A provision in the proposed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the US and Iran will allow Iran to begin selling oil and fuel immediately upon its signing, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the agreement.
According to the WSJ report, the same provision allows Iran to use banking, transportation, and insurance services to facilitate sales.
The exact details of the MoU have been under contention for the past few days, since US President Donald Trump announced the agreement on Sunday.
Speaking to the press at the G7 summit in France, Trump offered some insight into the agreement’s clauses and said he intended to “go over the document with the media in a couple of days.”
The memorandum will reportedly be signed in Switzerland on Friday, and according to documents seen by Al Arabiya English, the final agreement will be adopted through a binding UN Security Council resolution.
US reportedly believes Iran can close strait at will
Iran will be able to shut down the Strait of Hormuz whenever it wants, US intelligence agencies believe, according to a CNN report Tuesday citing three sources familiar with their findings.
According to the report, American intelligence agencies believe that the specifics of the Memorandum of Understanding, set to be signed on Friday, won’t actually impact Iran’s ability to close the strait to traffic.
“We have now handed Iran de facto control over the strait – a weapon more powerful than any nuke,” one of the sources familiar with the US intelligence assessments told CNN, emphasizing how the war has fundamentally altered Tehran’s thinking about leveraging similar tactics in the future.
A senior US official told CNN that under the MOU, Iran won’t benefit from any concessions unless the strait is open, even if the rest of the agreement is respected.
Amichai Stein contributed to this report.
