The Iran MOU is a draft, not a final agreement, and the distinction is important
Iran nuclear deal faces roadblocks as Trump warns negotiators
‘The Foreign Desk’ editor-in-chief Lisa Daftari joins ‘Fox News Live’ to discuss the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the critical issue of Iran’s uranium enrichment. He expresses concern about an emboldened Iran and the regime’s long history of infidelity after the US withdrawal. Daftari is urging more pressure to discourage the regime from retaliating.
NEWNow you can listen to Fox News articles!
The Trump administration’s memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Islamic Republic of Iran is a draft, not a final deal, and the difference between the two is the difference between a generational victory and a generational failure.
The MOU will be judged on one question. Does the final deal definitively dismantle Iran’s nuclear program and remove a significant amount of enriched uranium from the regime’s hands, or does it regulate the path to the bomb the way the JCPOA did? There is no third option.
Anything in between is the 2015 agreement written in different words, and the mismanagement of the measure achieved by the Trump administration in this war.
President Trump’s feeling that the important plan is not entertaining is correct. The Islamic Republic is weaker today than at any time since 1979. Great pressure was at work. The internal pressure was at boiling point. The empire came to the table because it had to, not because it wanted to, and that’s an advantage the US is willing to trade.
TRUMP NUCLEAR TALKS FACED A DEFINING QUESTION: WHAT HAPPENED TO IRAN’S URANIUM STOCKPILE?
President Donald Trump (C) gestures as he addresses the media along with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer (L), US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick (2L), US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (2R) and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (R) during the closing press conference at the G7 summit, in Evian, eastern France. (Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images)
Is there even an agreement that will be recognized by the duplicative state? Maybe not, but at the very least, a final agreement that bans disbandment, free clauses against implied compliance, and preserves all snapback tools would be smart. Reiteration of the JCPOA structure, cash upfront and managed enrichment, would be the most expensive concession in modern memory.
The JCPOA had two fatal flaws, and both were avoidable.
The first was the transfer of money. Between unfrozen assets and direct payments, the Islamic Republic received nearly $100 billion in resources that could be used in the first phase of the deal. That money did not go to schools or hospitals. It went to the IRGC, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas, to the proxy network that has defined the region’s security landscape for the past decade. Releasing pre-loaded sanctions does not encourage good behavior. It pays terrorist proxies.
The second was the creation of sunset clauses. The 2015 deal did not stop Iran’s nuclear program. It only carries their way to the bomb. By 2030, on paper, all reasonable limits are rising. The regime does not understand the agreement as a regime of deterrence but as a regime of delay, and has used the delay to promote enrichment, increase the capacity of missiles, and focus on the very infrastructure that the agreement was supposed to hold.
President Pezeshkian said that Iran will rebuild the nuclear facilities directed by the US, and make them stronger by 2025. (Iranian Presidency / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The final MOU agreement should change that mindset. Restrictions should be permanent and verification should be disruptive. Enrichment energy must be removed physically, not suspended.
There is a third situation that does not receive enough attention in Washington and is not discussed in Tehran. There needs to be a credible threat of consequence at the time of non-compliance.
The Islamic Republic honors treaties only if the cost of breaking them exceeds the benefit. That figure must be visible to the government at the signing table and at all subsequent inspections. That means kinetic options remain on the table. The tools of economic warfare are always at the ready. Political pressure automatically increases. Snapback cannot be process. It should be spontaneous and it should bite.
What is this agreement? If Iran’s nuclear arsenal is prevented, then dismantling and handing over enriched uranium are the only acceptable terms. If it is to stabilize the Strait of Hormuz or reduce the regional conflict, those are secondary objectives that should be pursued by other means. Compounding instability and regionalism is what produced the JCPOA. The 2015 agreement tried to do many things and ended up doing nothing.
The US military attacked three nuclear sites in Iran on Saturday, June 21, 2025. (Fox News photo)
Iranians are not an afterthought in this conversation. They are the state. The regime they live under has killed an estimated 42,000 of them in January protests alone. Two other political prisoners have been hanged since the MOU was announced. Any agreement must deal with the behavior and reality of a regime that kills its citizens on an industrial scale.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS PROGRAM
This is the time when managers reject a bad deal and explain a good one. Guaranteed completion. Eternal limitations. Exemption from stage penalties associated with continued compliance. Snapback with teeth. Enriched uranium is out of the hands of the state.
The government came to the table because the pressure is working. The president must remember why he got the power in the first place, and use it.
