New Iran peace deal details leak as CNN obtains unreleased 14-point memo
New details from a so-called peace deal between the U.S. and Iran have leaked, but the document shows few specific agreements to end the nearly four-month-long conflict.
CNN has obtained the 14-point memorandum of understanding reached by negotiators for the two nations, and senior White House correspondent Kevin Liptak informed "CNN This Morning" viewers on Wednesday morning of the details he had reviewed moments earlier.
"This text has not been officially released by either side of this," Liptak said. "We've heard from American officials over the last couple of days that they were planning to release this officially, after it is formally signed here in Switzerland on Friday."
"We've gotten a copy from a U.S. official," he continued. "We've gotten a version of it from a diplomat who has seen copies of it circulating here at the G7 summit, and two additional sources. So we have four sources from which we have obtained the text of this document, and in some ways, it does reflect how American officials have been characterizing it over the last several days. It is vague in a lot of its terms, particularly when it comes to Iran's nuclear program. It lays out in broad terms how the Strait of Hormuz will be reopened, how the U.S. will lift its blockade on Iranian ports, and it does spell out what the financial relief that Iran can expect as part of this deal if it meets its commitments."
The document specifies that Iran will be able to gain access to a $300 billion development fund, although American officials have insisted the funding would not come from the U.S., and the agreement states that the U.S. will issue waivers for some sanctions to allow Iran to start exporting oil.
"One of the reasons that the president has said that he started the war in the first place is to eliminate Iran's ability to obtain a nuclear weapon, and this is what the memorandum of understanding says on this point," Liptak said. "The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States have agreed that the fate of enriched material and the fate of all other mutually agreed, agreed nuclear-related issues, including Iran's nuclear needs, will be adequately addressed in a final agreement."
"The final agreement will confirm the provisions of this article, and so it is what we expected," Liptak added. "It's punting the really thorny issues about enrichment around the fate of Iran's nuclear stockpile to these future technical negotiations. The memo specifies that those will last 60 days, but that they could also be extended."
Trump has hyped the deal as a peace agreement, but Liptak said other U.S. officials have not sounded so confident.
"We have been talking to American officials about the language in this document, and in a lot of ways, they have been downplaying it," Liptak said. "They have suggested that this is essentially a political document meant to create the conditions to get around to the table for these much more technical negotiations going forward. But I still think the lack of specificity around the nuclear issues, I think, will be a surprise to some people who have been following all this, and in particular, the fact that it doesn't say anywhere in the document that the United States will be involved in the destruction of Iran's highly enriched uranium."
"One official told us yesterday is that, quote, people shouldn't read too much into the language of the MOU," he added. "That's what's more important than the actual document is the understandings that we have with each other. Of course, all of that is, I think, going to risk some backlash from Iran hawks, even from some of the president's own allies, who will argue that the U.S. is putting too much faith in the Iranians' word in all of this, and not necessarily in what they're willing to put in writing in these documents. But certainly what you've heard from the president over the last days, including here at the G7, is really proclaiming this as a triumph."
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