The Dictatorship

Midnight train from GA: A view of America from the tracks as airports struggle

Published

3 months ago

March 31, 2026

Midnight train from GA: A view of America from the tracks as airports struggle

ABOARD THE CRESCENT (AP) — There’s something melodic about watching the sun rise over a rural stillness broken only by the rhythms of steel wheels on tracks. Or so we tell ourselves.

In this case, being aboard a train at all owed more to politics than poetry.

This image made from an Associated Press video shows the Virginia countryside, as seen from an Amtrak train, Friday, March 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Bill Barrow)

Congress and Donald Trump were mired in their latest budget stalemate, one rooted in the Republican president’s immigration crackdown and the tactics of federal forces he has sent to U.S. cities. But this impasse has upended a foundational constant of American life today: easy air travel.

In Atlanta, my hometown airport, cheerfully marketed as the world’s busiest, had descended into organized chaos. Unpaid federal employees called out from work, leaving a diminished security staff to screen travelers frustrated by hourslong waits in line. I wanted to get to Washington for the NCAA basketball tournament. So I eliminated the risk of a missed flight and booked the train overnight and into game day across a 650-mile route.

In this fraught moment in U.S. politics, I slowed down and thought about things we take for granted. Who ever ponders the conveniences of that 20th-century innovation, the airplane, that makes 21st-century hustle possible? We book and board. An unconscious, first-world flex of modernity. It’s even rarer to grapple with the inconvenience.

My decision had taken me further back, to the 19th century and another defining innovation: the long-distance train.

The Amtrak station in Danville, VA, is seen Friday, March 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Bill Barrow)

A 14½-hour weekend train ride is time aplenty to appreciate how completely politics, economics, social strife and fights over identity and belonging have always affected the order of our lives, including how, when and where we move around in these United States. But Amtrak’s Crescent also allowed me to see the expanse of our collective experience.

I traversed the urban, suburban and rural breadth of East Coast America. I learned how other travelers came aboard. And in that, I found the portrait of people, past and present, who refuse to be as paralyzed as some of their elected leaders.

Convenience on the railways

There is little glamour late night in a crowded Amtrak station. Children are up past bedtime and tended by frazzled parents. Older adults struggle with luggage and stairs.

Airports are not red-carpet affairs either, of course. But there is a certain cache to Delta’s Atlanta-Washington flights. They typically take about two hours gate to gate. They often are slotted at a midpoint gate of the concourse nearest the main terminal. That is almost certainly a nod to members of Congress who use it — but who have lost some airline perks during this extended partial shutdown.

In normal circumstances I can get from my front porch to Capitol Hill or downtown in as little as 4½ hours. Security lines these days could at least double my overall air travel time.

Union Station is seen Friday, March 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Bill Barrow)

The train is still longer, and time is money, we are taught. But certainty has value, too, even if it means at 11:29 p.m. departure. And at the Amtrak station, there were no standstill lines, no Transportation Security Administration agents, no ICE agents as stand-ins.

Passengers who arrived mere minutes before departure made it on board and found seats quickly — assigned in boarding order, not predetermined zones that yield jammed aisles. There’s no in-seat service or satellite TV. But even coach seats, the lowest Amtrak tier, are as spacious as airline first-class – and there is Wi-Fi, so it’s not the 19th century or even 20th century after all.

On board, I heard one crew member joke, “I’m no TSA agent.”

The pathways of history

As a boy in rural Alabama, I counted train cars and wondered where they were headed. I’ve since read diary entries and letters from my grandmother and her sisters recounting World War II-era weekend trips to Atlanta.

The South’s largest city has a historical hook, too. Originally named “Terminus,” Atlanta developed in the antebellum era as a critical intersection of north-south and east-west rail routes. That is what drew Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman for one of the Civil War’s seminal campaigns that helped defeat the Confederacy.

A century after the Civil War, Delta chose Atlanta for its headquarters rather than Birmingham, Alabama, which was the larger city as of the 1960 census. The company’s decision was tied up in tax breaks for the airline, named for its crop duster origins in the Mississippi Delta region. According to some interpretations, Delta’s decision was made easier because of the more overt racism of Alabama’s and Birmingham’s leaders as they defended Jim Crow — a code that, among other acts, allowed states to segregate the passenger trains that predated Amtrak.

On this night, I heard many languages and accents, notable given the role that immigrant labor played in building the U.S. rail system and especially striking now with immigration — legal and illegal — at the forefront in Washington, my destination. I saw faces that reflected U.S. pluralism, a different mix from what my grandmother and aunts would have seen a lifetime ago.

The array of voices celebrated the freedom and ease of rail travel. So did Agatha Grimes and her friends after they boarded in Greensboro, North Carolina, as part of a long weekend trip to celebrate her 62nd birthday.

“I got stuck in the Atlanta airport last week,” Grimes said, as her group laughed together in the dining car. “It’s just nuts.”

Beretta Nunnally, a self-described “train veteran” who organized their trip, said, “There’s no worry about parking. No checking bags. You come to the station, you get where you going, and you come home.”

An era for planes, trains and automobiles

Still, that is not as easy in the United States as it once was.

Just as politics, economics and subsidies helped grow U.S. railroads, those factors diminished the network as auto manufacturers, o il companies, roadbuilders and, finally, airline manufacturers and airlines commanded favor from politicians and attention from consumers.

Riding hours across rural areas, I noticed the junkyards where kudzu and chain-link fencing framed rows of rusted automobiles. I saw the farmland and equipment that helps feed cities and the rest of the nation. I awoke to see the night lights of office towers in Charlotte, North Carolina, and its NFL stadium. I saw vibrant county seats — and I thought of countless other towns like them that are not thriving as they sit disconnected from passenger rail and far from the Eisenhower-era interstate system that we crossed multiple times on our way.

In each setting, voters — conservatives, liberals, the extremes and betweens — have chosen their representatives, senators and a president who now set the nation’s course.

When I arrived in Washington, I paused to enjoy Union Station’s grand hall and its Beaux Arts appeal, and I lamented how much splendor has been lost because so many striking U.S. terminals have been razed. I stepped outside and looked up at the Capitol dome.

While I had slept, the Senate managed a bipartisan deal to fund all of the Department of Homeland Security except immigration enforcement. As I continued northward, House Republican leaders rejected it. The stalemate continued.

I was a weary traveler but renewed citizen. I had a game to get to. And the train rolled on.

The Dictatorship

Vance says US allows more than dozen ships through to Iranian ports

Published

9 hours ago

June 19, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Vance says US allows more than dozen ships through to Iranian ports

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Thursday night that Vice President JD Vance was delaying a trip to Switzerland, where he’d been set to lead a new round of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program — raising questions about what’s next for the tentative agreement to end the war.

The team led by Vance had been ready to leave but was postponing, the White House said, citing difficult logistics for negotiations. The announcement followed a report from Al-Mayadeen, a pan-Arab satellite channel that is politically allied with the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, that Iran was delaying sending its delegation to Switzerland over Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Lebanon.

Vance, who was initially personally skeptical of the U.S. going to war with Iranhas increasingly become the administration’s face of the conflict and has been outspoken in defending the deal.

Earlier Thursday, he took the relatively unusual step of appearing at the White House to defend the initial deal to extend the ceasefire 60 days and allow for more negotiating — arguing that while it offers concessions, Iran first has to comply with U.S. demands.

“As they dial up their good behavior, we can dial up the economic relief,” Vance said. “If they dial down their good behavior, we can turn it off.”

But the vice president also had said during those remarks that he was not sure of the timing of his planned to Switzerland and that talks might not begin this week. The formal postponement now makes that even less clear.

Vance staying put in Washington came after the U.S. said it had lifted its blockade, allowing oil tankers to begin freely moving through the Strait of Hormuz after months of being unable to use the critical channel. Still, the tentative agreement has drawn sharp criticism from some in the U.S. — including a few congressional Republicans — who worry Washington ceded too much to Iran with relief from sanctions and a potential $300 billion fund to help with rebuilding.

Earlier, a top Trump administration envoy told U.S. lawmakers in a private briefing that Iran will invite the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency to inspect its nuclear sites.

And Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei had seemed to endorse direct negotiations for his officials.

“It is obvious that the face-to-face negotiations that will be held in the future will not mean accepting the enemy’s opinion,” he said in a statement read by state media.

It was Khamenei’s first reaction to the agreement, and it was interpreted as a shift in Iran’s approach. Hard-liners, especially Khamenei’s father, the previous supreme leaderhave long opposed direct talks, especially after the U.S. pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

The supreme leader has not been seen in public since he was wounded in a strike at the start of the war.

Lawmakers told Iran will invite UN inspectors to its nuclear sites

The agreement states that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium must at minimum be diluted under international supervision. It also says that Iran shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons — a commitment it has made previously.

Trump envoy Steve Witkoff told members of Congress that Iran will invite the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect its nuclear sites and begin work on identifying and uncovering the locations of Tehran’s enriched material, which is believed to be buried under rubble.

Witkoff’s private briefing was described by two people familiar with the conversation who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to share the closed-door details.

The agreement requires Iran to “commit to renounce their nuclear ambitions in writing,” said White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales. The IAEA did not respond to a request for comment.

Witkoff told congressional leadership and members of national security-related committees that the agreement the U.S. struck with Iran did not include any side deals, but a side letter was drafted between Tehran and the IAEA extending the invitation.

Witkoff said the letter to IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi would enable him to bring U.S. nuclear inspectors to Tehran.

Vance defends US-Iran deal and has sharp words for Israel

Before Vance delayed his trip, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif postponed a planned visit to Switzerland, where Islamabad officials had originally planned to host a ceremonial signing ceremony for the agreement. That visit was postponed because the agreement had already been signed by both Iran and the U.S., said two senior officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

President Donald Trump signed the initial pact with Iran on Wednesday while dining with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles. The deal is slated to take immediate effect and extends a ceasefire while giving each side 60 days to hammer out broader agreements on larger issues.

Vance, in his comments at the White House, shrugged off criticism about the confusing rollout of the initial deal, saying, “I don’t think our public messaging has been chaotic.”

He also offered a blunt warning to Israel, which has pushed the U.S. to take a harder stance against Iran and launched attacks on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon throughout the war, including just before the deal extending the ceasefire was reached. Those attacks complicated the peace efforts with Iran.

Trump “is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time,” Vance said. “And he happens to be the head of state of the world’s superpower.”

Shipping starts to pick up

Trump said he signed the agreement to avoid “economic catastrophe” in the U.S., after the war caused oil prices to skyrocket, made financial markets skittish and fueled inflation. The deal caused gas prices to fall and stock markets to rise — though rallies could be threatened again depending on how the next round of U.S.-Iran talks go.

The vice president said more than 12.5 million barrels of oil went through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday night and said that the U.S. easing its blockade of Iran means “honoring our end of the early part of the agreement on the military side.”

U.S. Central Command said American warships “will remain in the general area to make sure that all aspects of the agreement are adhered to, obeyed and in full force and effect.”

Iranian state media said shipping had “normalized” at Iran’s southern ports but added that the strait remains supervised and under the control of the Iranian military, and transiting through the vital waterway still requires coordination.

Major shipowners began moving vessels through the strait after the agreement was signed, according to maritime data company Lloyd’s List Intelligence, though Lloyd’s did not give data on how many ships have passed through the strait as of Thursday.

In a media briefing, Richard Meade, editor-in-chief of Lloyd’s List, said for the first time in 110 days, ships owned by major companies are transiting the strait after effectively being marooned there since February. It could take weeks or months to fully reopen the strait, and the two alternative routes do not have as much capacity as the strait’s central passage.

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Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; Aamer Madhani in Zurich; Collin Binkley in Washington; Mae Anderson in New York; and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

The Dictatorship

Regulators back Trump plan to speed power to energy-hungry AI data centers

Published

9 hours ago

June 19, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Regulators back Trump plan to speed power to energy-hungry AI data centers

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators on Thursday ordered regional grid operators to help large energy users connect more quickly to the nation’s inefficient and aging electric transmission system, a step they said is needed to accommodate surging demand from power-hungry artificial intelligence data centers.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright had urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to act in an effort to help the United States better compete with China for superiority in the fast-growing AI sector.

Tech companies and data center developers welcomed the chance to connect faster to the country’s power supply for the biggest energy users ever built in the United States, including some that consume more electricity than a small city.

Utilities, states and regional grid operators had worried that the Republican administration’s plan would remove their authority to manage the process, but FERC said the order leaves states in control of retail electric rates, terms and conditions. Clean energy advocates have urged regulators not to undermine state-level efforts to require the use of renewable energies.

The commission’s actions come as a backlash grows against data centers over concerns about the massive amounts of energy and water they use and fears about noise and air pollution, water shortages and a loss of open space or farmland.

Unanimous vote and affordability

FERC members voted unanimously to direct six regional grid operators to ensure that AI data centers and other large power users are “able to connect to the transmission system in a timely and orderly manner.”

Laura Swett, an appointee of President Donald Trump who chairs the commission, called the vote “historic” and said it would push the country’s electricity market into the future while respecting states’ rights, protecting reliable electric service and shielding ratepayers from shouldering the costs of connecting big power users to the grid.

“I know that Americans across the country are concerned about affordability, and so are we,” Swett said, referring to the five-member commission. As chair, “I am taking extremely seriously the mission that Congress has entrusted us to ensure that rates are reasonable,” she said.

The vote comes eight months after Wright asked the independent agency to take more control over ensuring that the vast network of massive computing warehouses needed to power AI are connected quickly to high-voltage transmission lines.

Wright hailed the commission’s action, saying it would “remove barriers, accelerate development and ensure America has the affordable, reliable and secure energy needed to power a new era of prosperity.”

Data centers would pay the full cost of any grid upgrades needed for their connection, under the commission order. But that order can do little to address the tightening energy supplies that are driving up electricity bills in some areas and raising warnings of blackouts as the construction of data centers outpaces the speed of new power plants coming online to serve them.

Robert Montejo, a lawyer who represents data centers, said the most important message from FERC’s action is that AI “has fundamentally changed the electricity landscape. The grid and prior policy were not built for the pace and scale of demand we’re seeing from AI infrastructure, and FERC is signaling that standing still is no longer an option.”

The six regional grid operators under the order serve 200 million Americans, or two-thirds of FERC’s jurisdiction. FERC, meanwhile, invited utilities that handle their regional transmission systems to also participate and analysts said the agency could eventually pressure them, too.

A search for power

Tech giants are scrambling to find enough power for their data centers and report that, in some places, it will take years to connect to the electric grid.

The Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned electric utilities, said FERC’s order builds on regional and state processes already underway while “supporting flexibility and innovation.”

Besides power bottlenecks, the tech industry is running into widespread opposition from communities where residents don’t want to live next to or near a data center.

More than 4,000 data centers now operate in the U.S., according to one estimate, with an additional 3,000 planned or under construction.

Trump has tried to deflect public concerns about AI, seeing the fast-evolving technology as crucial for the U.S. to attract foreign investment and maintain its economic and military prowess. He signed an executive order this month establishing a framework for the federal government to vet the national security risks of the most advanced AI systems for up to a month before their public release.

In December, FERC took an earlier step to help data center operators get electricity quickly, voting to allow tech companies to effectively plug a data center directly into a power plant and Thursday’s order sought to ensure that option is accessible around the country.

Power demands from data centers

FERC told grid operators to respond within 30 days on how they will ensure there is adequate power supplies for new and future data centers, and within 60 days on plans to integrate large power users in line with the new guidelines. Swett told reporters after the meeting that she hoped faster connection processes are in effect in “as little time as possible.” She didn’t set an exact timeline.

Jeff Dennis, executive director of the Electricity Customer Alliance, said FERC’s order is responsive in particular to big power users and state regulators.

Tech giants are confronting unclear rules to connect data centers to high-voltage transmission systems, while states need more clarity on who should bear the cost of regional transmission projects approved at the federal level, he said.

Rob Gramlich, a Washington-based energy consultant, said states should quickly develop rules to accommodate large power users and prevent cost shifts to residential and business customers. FERC could assert broader jurisdiction over interconnection issues if states don’t act quickly, he said.

Data from the Electric Power Research Institute shows that data centers now account for about 5% of U.S. electricity demand, but could triple by 2035.

Tech companies have continued to raise their spending on building and equipping data centers, but there is evidence that construction is lagging and projects are hitting roadblocks, including permitting delays, growing local opposition or bottlenecks around gas turbines, transformers and skilled labor.

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Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pa.

The Dictatorship

The clock is ticking on an Iran talks. Here’s what still has to get done.

Published

13 hours ago

June 19, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The clock is ticking on an Iran talks. Here’s what still has to get done.

As talks loom between the U.S. and Iran, negotiators face a simple and daunting task: turning a 14-point memorandum of understanding into a comprehensive nuclear deal within 60 days.

The ticking clock was set in motion on Thursday, according to Vice President JD Vance, following the signing of the MOU one day earlier. That signing brought an official end to military hostilities. What it did not do is resolve the conflict that caused them.

Some agreements took effect immediately upon signing: a cessation of hostilities, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the lifting of the U.S. naval blockade, the issuing of oil waivers and initial steps to unfreeze billions of dollars in Iranian assets.

But those were the easy parts.

What remains are the metaphorical landmines — the unresolved questions the MOU largely deferred rather than decided, each with the potential to blow up any prospect for a nuclear deal. On Thursday evening, the White House announced that Vice President JD Vance will not attend talks in Switzerland that had been planned for Friday — a decision that may well be read as a signal of just how far apart the two sides are. A White House spokesperson acknowledged in a statement that while the U.S. delegation has been prepared to depart at the first available opportunity, “the logistics of these negotiations have never been simple or predictable.”

Here is what the negotiators will actually have to solve:

The future of the Strait of Hormuz

The MOU ensures safe passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz “with no charge for 60 days only,” and outsources the negotiating responsibility for ensuring long-term toll-free passage to Gulf allies — ceding responsibility for a key outstanding issue.

“We don’t ever want this to happen again — that’s not about tolling, that’s about ensuring that the Straits are never used as a choke point for the global economy ever again,” Vance said at the White House on Thursday. “If that’s not reflected in the final deal, there’s not going to be a final deal.”

Recognizing the Iranians will “assert their rights as aggressively as they can,” a senior U.S. official was confident Gulf states would preserve their own self-interests and press Iran to allow toll-free passage.

There’s also the matter of demining the waterway. Iran has 30 days for “removing the technical and military obstacles and demining,” but mine removal could take weeks or even months — potentially testing U.S. patience if ship traffic doesn’t recover quickly.

In a joint statement following this week’s G7 summit in France, leaders said a defensive initiative led by France and the UK could help by “protecting merchant vessels, reassuring commercial shipping operators, and supporting verification that all mines are removed.”

Sanctions and frozen assets

Senior U.S. officials have said sanctions relief for Iran would be tied to its performance — but haven’t yet indicated what those benchmarks will be.

“As they dial up their good behavior, we can dial up the economic relief,” Vance said in broad terms on Thursday at the White House. “If they dial down their good behavior, we can turn it off.”

The MOU commits the U.S. to ending all Iranian sanctions — including those imposed by the U.N. Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency — “in an agreed-upon schedule as part of the final deal.” How quickly the U.S. is willing to provide this economic relief could become a sticking point.

Complicating matters further: whether lifting of sanctions would require congressional action, and how the State Department’s designation of Iran as a State Sponsor of Terrorism factors in.

Then there’s the unfreezing of billions of dollars of Iranian assets. Though the Trump administration insists any release would be tied to Iran’s performance, the MOU’s own text undercuts that: Paragraph 13 says the process of releasing assets must begin before negotiations even start, handing Iran an upfront incentive rather than one to earn.

“It’s clearly a huge loophole and a potential for disagreement,” said Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East advisor and negotiator for the State Department, calling the text’s language “destructive ambiguity.”

The Lebanon front

The MOU calls for “the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”

“We expect Hezbollah is not going to be firing rockets and firing drones at the Israelis, and we also expect that the Israelis are not going to be going wild in Lebanon, right? Both sides have to honor their end of the deal,” Vance said at the White House on Thursday.

Yet Israel did not sign the aforementioned “deal.”

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said it’s “unnecessary” for Lebanon to have been included in an agreement between the U.S. and Iran, pouring cold water on the idea that Israel would cease its offensive against Hezbollah and occupation of southern Lebanon — even if Iran says that’s a dealbreaker for negotiations.

“This is something that we simply can’t live with,” Leiter told NPR on Tuesday. “We can’t have jihadi terrorists on our border. … We’re not going to withdraw from South Lebanon, and the mad men of Tehran have no business poking their nose into Lebanon.”

A U.S. official confirmed that U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and Lebanon will continue as planned next week at the State Department. Whether the Lebanon provision holds will depend on Iran keeping Hezbollah in check and Trump keeping Netanyahu in line.

Iran’s reconstruction

The MOU promises that within 60 days, the U.S. would work “with regional partners” to develop a plan guaranteeing at least $300 billion for Iran’s “reconstruction and economic development.”

Trump has insisted that there “is no 300 Billion Dollar payment to Iran by the U.S.” using taxpayer money. That may technically be true, but the U.S. has still committed to delivering that sum in the form of investment. That means convincing private corporations and Gulf allies — many of which are dealing with economic disruption and rebuilding costs after facing strikes from Iran — to invest in a country the Trump administration is still threatening to attack again if Iran reneges on its end of the deal.

Vance said there is a “great desire from the Arab world and from outside the Arab world to actually get involved in Iran if they behave properly.” Pressed by MS NOW whether private money would be included, Vance said he assumes countries like the United Arab Emirates would be part of the picture.

But Gulf leaders expressed concern to MS NOW about the agreement’s financial provisions that could strengthen Iran economically at a time when many Gulf states believe pressure should have been maintained.

Iran’s highly enriched uranium and nuclear program

For the duration of negotiations, Iran will “maintain the current status quo of its nuclear program,” per the MOU. What happens after that is the central outstanding question — the one that led to war in the first place.

The MOU provides no consensus on what to do with Iran’s existing stockpile of enriched uranium, only an agreement to “resolve” the matter. It doesn’t distinguish between the roughly 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium — material close to bomb-grade — and the 11 tons enriched to various levels above the 3.67% threshold set by the JCPOA, which Trump withdrew from during his first term.

A senior U.S. official said downblending the stockpile would be the minimum standard, with Washington pushing for “more than that” during negotiations. Vance alluded to “gentlemen’s agreements,” noting that Iran has “promised that they would allow inspectors in to destroy that highly enriched stockpile, and then, of course, it’s not usable anymore, you take it somewhere else.” Iran has not formally agreed to anything beyond a general promise to resolve the issue.

Whether Iran will be permitted to enrich in the future, and to what extent, remains an open question. The MOU commits the two countries to discussing “the issue of enrichment and other mutually agreed matters,” promising a “satisfactory framework” related to Iran’s “nuclear needs” in a final deal.

Notably, the U.S. has already backed down from one of its previous red lines, dropping Trump’s earlier demand for zero enrichment forever in favor of allowing Iran to maintain a civilian nuclear program.

“We’re not bothered at all by the idea of civilian power plants in Iran,” a senior U.S. official said. “What we’re bothered by is the type of infrastructure that would allow them to jump from civilian power generation to nuclear weapons development. … We feel quite confident that if they meet their obligations under this agreement, they’re not going to have that infrastructure to build a nuclear weapon.”

A senior administration official insisted Iran has committed to dismantling its nuclear weapons program, including its nuclear site, noting that the countries would “figure out how to do that in the technical negotiations that will follow.” But abandoning its nuclear program will be a tough domestic sell for the Islamic Republic to make.

Inspections and implementation

Trump has repeatedly hammered the Obama-era JCPOA for not having a strong enough verification and inspections system. But his own MOU offers little clarity on what will replace it, only a vague commitment that “an executive mechanism will be established to monitor the successful implementation of this MOU and the future compliance of the final deal.”

Given that Iran blocked IAEA inspectors from accessing its nuclear facilities under the JCPOA, a stronger inspection system represents perhaps the most important potential U.S. win in final deal talks — if Washington can secure one.

“If we feel comfortable with the inspection and enforcement regime, that is when they will get some of the benefits of negotiation,” a senior administration official told reporters last week, without providing specifics of what that verification regime would entail nor confirming the role of the UN or IAEA.

Miller, the former State Department negotiator, compared the MOU to Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan — a document that pushed the conflict out of the headlines but left unsolved problems on the humanitarian, disarmament and reconstruction fronts.

“I see very little chance, without significant flexibility on the part of both sides, that 60 days is going to be enough” to bridge the “Grand Canyon-like gaps that separate Tehran and Washington,” Miller said.

And though the MOU’s 60-day deadline allows for extension “with mutual consent,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the military is “prepared to restart if we need to” if Iran does not show progress in complying with U.S. demands.

Trump, speaking at the G7, was blunter still.

“If it doesn’t get done in 60 days, that’s all right,” Trump said. “We go back to bombing.”