Middle East

NPR - Israel, which began the war in Iran with the U.S., has been sidelined in the agreement that the U.S. and Iran are expected to sign on Friday to begin negotiations to end hostilities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be party to those negotiations, and it could spoil peace efforts.

Friday's agreement is only a commitment to negotiate, and NPR's Carrie Kahn tells Up First that it's unclear how Iran's nuclear program will be addressed in those talks. Israel says this is why it went to war in the first place, and rejects Iran's demands to withdraw from all Lebanese territory. Israeli elections will take place in the fall, and Kahn says Netanyahu's political allies and opponents are hammering him over how the deal to begin peace talks leaves Israel out of the picture and Hezbollah still active in Lebanon.

Roll Call -  Congress needs to be able to review the agreement between the Trump administration and Tehran that is intended to end the Iran war, senators in both parties said Monday. President Donald Trump announced Sunday that the United States and Iran had reached a memorandum of understanding to end the war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and begin more comprehensive negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program and sanctions relief.

The deal has been signed electronically, while a formal, in-person signing ceremony is scheduled for Friday in Geneva, Trump said Monday. While the United States and Iran have both been touting wins in the deal, no actual text has been released — making it impossible to parse who’s telling the truth and leaving U.S. lawmakers clamoring for more details.

“Trump must release the details publicly, brief Congress immediately and end this war for good,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement Monday.

The Hill -    Republican senators are holding back from embracing President Trump’s announced peace deal with Iran, telling reporters that they need more details about the agreement and whether it would stop Iran’s nuclear program before providing judgment.

Trump’s Republican allies on Capitol Hill have said since the United States and Israel launched strikes in February that Iran cannot be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon, but they say they can’t assess whether the new memorandum of understanding (MOU) will achieve that objective because they have yet to review it.

“The MOU, I want to see it myself. The way Iran describes it is awful. The way we describe it makes sense to me. Let’s look at it and see what it actually is,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who was a leading proponent of the military strikes against Iran and urged Trump last month to resume strikes to “finish the job,” if necessary.