Qatar and Pakistan carry Trump’s message to Iran: He won't return to the MoU
On 24 August, Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, travelled to Tehran to deliver an important message as regional tensions intensified and the US reimposed its naval blockade of Iranian ports.
That same day in Washington, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a “D-Day” economic pressure campaign against Iran, warning that countries continuing to trade with Tehran could face secondary sanctions.
In Tehran, Munir met senior Iranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian and General Mohsen Rezaei, the newly appointed secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
According to two sources close to the Iranian government, Munir had a single message from President Donald Trump: “I won’t return to the MoU.”
The Iran-US Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), reached on 17 June, established a framework for ending months of war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. It was also intended to provide a basis for further negotiations between Tehran and Washington, while leaving several major issues unresolved.
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A conservative source said Trump is seeking a new agreement rather than a return to the MoU.
For Iran, however, the existing agreement offered several significant advantages, according to a political analyst in Tehran, who wished to remain anonymous.
These included an oil waiver allowing Tehran to receive its oil revenues directly in US dollars, an end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, and, most importantly, recognition of Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz.
The analyst said Trump had come under pressure from opponents in Washington, particularly neoconservatives and Israel, who had launched a campaign accusing him of “surrendering” to Tehran.
Meawhile, over the summer, the US military gradually opened a shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz, allowing tankers to pass through a southern channel along the coast of Oman.
The analyst said the move was intended to undermine the agreement and provoke Tehran into responding to what Iran viewed as a violation of the deal, thereby creating a pretext for Trump to withdraw from the MoU.
Over the past six months, the war has repeatedly settled into periods of relative calm, only to erupt again in sporadic fighting.
The battle over the Strait of Hormuz flared up last week, with Iranian forces and the US military trading retaliatory attacks on ships over the weekend.
Shipping traffic through the strait slowed at the start of this week, after Iran threatened to retaliate against any new US attacks.
Qatari visit
The MoU began to unravel in early July 2026 as disputes emerged over its implementation, particularly around the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
After Iran struck vessels transiting through the strait in response to Washington’s attempt to establish a corridor, the US revoked key oil-export sanctions relief on 7 July, effectively undoing one of the agreement’s main economic provisions.
The two sides also clashed over Iran’s authority to control maritime traffic and over the timing and scope of the lifting of the US naval blockade.
Three days after Munir’s visit, senior Qatari officials, including the prime minister, travelled to Iran, also conveying Trump’s message that he would not return to the understanding.
According to the sources, Iranian officials told both Munir and the Qatari delegation that they would accept the MoU and nothing else.
The sources said Oman and Qatar are continuing efforts to break the deadlock, including by seeking to revive the agreement with some amendments.
On 6 September, another Qatari delegation made an unannounced visit to Tehran, led by Ali Al Thawadi, an influential Qatari minister without a portfolio, who is credited with helping bring Iran and the US closer to an agreement behind the scenes.
According to the two sources, Thawadi conveyed Trump’s response to Iran’s latest message, in which the US president reiterated that he would not return to the MoU.
Iran, meanwhile, told the Qatari officials again that it would neither abandon the MoU nor negotiate a new text.
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