Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday that he has approved the Iran-US memorandum of understanding, even though he personally had reservations about it. In a statement, he said senior Iranian officials had made major efforts to reach the signing stage and stressed that future negotiations do not mean Iran will accept an enemy’s terms.
Khamenei said President Masoud Pezeshkian took responsibility for the deal with Washington and assured him that if the American side tried to harden its demands, Iran would not yield. He said Pezeshkian, as chairman of the Supreme National Security Council, promised on behalf of himself and the other members to protect the rights of the Iranian people and the “resistance front,” and to accept responsibility for that position. “I had a different opinion about the memorandum of understanding,” he said, adding that from now on he and the Iranian people would wait for the agreed conditions to be fulfilled.
The accord was formally signed overnight without a joint ceremony. US President Donald Trump signed the document in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron in France, while a scanned copy was sent to Tehran for Pezeshkian’s signature. At the same time, Pakistan announced the immediate opening of the Strait of Hormuz and the lifting of the American blockade.
The remote signing confirmed remarks by US Vice President JD Vance over the weekend that the document had already been signed by him, Trump and the speaker of the Iranian parliament. It also ended speculation about the planned Friday summit in Lucerne, Switzerland. According to the Iranian version, that meeting is not for another signing ceremony but for the formal start of technical talks that will last 60 days.
Those talks are expected to focus on Iran’s nuclear program, reducing its stockpile of enriched uranium and lifting sanctions ahead of a permanent agreement. The White House has not yet issued clarification, but from Washington’s perspective the political phase of the deal appears to have been completed.
