US officials downplay text of the Iran agreement, saying it doesn’t account for back-channel commitments

President Donald Trump meets with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G7 summit, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Evian-les-Bains, France. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

US negotiators are working to quickly release the text of the agreement between Washington and Tehran, even as they downplay the significance of the specific language in the document,

The officials described the text of the agreement as incredibly vague, mainly intended to create a more favorable environment for the highly technical, in-person talks to come. They added that the framework is aimed at providing Iran the ability to sell it politically to their internal audience.

“People shouldn’t read too much into the language of the MOU,” one of the officials said, describing the agreement as a “political document.”

“What’s more important than the actual document is the understandings we have with each other, and that’s why it’s important to get it done, that we can create the environment to go and talk about all these things, because it basically says we will release sanctions, we will do a deal with nuclear, we will unfreeze funds,” the same official said. “But we’ll release sanctions when, you know, based on progress. We’ll release funds once we’ve agreed on the mechanisms to do so.”

The official added that the president’s team of negotiators “came up with language that allows (Iran) to say what they need to say for their domestic politics.”

But that dynamic risks severe backlash to the Trump administration back home. Officials have worked for months to come to an agreement with Iran, looking to end a deeply unpopular war without a clear endgame that has sent gas prices skyrocketing. Already, conservative hawks have been demanding to see the framework, suspicious that President Donald Trump and his administration gave away too much in the name of ending the war.