Just two days before the formal signing of the US-Iran memorandum of understanding in Switzerland, President Donald Trump delivered a blunt warning to Tehran from the G7 summit in Evian.
"This is not a final agreement. It's a memorandum of understanding," Trump said on the sidelines of his meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. "And if I don't like it, if they don't behave well, we'll start dropping bombs right on their heads again."
"Because they've been misbehaving for 47 years," he added, referencing the Islamic Republic founded after the fall of the US-allied Shah in 1979.
Trump also moved to correct what he described as false reports about American investment in Iran under the deal. "We're not investing 10 cents" in Iran, he insisted — a pointed pushback against suggestions that the framework included a massive US-backed reconstruction plan for the Islamic Republic.
The MOU, set to be signed Friday in Switzerland, will open a 60-day negotiation period, with the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz as the first concrete milestone.
The message from Evian is characteristically Trumpian: the handshake is coming, but the fist is still visible.