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Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced on June 12 that a final text on a peace deal between the United States and Iran has been reached.
“We can confirm that a final, agreed-upon text of the peace deal has been reached, and Pakistan is now working closely with both sides to finalize the next steps. Peace has never been this close as it is now,” Sharif, who has been one of the mediators, wrote on X.
“Amid ongoing intense mediation efforts by Pakistan, we are fully aware of an incessant misinformation campaign being waged by those who want to sabotage the peace deal,” he added.
Sharif’s announcement was not a surprise. U.S. President Donald Trump called off strikes on Iran a day earlier, claiming that a deal with the Islamic Republic will be signed very soon.
Still, some issues, namely the fate of Iran’s frozen funds, remain stuck. U.S. Vice President JD Vance said earlier in the day that the funds will not be released to the Islamic Republic for signing a deal or attending a meeting, slamming reports that suggest otherwise.
“First, the Iranians are not receiving any cash, and no funds are being released for simply signing a deal or attending a meeting,” Vance wrote on X.
“The deal is structured to ensure that the US and its allies’ concerns are prioritized, and that if the Islamic Republic of Iran meets its obligations, then economic benefits will flow to them and to the entire region,” he added.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed that the upcoming deal with the U.S. will extend the fragile ceasefire by 60 days in order to launch additional nuclear talks.
“The Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding has never been closer. Pending its finalization, the media should refrain from entering speculation about its content,” Araghchi said.
“In line with our responsible and transparent approach, all details will be shared with the public in due course,” he added.
As for when the deal could be actually signed, a senior official in President Donald Trump’s administration told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the U.S. is “80 to 85 percent” confident that this could happen in the coming days.
“We do expect us to be signing this agreement over the next few days. I can’t give you an exact date,” the senior official told the news agency in a call.
“If I were to give you a confidence that we were going to be signing this agreement, I maybe would have said 75 percent this morning, it’s probably more like 80-85 percent now, but it’s not 100 percent,” the official added.
AFP also reported that they deal in the making also include Lebanon, where Israel has been attacking Hezbollah — a close ally of Iran.
While several issues remain unresolved, it is clear for the first time that all sides are optimistic about the deal being signed very soon. Nevertheless, this does not guarantee that the follow-on talks will be successful. Even if the United States refrains from attacking Iran in the future, Israel could still escalate on its own if no meaningful progress is made after the signing.
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from the looks of it the conventional war phase of ww3 is being postponed by these so called ceasefires makes me wonder on how much borrowed time we’re living on.
i can not believe in the “word” deal. only internationally signed treaties that recognizes indigenous populations.