universe of complexity and detail that will have to be ironed out.”
Those issues include Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the scope of sanctions relief, control of the Strait of Hormuz, and broader questions of regional security, including the fate of Iran-backed militias in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen.
The strait itself has been the war’s most tangible economic weapon. Iran’s blockade sent oil prices soaring, disrupted global supply chains, and forced the US Navy to run escort operations through contested waters. Reopening it would provide immediate relief to world markets and to Trump, who faces an election-year economy battered by inflation partly of this war’s making.
International reaction has been cautious but supportive. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke with Trump on Saturday, welcoming the progress while stressing “the importance of ensuring any deal delivers a durable and lasting peace.” Starmer’s office said the UK stood ready to support implementation and work with international partners.
Yet even as the diplomatic machinery whirs, the fighting has not stopped. The US military reported shooting down several Iranian drones overnight. Israel and Hezbollah continue to exchange fire across the Lebanese border, where Israeli troops have been advancing. The electronic signing, if it happens, would not silence the guns overnight.
The question of trust runs through every layer of this story. Trump has announced imminent peace before, only for talks to stall or collapse. Iran’s public denials may be posturing for a domestic audience, or they may reflect real divisions within a leadership that has spent three months absorbing American bombs. The mediators, Pakistan and Qatar, have kept the process alive through weeks of shuttle diplomacy, but they cannot force either side to sign.
Sunday will answer one question: whether the MoU is signed. It will not answer the larger one: whether this deal, if signed, holds.