Respecting sovereignty
The second point of the agreement states that both nations are to “undertake to respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to refrain from interfering in each other’s internal affairs”.
Iran is deeply suspicious of Trump, who twice in the past year attacked in the middle of negotiations.
Whether or not the Iranians are willing to compromise could also hinge on their supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, considered more hardline than his father, who was killed along with the new leader’s mother, wife and son in a US-Israeli strike.
The US will also be distrustful, watching to see if Iran is stringing them along, as Trump aides say they have experienced before.
The 60-day timeline
The clock started ticking as soon as the ink dried.
According to the third point in the document, both sides must commit to negotiating and achieving the final deal within a maximum of 60 days. This deadline is only extendable with mutual consent.
The US-Iran deal is unlikely to produce a comprehensive agreement within its proposed 60-day timeframe, according to Johns Hopkins University professor Steven David.
“The notion that somehow they’re all going to be concluded in 60 days, I think, is ludicrous,” the professor told CNA.
He suggested that Trump was under pressure to end a conflict that had fuelled economic pressures in the US ahead of November’s midterm elections.
“Clearly, President Trump was concerned that this war with Iran was very unpopular with the American public,” he added.
“He was under a lot of pressure … to get a deal with Iran that would enable the United States to claim victory and stop the conflict.”