The Biden administration is once again choosing to “trust” the always reliable and truthful Islamic Republic, and a new US-Iran deal is imminent, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

However, in order to avoid bringing the deal to Congress for approval, this deal will not be a deal – instead, it will be called “an informal and unwritten understanding.”

The details of the talks, which were carried out via Oman, were confirmed by an Iranian official, a U.S. official, and three senior Israeli officials.

The unwritten agreement has Iran agreeing not to enrich uranium beyond 60%, which is dangerously close to the 90% needed for nuclear weapons. Iran will also commit to halt attacks on US contractors in Syria and Iraq, cooperate with international nuclear inspectors, and stop selling ballistic missiles to Russia for its attacks on Ukraine.

In return for Iran’s benevolent concessions, the US will release billions of dollars of frozen Iranian assets (for ostensibly humanitarian purposes only), refrain from placing further sanctions on Iran, stop seizing foreign oil tankers, and desist from pursuing resolutions against Iran at the UN and the IAEA.

The US already issued a waiver last week for Iraq to pay $2.76 billion in energy debts to Iran. In exchange for the release of further assets, such as an estimated $7 billion worth of oil purchase payments held in South Korea, Iran will release three wrongfully detained Iranian-American prisoners.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told members of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday that the imminent US-Iran “mini-deal” is one that “Israel can live with,” and is inevitable in any case since the US is determined to forge an agreement.

Many US lawmakers, even Democratic ones, are skeptical of any deal with Iran. “I have a hard time seeing an Iranian government that’s cracking down on people in the way they are now as sort of having the credibility to deliver a [nuclear] deal,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) told Jewish Insider. “I think you would find even those of us who were supporting the JCPOA, we’re so skeptical of Iran right now that you wouldn’t just get people up here who — because they supported in the past — are just going to be [supportive].”

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), who said he has not heard about the impending deal, told the JI: “If if that’s the case, I’m extremely discouraged…this whole approach to Iran is a wrongheaded move that makes our nation less safe, makes the entire region unstable, and I’m very disappointed to hear.”

Hagerty is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee but said that the Biden administration had not made any indication to lawmakers that new talks were on the agenda.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said that the Biden administration has not been upfront with Congress about the deal: “I think what they’re trying to do is do sanctions relief, getting around Congress,” Graham said. “They want a deal so bad they can taste it. They’ll crawl through glass for it. It’s unseemly.

“You’re not going to solve the problem by being weak,” Graham asserted. “We have people in a hostage environment. I understand — I’d like to get them out too,” he said. “But this idea of putting billions of dollars on the table is insane. You’ll just get more hostages.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)