US officials downplay text of the Iran agreement, saying it doesn’t account for back-channel commitments

US officials told CNN that US negotiators were trying to quickly release the text of the agreement between Washington and Tehran, although they downplayed the significance of the specific language in the document.

Officials described the text of the agreement as highly vague, stating that it was highly technical and aimed at creating an environment more conducive to face-to-face talks. They added that the framework aims to provide Iran with the ability to sell it politically to its domestic audience.

Additionally, officials argued that the text of the memorandum, which Vice President J.D. Vance told CNN on Monday was a page and a half long, did not reflect critical back-channel commitments Iran had made to the United States, giving them greater confidence in signing the deal.

“People should not read too much into the language of the Memorandum of Understanding,” said one of the officials, describing the agreement as a “political document”.

“More important than the actual document is our understanding with each other, and that’s why it’s important to get this done; we can create the environment where we can go and talk about all of this, because it basically says we’re going to lift sanctions, do a nuclear deal, unwind funding,” the same official said. “However, we will lift sanctions subject to progress. We will release funds once we agree on mechanisms to achieve this.”

The official added that the president’s negotiating team “developed a language that allows (Iran) to say what it needs to say for its domestic policies.”

But this dynamic risks a serious backlash against the Trump administration at home. Officials have been working for months to reach a deal with Iran, seeking to end an unpopular war that has sent gas prices soaring without a clear end game. Already, conservative hawks are demanding to see the framework, suspecting that President Donald Trump and his administration are giving too much away to end the war.

The agreement text does not detail what commitments Iran has made regarding its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, although Trump and other officials insist the United States will oversee the destruction of those stockpiles, according to a person who saw the text and explained it to CNN. Instead, the agreement broadly states that Iran “reiterates that it will never produce nuclear weapons”; This is a commitment Tehran also made in its 2015 nuclear deal with the Obama administration.

However, US officials argued that Iran was “back channeling” the US into offering the concessions sought by the Trump administration. This includes U.S. participation in the field disposal of enriched materials in coordination with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Officials said such a concession was not clearly stated in the document.

In turn, the text details what financial aid Iran can expect if it fulfills its commitments, including the ability to tap into a $300 billion development fund in the future, according to officials. Both Trump and Vance are adamant that the fund will not be financed with US dollars.

The text is less clear on unfreezing Iranian assets; it says only that they will be released and made “fully available” once progress is made in subsequent rounds of negotiations, without specifying a timeline.

The agreement also states that Iran will be able to sell its oil and petrochemical products as soon as the memorandum of understanding is signed, and that the United States will issue sanctions exemptions to allow it to reap financial benefits from the sales.

When asked about the sanctions waivers, a US official called the deal “performance-based” and said Iran “can only enjoy the full benefits of the MoU if it complies with all the points they agreed to, including not using nuclear weapons, neutralizing its enriched material, and not interfering with the free flow of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.”

Although the United States has not made the text of the agreement public, copies of the agreement are being circulated among European and other G7 officials meeting for the Group of 7 summit in France this week, according to a person familiar with the discussions. The leaders pressed Trump for clarification on certain points during meetings in the Alpine resort town of Évian-les-Bains.

The secrecy surrounding the text of the agreement has even drawn criticism from some of Trump’s allies, who question why an already signed framework should remain secret. Vance has said publicly that the United States wants to publish the agreement, but that the “diplomatic procedure” is in effect and that Iran and mediator countries want to “put the proliferation process in order.”

“The Qataris and the Pakistanis have been mediating all these negotiations with the Iranians, and they’ve asked us to effectively sequence the way we’re going to implement this,” he told Fox News on Tuesday.

Sources said some Trump officials were privately willing to make the text of the agreement public but gave Iran leeway to let its internal processes proceed.

“We want the text to be there. They asked us to wait until Friday to release it, but we’re asking if we can release it sooner, and we can, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” one U.S. official said.

One complicating factor revolves around Iran’s religious leader Mojtaba Khamenei. Officials said he had given tacit approval to the memorandum of understanding and that there were internal discussions about whether he would issue a statement ahead of a formal, in-person signing ceremony in Switzerland on Friday. According to officials, making the text public could complicate efforts to release the statement.

Trump, meanwhile, told reporters on Tuesday that he was waiting for a “formal setting” for the document to be made public, but claimed he was so proud of the material that he could read it word for word in front of cameras.

He also claimed that the next round of negotiations to resolve the disputes would be “easier” than the first round. A Trump administration official said the next phase, the “highly technical” talks, was a testing period for Iran.

The 60-day window, which will include face-to-face talks between U.S. and Iranian delegations starting this Friday, will give Trump officials time to determine how serious Iran is about meeting its commitments and the nuclear concessions they are willing to make.

“We are more focused on getting the deal done in the long term,” one official said, “which is more important and building trust is more important than managing the narrative.”

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