Iranian state media reported on May 30th that a proposed memorandum of understanding with the United States included an agreement to release $12 billion in frozen assets. The report cited an unofficial draft of the memorandum, and a similar item carried by state TV earlier this week was dismissed by the White House as a fabrication.
It comes a day after U.S. President Donald Trump issued his own detailed characterisation of a potential agreement aimed at halting the war, key elements of which were likewise disputed by Iranian sources.
The state TV report said, “The United States has pledged to provide Iran with full access to $12 billion of its assets within 60 days so that these resources can be transferred and spent in banks of Iran’s desired destination without restrictions.”
Since then, Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said, on May 31st, that Tehran will not agree to any deal with the United States that fails to secure the rights of Iranians.
“We will not approve any agreement until we are certain that the rights of the Iranian people have been upheld,” Ghalibaf said in a video broadcast on state television.
Tehran has also insisted that Lebanon must be included in any end to the war despite ongoing fighting, with Beirut accusing Israel of a scorched-earth policy as its forces advanced and carried out further airstrikes it says target Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah.
Meanwhile,U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he had secured guarantees from Iran that it would not develop nuclear weapons, as reports emerged he had sent a tougher peace proposal back to Tehran.
“The one guarantee that I have to have is that there will be no nuclear weapons. They’ve agreed to that, and it was very interesting,” he told his daughter-in-law Lara Trump in an interview broadcast on her Fox News programme on the night of May 30th.
“I’m in no hurry. Slowly but surely we’re getting, I think, what we want, and if we don’t get what we want, we’re going to end in a different way,” the president added.
