DUBAI, June 11 - Three Iranian sources and a European official report that efforts to clinch a preliminary accord between Tehran and Washington have stepped up, even as both sides have carried out strikes during the current confrontation. Negotiators are actively exchanging messages about the specifics of a memorandum of understanding aimed at easing financial restrictions on Iran.
According to the Iranian sources, a political understanding has been achieved in principle, but several detailed issues remain unresolved. Central among those outstanding points is the technical mechanism for releasing the sizable sums of Iranian oil revenues that are frozen in foreign bank accounts.
One Iranian source provided a range for the immediate release Iran seeks, saying Tehran wants between $6 billion and $12 billion of its frozen funds to be returned. By contrast, U.S. officials are reported to favour a staged release of funds, conditioned on purchases of humanitarian goods, and explicitly oppose returning the assets to Iran in an unrestricted manner.
The Iranian sources emphasised that the clerical establishment's foremost priority is not to secure an all-encompassing settlement at this juncture. Rather, they describe the objective as obtaining a framework that creates enough breathing room for the regime - principally by unlocking frozen assets and bringing an end to active hostilities - to ensure its short-term survival.
Negotiations remain ongoing and technical because, while a high-level political accord may exist, the precise modalities for fund transfers and safeguards for how those funds would be used have not been finalised. The parties continue to exchange proposals on how to structure a mechanism that reconciles Iran's desire for access to funds with Washington's insistence on restricting use to humanitarian purposes.
Until those procedural and verification elements are settled, the Iranian sources and the European official say further detailed discussions are required to translate the political understanding into a functioning memorandum of understanding that can be implemented in practice.