Initial US-Iran agreement leaves many key issues to be negotiated

The US-Iran memorandum of understanding announced on Wednesday amounts to a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and a deal to try to reach a final agreement on almost everything else. President Donald Trump framed it as a major win for the US in a lengthy press conference at the G7 summit in France. Both countries later confirmed the memo had been signed electronically on Wednesday and was now in effect. But new details released by US officials in a call with reporters confirm both countries still have a long way to go to reach a comprehensive final peace agreement that achieves Trump's primary goal of stopping Iran from ever developing nuclear weapons. Trump has insisted the deal ensures that Iran will never buy, develop or produce a nuclear weapon. But the text of this agreement, which was read aloud by officials on the call, falls short of that. Instead, the ceasefire extension jumpstarts a high-stakes scramble over 60 days for the two adversaries to achieve a lasting nuclear pact. It took the Obama administration 20 months of negotiations to reach the original Iran nuclear deal in 2015. Can the Trump administration do that in just two months? For now, the text of the deal only c