A New York Times investigation says Qatari and Pakistani mediators used Donald Trump’s birthday last Sunday as leverage in the final stage of talks with Iran, telling Tehran that the U.S. president’s mood might make him willing to sign a ceasefire deal. They pressed Iran to accept a memorandum of understanding that was signed in France late Monday night, Israel time, after Trump, according to the report, wanted to end the war and was satisfied with an Iranian pledge not to seek nuclear weapons, leaving verification details for later.
The report, based on interviews with people involved in the process, says Qatar sent several delegations to Iran and instructed them not to return to Doha until there was a signed agreement. Qatari officials also told Iran to respond before the White House birthday event Trump hosted on Sunday. Iranian leaders, however, did not want to appear to give Trump a birthday gift, so the sides settled on approval after Iran’s official date had passed but before the day ended in the United States, because of the time difference.
According to the investigation, Iran’s top leader Mojtaba Khamenei asked parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf to bring the memorandum to the Supreme Council of the Islamic Republic, where it passed by a three-quarter majority of those present. Israel tried to persuade Washington over the weekend that Iran would not honor the terms, but failed. A later Israeli strike in Beirut nearly derailed the agreement: Iran had already deployed missiles in western Iran and ordered them to fire at 1 a.m. local time, and Tehran told Qatar it would withdraw from the deal.
The report says the attack was not carried out after Trump condemned it and Qatar urged Iran not to “give in to Israeli provocations.” The deal then moved forward toward signature. The story was written by Adam Rasgon, Ronen Bergman, Farnaz Fassihi, David Sanger, Elian Peltier and Anton Troianovski.
