White House Communications Director Steven Cheung denied that a text circulating in multiple mainstream media outlets late on Tuesday was an accurate text of the ultimate draft of a memorandum of understanding between Iran and America to end the current war and pave the wave for nuclear negotiations.
CNN, Bloomberg, and the Saudi news agency al-Arabiya published a 14-point text they claimed to have obtained from involved officials of the “memorandum of understanding” on Tuesday. While many of the provisions therein were agreed-upon terms that the White House has stated publicly would be part of the deal, such as the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic, the published texts addressed other issues such as Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and an alleged $300 billion investment fund for Iran.
A senior White House official confirmed on Monday that an agreement had been signed by American and Iranian officials, formally ending Operation Epic Fury — the American engagement that eliminated “supreme leader” Ali Khamenei and a host of other top Iranian officials. A formal signing ceremony is reportedly scheduled to take place in Switzerland on Friday, after which President Donald Trump has stated he would publish the full text of the memorandum.
That text, Cheung clarified on Wednesday, was not the text published by various outlets on Tuesday.
“The supposed text of the MOU that was obtained by CNN does not reflect the language of the actual MOU,” he wrote on social media.
Speaking at the G7 summit in France, expected to conclude on Wednesday, President Trump told reporters that the memorandum did not include a $300 billion fund for Iran, contrary to the texts “leaked” on Tuesday.
“That’s false,” Trump asserted, according to the Times of Israel. “People can invest if they want. I mean, what am I going to do — say nobody’s ever allowed to invest? We’re not investing. We’re not putting up ten cents. People can decide to do that, but that’s up to them… We do not have a fund.”
Trump went on to say that the memorandum was not a “final” agreement, but rather a step towards containing the global economic damage caused by the conflict, particularly due to the obstruction of regular civilian shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Without the agreement, the president predicted, “a worldwide depression” would occur.
“It’s a memorandum of understanding. If I don’t like it, if they don’t behave, we’ll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head, okay?” Trump clarified. “Because they’ve misbehaved for 47 years.”
The president also reiterated he considers the memorandum a “great deal” in part because Iran “will never have a nuclear weapon.”
“It’s a very strong deal. Nobody knows what it is, but it’s very strong, and most people seem to be very happy,” he added.
The texts published by various outlets on Tuesday included specific provisions on issues that remain unclear publicly, such as addressing the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the alleged development fund. As produced by al-Arabiya, the text called for “an immediate and permanent end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon” and called for traffic in the Strait of Hormuz to be restored “within a maximum of 30 days to its full capacity.”
“The United States undertakes, together with its regional partners, to create a comprehensive plan agreed upon by both parties for the rehabilitation and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the alleged text read, “while ensuring financing of at least $300 billion. The implementation mechanism of this plan, as part of the final agreement, will be formulated within 60 days.”
The text also allegedly called for America to move towards “ending, on a schedule to be agreed upon as part of the final agreement, all types of sanctions” and to immediately “issue waivers for exports of Iranian crude oil, petrochemical products and their derivatives, and all related services, including banking, insurance, transportation, and the like.”
Some of these provisions the White House has confirmed, such as the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian government has repeatedly claimed it would not accept an agreement that did not include Lebanon, but the Trump administration has not confirmed whether its inclusion in that text is accurate. Vice President JD Vance answered a question about the rumored $300 billion investment fund for Iran, telling NBC News that no American money would go towards such an endeavor but that Gulf state investment was possible.
“That’s fundamentally between the Gulf states and Iran,” the vice president stated. “What we have said is, again, that if the Iranians are behaving like a normal country, and if they make their country investable, then the Gulf Arab states are going to decide, may decide to invest in that country, invest in their infrastructure, invest in their incredible resources.”
“But I think it’s important, not a single dime of that money comes from the United States,” he insisted. “And in order for Iran to get that benefit, they have to show the Gulf Arab states that they’re behaving like a normal country.”
The vice president’s comments did not confirm whether such a fund would be described in the final memorandum of understanding.
