Five Unresolved Issues; Iran Rejects Efforts to Defer Core Demands
IRGC-affiliated reporting has identified frozen assets, sanctions relief, the US naval blockade, Lebanon, and the Strait of Hormuz as the main unresolved issues — every issue in the first stage of the proposed agreement, before talks on the nuclear programme begin. Mediators appear to be trying to preserve momentum by sequencing the unresolved issues and developing technical arrangements for the strait, but Iranian reporting indicates Iran has rejected efforts to defer its core demands. The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency said differences remain over “one or two clauses” and a source said there would be no final understanding if the US continued to “create obstacles”.
The Tasnim formulation — one or two clauses pending, with an Iran walk-away threat if the US creates obstacles — is the standard Iranian negotiating-posture template. The five unresolved first-stage issues (frozen assets, sanctions relief, US blockade, Lebanon, Hormuz) are precisely the questions Washington has tried to push into the 60-day nuclear-talks window; Iran wants them resolved up-front. The two Pakistani sources involved in the negotiations have described the deal under discussion as “fairly comprehensive to terminate the war”. If the US accepts the memorandum, further talks could take place after the Eid holiday ends on Friday. The Tehran/Washington gap is now sequencing, not principle: both sides agree on the components, but Iran wants front-loaded resolution and the US wants conditional sequencing.