The Final Draft Is In. Iran Agrees Never to Build the Bomb — Now They Have to Sign It.

A senior Iranian official has confirmed to Reuters that the final draft memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran includes an explicit commitment: Iran will neither produce nor acquire nuclear weapons. The draft — reported by The Jerusalem Post on June 14, 2026 — also requires Iran to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium inside the country, with the technical mechanism to be worked out in a 60-day window after signing.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared on June 13 that finalization is “likely expected in the next 24 hours,” with his government preparing for an electronic signing ceremony and technical talks to follow. President Trump said Saturday the deal was “scheduled to get signed tomorrow.” Iran’s Foreign Ministry pushed back on the exact Sunday timeline but did not close the door: spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said “it will not be tomorrow” while acknowledging “the possibility of this happening in the coming days cannot be ruled out.”

Qatari negotiators flew to Tehran on Sunday morning to push for final sign-off, arriving as the Middle East held its breath over whether the most significant arms-control agreement in a generation would materialize — or repeat the pattern of imminent breakthroughs that have dissolved before. This story is the next milestone from our June 12 coverage of Trump’s settlement claim and Tehran’s initial denials; read that report here.

• Nuclear weapons ban — Iran commits in the final draft MOU to never produce or acquire a nuclear weapon — confirmed by a senior Iranian official to Reuters, per Jerusalem Post, June 14, 2026
• $25 billion — in frozen Iranian assets the US would release under the deal, including direct cash transfers · Source: Greek Reporter / Reuters
• 60 days — post-signing technical window to finalize the mechanism for diluting or removing Iran's highly enriched uranium stockpile · Source: Jerusalem Post; PBS NewsHour
• Strait of Hormuz — Iran would reopen to all commercial shipping; the US would lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports · Source: Jerusalem Post; NBC News
• "Islamabad Memorandum" — the informal name for the pact, recognizing Pakistan's central mediating role; signing location expected to be Geneva · Source: Washington Times; Express Tribune

The draft memorandum of understanding is not a final treaty. It is a framework — a structured set of commitments intended to freeze the conflict and open a 60-day negotiating window for the hardest technical questions. But what it does commit Iran to, according to a senior Iranian official cited by Reuters and reported by The Jerusalem Post on June 14, is unambiguous on the headline item: Tehran agrees it will neither produce nor acquire nuclear weapons.

Axios had reported the core nuclear clause in May: the MOU would require Iran to commit “first and foremost to never acquire a nuclear weapon and to resolve the standoff around its enriched uranium.” The June 14 JPost report, citing a senior Iranian official directly, confirms that language survived into the final draft and was not softened. The mechanism for Iran’s highly enriched uranium — whether destroyed, diluted inside Iran under IAEA oversight, or transferred abroad — is left to the 60-day post-signing period.

Until a final deal is concluded, Iran commits in the interim to maintaining the current nuclear status quo: no new uranium enrichment, no expansion of nuclear facilities. The ceasefire, in place since April 7, holds in parallel.

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The nuclear pledge is paired with an economic reset. Under the draft, the United States would waive all oil sanctions on Iran for a specified period and release $25 billion in frozen Iranian assets, including direct cash transfers. The US Navy’s blockade of Iranian ports — in place since the February 28 conflict began — would be lifted.

In exchange, Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz to all commercial shipping. The contested element: Iran has sought the right to charge vessels for “services rendered” during transit — a toll mechanism the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE consider a violation of international navigation law. Whether that demand survived the final draft is not confirmed in public reporting as of June 14. The US position, articulated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R) in early June, was that Iran must reopen the strait and commit to future nuclear talks before Washington would ease the port blockade or lift financial sanctions.

“With finalisation likely expected in the next 24 hours, Pakistan is preparing for the electronic signing of the peace deal immediately after, followed by technical-level talks next week.”

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif · June 13, 2026 · Express Tribune / Bloomberg

The pact being called the “Islamabad Memorandum” takes its informal name from Pakistan, which has played the central mediating role throughout 2026. PM Sharif’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said Pakistan brought both parties to dialogue, preventing a communication breakdown after each previous near-miss. The framework was circulated in draft form in May; Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff met with Qatari mediators in Miami as early as May 9 to advance the text.

On Sunday, June 14, Qatari negotiators flew to Tehran in a final push. Qatar’s role has been to bridge specific gaps between the parties — particularly on the sequencing of sanctions relief versus Iranian compliance — while Pakistan handled broader diplomatic framing. A signing ceremony, if it occurs, is expected to take place in Geneva, not far from where Trump and a U.S. delegation will attend the G7 summit in France next week. Trump has repeatedly hinted that the deal could become a centerpiece moment at that summit.

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Tehran’s public signaling has been characteristically layered. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on June 12 that “the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding has never been closer” and called signing “quite possible” in the coming days — while simultaneously instructing the media to “refrain from entering speculation about its content.” His Foreign Ministry then contradicted Pakistan’s 24-hour timeline, with spokesperson Baghaei insisting no signing would occur on Sunday but leaving the door open for subsequent days.

The disconnect between Araghchi’s optimism and the Foreign Ministry’s hedging is familiar pattern: Iran historically uses public ambiguity as leverage to extract last-minute concessions. In this case, the unresolved items include the Lebanon ceasefire (Tehran has demanded a separate ceasefire there as a condition), the mechanism for removing or destroying Iran’s highly enriched uranium, and whether Israel has privately committed to withdrawing from zones it occupied during the conflict. The senior Iranian official who confirmed the nuclear-weapons-ban clause to Reuters spoke without being identified by name — a sign the internal debate in Tehran is not fully settled.

The deal’s confirmed elements — nuclear weapons ban, HEU dilution, sanctions relief, Hormuz reopening — represent a substantial convergence. But several hard questions remain unresolved in public accounts as of June 14:

Previous declarations of an imminent breakthrough — in April, in May, and again on June 11 when Trump told reporters a “great settlement” had been reached — have not materialized on the announced timelines. That history is the appropriate frame for weighing the current 24-hour claim, even as the underlying draft text now appears more detailed and more confirmed than at any prior point.

Trump framed his entire Iran policy around a single objective: Iran must never obtain a nuclear weapon. In announcing the February 28 conflict, in the rounds of strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, and in every subsequent diplomatic statement, the administration has insisted that this non-negotiable goal justified the risk. The draft MOU’s nuclear-weapons-ban clause is, therefore, the clause against which the rest of the deal will be measured — by supporters and critics alike.

Critics of the emerging framework — including Republican members of Congress who wrote to Witkoff in May — have argued that a mere commitment not to acquire nuclear weapons, without a verified destruction of the HEU stockpile and without permanent IAEA access to all military sites, is a commitment Iran can reverse the moment sanctions are lifted. Their concern: that the MOU’s 60-day technical window is Iran’s opportunity to pocket the financial relief and relitigate the nuclear terms. The administration has countered that “relief for performance” remains the governing principle — sanctions ease only as Iran demonstrates compliance.

Whether the Islamabad Memorandum becomes the most consequential arms agreement in a generation — or another missed moment — depends on a signing that, as of this report, has not yet happened. We will update this page when and if it does.

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Last updated June 14, 2026