When the US and the P5+1 concluded the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2015, the document ran to 159 pages, enshrined in UN Security Council Resolution 2231 with a snapback mechanism.

The framework memorandum of understanding signed electronically between Washington and Tehran this week – formal ceremony in Switzerland on June 19 – runs to around a page and a half, per Vice-President JD Vance. That contrast encapsulates what has, and has not, been settled.

On nuclear specifics, the JCPOA was precise. Enrichment was capped at 3.67%, confined to Natanz, Iran’s stockpile cut 98% to 300kg.

The deal limited Iran to 6,104 first-generation IR-1 centrifuges, converted Fordow to a physics research centre, and extended the breakout time from two to three months to over twelve. The IAEA received snap inspections indefinitely, centrifuge production facilities monitored for twenty years and uranium mines for twenty-five.

The 2026 MoU contains none of these. Iran pledges not to produce or acquire nuclear weapons, but enrichment limits, centrifuge caps, and inspection arrangements are deferred to 60 days of follow-on talks. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed nuclear terms “would be finalised in the 60 days after the initial agreement is signed.”

The two texts operate in different registers. The JCPOA was multilateral, involving the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, China, and the EU. The MoU is bilateral, mediated by Pakistan, with no P5+1 architecture – limiting enforceability. On sanctions, the JCPOA offered comprehensive relief against verified compliance; the MoU commits Washington to no new sanctions during the sixty days, with an oil waiver of unspecified duration reportedly included. Iranian officials told Reuters that $25bn in frozen assets would be released; Vance denied it: “there is no money and there won’t be.”

Both texts are silent on Iran’s ballistic missile programme and proxies – Hezbollah and the Houthis. Prime Minister Netanyahu declined to draw comparisons: “I would not make that comparison. We do not know what the agreement was.” Trump declared on Truth Social that “the deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete.” Whether the sixty-day process produces anything approaching the JCPOA’s technical depth remains to be seen.