Qatar Sends Delegation to Tehran as Iran-US Understanding Awaits Digital Signing

CNN reported Sunday morning that a Qatari delegation, working in coordination with the United States, flew to Tehran to help finalize the memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran. According to the network, the plan is to sign the deal remotely and digitally, in an effort to avoid last-minute complications.

President Donald Trump had said Vice President J.D. Vance would attend the signing ceremony in person in Europe, but Trump himself is due to leave Monday for France for the G7 summit. Since the president and vice president do not usually travel at the same time, sending Vance could have created logistical problems. An informed source quoted by CNN said the decision was therefore made to proceed with an electronic signature.

Some mediators reportedly fear that the longer the agreement remains unsigned, the greater the chance that something will derail the progress, or that one or both sides will back out. Separately, Saudi outlet Al-Arabiya reported Sunday that the signing meeting was supposed to include Vance and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, as well as mediators from Pakistan and Qatar, though that report was not independently verified.

Al-Arabiya also claimed that after the agreement is signed, the Strait of Hormuz would reopen and passage through it would be free of charge.