Speaking twice in Tehran on Sunday, Iran’s president said the country cannot continue with war indefinitely and that a decision must eventually be made to end the condition of neither war nor peace. He defended the memorandum of understanding reached with Washington in June, saying that everyone directly involved in the negotiations believed it was the best available route.

He said this despite reported misgivings from Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. That clause is doing more work than anything else in the statement.