Donald Trump has a tendency to exaggerate preliminary agreements, often leading the public to discover later that no actual deal exists.
The discussions with the Iranians have resulted in a memorandum of understanding, which outlines the framework for upcoming negotiations.
Currently, there is no conclusive agreement.
The Trump administration is withholding the memorandum’s text because, according to initial reports, it involves providing Iran with billions of dollars in return for allowing Trump to back out of a conflict he initiated.
Vice President JD Vance appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box, where he essentially acknowledged the absence of a finalized deal.
Vance stated:
Well, I think the best outcome is a good deal for the American people, which we have. Fundamentally, we’re dealing with everybody in the Iranian system. You know, there’s the IRGC, the sort of regime hard liners, the military side, there’s the political leadership, and within the political leadership you have people who are more hard line and less hard line. We expect to have a full spectrum of representatives at the negotiation on Friday. Again, we’ve been talking to these people, sometimes indirectly, but sometimes directly, and that’s what’s fundamentally changed under the President’s leadership. We are now speaking directly to the Iranian system. We have some good relationships there. So, this is going to be a successful negotiation, because we’re not passing messages through various back channels anymore.
Video:
We’re actually talking to them. And when you talk to them, you figure out what’s real, what’s fake, what are they serious about, what are they not serious about. And the thing I would add to that is we fundamentally have all the cards here. We don’t have to give the Iranians anything if they don’t make the commitments that we want long term on the nuclear program, and even if we just stopped here, what would be true? Their military is destroyed, the Straits of Hormuz are open, their nuclear program has been destroyed, and we have incredible economic leverage over them that we didn’t have a year and a half ago. So we’ve got a lot of leverage here, but we also have the President saying to them, we’re extending an open hand.
When examining Vance’s remarks, the key takeaway is what he left unsaid. The vice president provided no specific details, reinforcing the notion that no deal exists. Meanwhile, Congress seeks to understand the terms Trump has committed to.
