MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

The Washington-Tehran memorandum expires without talks ever having opened

US President Donald Trump ruled out renewing it and described the deadline's expiry as irrelevant, saying there is no set timetable

The memorandum of understanding signed on June 17 by the United States and Iran expired on Monday at the end of its sixty-day term, without the peace talks it envisaged ever taking place and without either side announcing an extension.

US President Donald Trump ruled out renewing it and described the deadline's expiry as irrelevant, saying there is no set timetable. “They want to make a deal, but they are not going to make the kind of deal I consider necessary,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. On his social network he wrote that the primary goal is and always will be to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei gave a different account of the failure. He said the deadline had become obsolete because of violations Tehran says Washington committed weeks after signing. “We have not entered into any negotiations,” he said.

The text required Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and to reaffirm that it will not acquire or develop nuclear weapons, while the United States undertook to lift its naval blockade and sanctions. Around 20% of the world's oil passes through the strait.

The waterway remains the main sticking point. Trump on Monday threatened to bomb Oman, a US ally, if it obstructs any eventual agreement. “If Oman gets in our way,” he told Fox News reporter Trey Yingst, the country would face strikes. Asked about it later in the Oval Office, he did not soften his position: “They are not behaving very well.”

Muscat and Tehran have been negotiating for weeks, without US participation, a mechanism to manage shipping traffic through the strait. Baghaei said there is an understanding on the transit route map and that both sides are finalising a joint declaration. The agreement would not, however, mean reopening: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said early this month that reopening depends on additional conditions, and deputy minister Kazem Gharibabadi said the strait “will only be closed and opened under Iran's command” and that the blockade will continue until Washington accepts what he described as its defeat.

On the ground, the cycle of attacks and reprisals continues. Last week US forces disabled the Panama-flagged container ship Vela Nova in the Gulf of Oman for attempting to head to an Iranian port. US Central Command has redirected 55 commercial vessels, disabled three and boarded two since reimposing the blockade on July 14.

A Reuters poll released on Monday puts Trump's approval at 33%, the lowest of his second term. The conflict began on February 28.