White House Set to Unveil Iran Deal Sunday With 60-Day Ceasefire

The White House is expected to formally announce a US-Iran agreement on Sunday, according to a Middle East Eye report citing sources familiar with the rollout. The leaked framework, still being drafted, reportedly rests on four pillars: a 60-day ceasefire extension to allow lawyers and negotiators to finalize the full nuclear text, a phased release of frozen Iranian assets pegged to verification benchmarks, capped uranium enrichment under International Atomic Energy Agency inspections and phased sanctions relief tied to compliance.

The asset-release mechanics were first detailed by The New York Times, which reported that disbursement of Iranian funds held abroad would be sequenced to specific milestones in the nuclear track rather than released up front. Al Jazeera, citing Iranian sources, carried matching detail on capped enrichment, IAEA access, and a phased lifting of sanctions. Middle East Eye reported the Sunday announcement timing and a separate update that the package includes a 60-day ceasefire extension.

The framework formalizes pieces that have been telegraphed for days. President Trump told reporters earlier in the weekend that a deal was largely negotiated, language Tehran publicly rejected even as back-channel work continued through Qatari and Pakistani mediators. The current text, if it holds, would convert that political signaling into a sequenced instrument: a short ceasefire window in which a full nuclear accord is drafted, with assets, sanctions relief, and enrichment limits all moving on the same verification clock.

On enrichment, Iranian sources told Al Jazeera the cap would be paired with IAEA inspections, language consistent with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s earlier red line that Iran’s existing uranium stockpile stays inside the country even under an agreement. The phased structure, reported across both NYT and Al Jazeera accounts, means neither side has to trust the other up front. Iran would see frozen funds released in tranches as the IAEA certifies compliance; Washington would see enrichment levels held to the cap before each tranche moves.

Israel has registered alarm as the framework hardens. Middle East Eye reported on Saturday that Israeli officials voiced concern as the agreement neared its final stage, particularly around the asset-release sequencing and the depth of the enrichment cap. A separate Haaretz analysis, summarized by Middle East Eye, argued that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s influence over President Trump has declined through the negotiation, with the White House moving forward over Israeli objections. That assessment, if accurate, helps explain why the framework advanced through Friday and Saturday despite public Israeli pushback.

The regional picture around the announcement is also shifting. Iranian and Saudi foreign ministers held talks on regional tensions, a stabilization signal that lines up with the broader Qatari and Pakistani mediation tracks reported across the weekend. The Iran-Saudi contact does not resolve the Yemen file or the broader Gulf security architecture, but it suggests Tehran is sequencing diplomatic moves in parallel with the Washington track rather than treating the US deal as standalone.

Several things are not in the leaked framework, or remain unverified. The full text is reportedly still being drafted, which is the explicit purpose of the 60-day ceasefire extension. Reporting refers to a non-resumption-of-strikes provision but the language and enforcement mechanism have not been published. The treatment of Iran’s existing enriched stockpile, beyond the new enrichment cap, has not been spelled out in the public reports. The role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in any verification regime, an open question given the IRGC’s internal veto power over Iranian concessions, is also absent from the leaks. And the sanctions-relief sequencing, while described as phased, has not been mapped to specific Treasury or State Department actions.

What to watch this afternoon: the format of the rollout, whether it is a joint statement, parallel statements from Washington and Tehran, or a White House announcement followed by an Iranian response. The IAEA’s reaction will be a near-term tell on whether the verification language is workable; agency Director General Rafael Grossi has been pressed on access for months. Congressional reaction matters too, given the House Republican leadership’s recent decision to pull an Iran war powers vote amid defections. And Israeli statements following the announcement will signal whether the public concern translates into action that complicates implementation.

If the Sunday rollout lands as reported, it converts weeks of back-channel signaling into a sequenced framework with a 60-day clock. None of the reported provisions are confirmed until the text is public, and the drafting work the ceasefire extension is meant to cover is exactly where deals of this scale most often break.