No. of Recommendations: 19
US officials downplay text of the Iran agreement, saying it doesn’t account for back-channel commitmentsHoo boy. No surprise they're downplaying the text of the agreement, because it is
awful. Iran didn't just get immediate waivers both from all oil sanctions
and from any banking, insurance, and other financial restrictions. They got a release of frozen assets:
11 — The United States undertakes that, in light of the progress of negotiations towards a final agreement, frozen or restricted funds and assets of the Islamic Republic of Iran will be released and made fully available. These funds, whether held in the master account or transferred, will be used for any final beneficiary payment determined by the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran and will be fully available for use. The United States undertakes to issue all necessary permits and licenses on this basis.https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/17/middleeast/us-iran-...I mean - wow. That language is just....wow. A plain reading of the text is that
all frozen funds and assets are getting released. And the U.S. will do everything necessary to have that happen. Talk about pallets of cash! And it's not contingent on there ever being a final deal; this language reads that it's being given to them
now, in light of "progress" of negotiations. Not contingent on those negotiations resulting in the final agreement, not to be provided after a final agreement is in place. Now.
Note also that the "final agreement" scope is defined to be "the fate of enriched material and the fate of all other mutually 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." No mention of ballistic missiles, no mention of support of regional proxies. All the things that the JCPOA was supposedly "ass" for not including, the parties do not at present contemplate will be part of this final agreement.
I mean...wow. All Iran agreed to do is go back to February 26th. In exchange, we give them relief from all oil and gas sanctions, all related sanctions so that the money is clean and usable, and to unfreeze their assets. And we spent many tens of billions of dollars for this. Yeah, no wonder Admin flacks are running away from this and claiming that there's some better "unwritten" deal that's the real deal...
