President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday at the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, that he would submit his interim memorandum of understanding with Iran to Congress for review, bowing to demands from senior Republican lawmakers who complained they had been left entirely in the dark about the accord’s contents. “I never thought about sending it, never even thought about it, but I will,” Trump told reporters, describing the shift as an afterthought he had come to like. The commitment marks a significant procedural concession, as the White House had unveiled the agreement on Sunday without providing text to legislators or the public.

Viewed from Washington, the deal remains a sketch rather than a finished treaty. Officials from both capitals say the memorandum extends a fragile April ceasefire by 60 days, reopens the Strait of Hormuz — a vital energy corridor effectively blocked since late February — and commits Iran to abandoning any pathway to a nuclear weapon. Trump insisted the strait would operate toll-free even beyond the negotiation window and claimed, without offering evidence, that American forces had “detonated a site containing nuclear dust” inside Iran. Vice President JD Vance spent Monday providing rough outlines to media outlets, yet Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a member of the so-called Gang of Eight with access to top-level intelligence briefings, conceded that even well-connected senators “don’t know much about it.”

Regional and European perspectives add layers of complexity. Arab mediators, notably Qatar, won Trump’s praise for acting “courageously” in brokering the preliminary text, which is expected to be signed in Switzerland on Friday. Tehran has long insisted its nuclear programme is peaceful, but the 14-point memorandum, as described by Trump, explicitly states that Iran “will never have a nuclear weapon.” Analysts in London note that the Strait of Hormuz reopening, if implemented, would ease the disruption that has rattled global energy markets since the US and Israel began striking Iran on 28 February. However, the absence of published terms has fuelled scepticism in European capitals, where diplomats recall the painstaking multilateral negotiations that produced the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

The path ahead is fraught with constitutional and diplomatic uncertainty. Republican senators, including John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy, are already insisting that any final agreement must come to the Senate for a vote, framing it as a treaty rather than a mere executive understanding. The 60-day window for detailed negotiations will test whether the interim accord can survive the deep mistrust between Washington and Tehran, as well as the scrutiny of a Congress that has been caught off guard. For now, the deal has kindled cautious optimism that a war that has killed thousands and paralysed global shipping might be nearing an end, but the hard bargaining over enriched uranium limits, sanctions relief and verification mechanisms has yet to begin.