Wary of Israel's spies and advanced eavesdropping technology, mediators working on the US-Iran deal due to be signed on Friday resorted to maximum secrecy and misinformation to prevent them from gauging the progress or direction of the process in case of sabotage.
The mediators used handwritten notes and physical meetings instead of telecoms devices, including secure or encrypted channels, to keep the negotiations under wraps, sources with direct knowledge of the process told The National on Wednesday.
Details of the deal are emerging, revealing a framework that would unlock Iranian oil exports, channel funds into its economy and begin a phased rollback of sanctions in exchange for nuclear curbs by Tehran.
The two foes are expected to sign the deal in Switzerland's Burgenstock resort, paving the way for a 60-day negotiating process and raising hopes of a lasting end to a conflict that has killed thousands, spread across the Middle East and disrupted global energy markets.
The US would be represented by Vice President JD Vance and Iran by its top negotiator, Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
Seeking to protect the negotiations that produced the deal, the sources said lead mediator Pakistan secured a pledge from Washington that it would stop Israel from assassinating Iranian officials while the process was still under way.
“Messengers went to Tehran with handwritten notes addressed to the leadership there and received similar replies,” said one of the sources. “To avoid targeted killings by Israel, the messengers never met the senior leaders to whom the notes were addressed. They met messengers like them.
“Suspecting that Israel's spies were working overtime, the mediators fed misinformation to local officials not involved in the process or, in some cases, to the local media. They wanted Israel to follow a trail that's well away from where the negotiations were actually headed.”
Israel, which together with the US started the Iran war in February, ostensibly to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, did not take part in the negotiations and distanced itself from the deal.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel is not bound by the agreement and will not withdraw from southern Lebanon – contradicting Mr Vance, who said the deal covers Israel and Lebanon.
The details of the lengths to which the mediators had gone to stop Israel from spying on or undermining the negotiations emerged as President Donald Trump and Mr Netanyahu were having a public quarrel over Israel's conduct in Lebanon, which the US leader said lacked good judgment.
On Tuesday, Israeli broadcaster i24 News reported that Israel was denied access to the text of the US-Iran deal despite a formal request.
The report comes despite Mr Netanyahu on Monday lauding Israel’s recent “historic co-operation with President Trump and the American military” in his only address to Israelis since the deal was announced.
There has also been an outburst of anger at Mr Netanyahu for mishandling the relationship with Mr Trump. Israel relies on the US for military and diplomatic support.
Meetings between representatives of the mediators – US allies Pakistan, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey – and the Iranians and Americans took place in Pakistan, Qatar, Oman and Azerbaijan. Except for the Americans, they also all met in Tehran, according to the sources.
Some of the meetings, they said, took place aboard US Navy ships deployed in the Gulf. In some cases, they said, Washington insisted its representatives sit in on some meetings as observers.
The sources said dealing with Iran during the weeks of negotiations that yielded the deal exhausted the mediators and proved time-consuming.
They explained that the process was made more tortuous because the mediators sought to keep the deliberations confidential and also because of the difficulty of communicating with an Iranian leadership that has lost many of its members in US and Israeli strikes.
“It typically took the Iranians three to seven days to answer questions or reply to messages. They took their time just like the typical carpet-makers of Iran who spend years doing meticulous work to weave just one carpet,” said another source.
The sources said that, going to great lengths to safeguard the negotiations and ensure a successful conclusion, Egyptian mediators scrambled last weekend to talk Iran out of following up on its threat to strike Israel if the latter attacked the Lebanese capital Beirut. Israel on Sunday struck Beirut's southern suburbs, a stronghold of Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Iranian officials have repeatedly signalled that Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon is a core condition of the wider arrangement.
A source within Hezbollah told The National on Tuesday that Iran had informed the Lebanese militant group that an Israeli troop withdrawal from Lebanon was included in the US-Iran deal and would unfold over the phased 60-day period.
Thomas Helm contributed to this report from Jerusalem
