Trump says a deal with Iran to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz could be signed Sunday. Iran says not Sunday, but does not rule out the coming days.
President Donald Trump said a deal with Iran to end the Middle East war could be signed Sunday, with the Strait of Hormuz opening to all traffic immediately after. Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said the date was not set and would not be Sunday, though he did not rule out the coming days.
"The Deal is scheduled to get signed tomorrow, and immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL," Trump wrote on social media Saturday.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country has mediated the talks, said the finalization was expected "within the next 24 hours" and that the agreement would be signed electronically. Technical-level talks would follow next week, he said.
Iran's Fars news agency, citing a source close to the Iranian negotiating team, reported that Tehran had not yet taken a final decision on the deal. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the signing date was undetermined but "the possibility of this happening in the coming days cannot be ruled out."
A delegation from Qatar, another mediator, arrived in Tehran on Sunday for talks, Iranian media reported. The visit was meant to review the latest diplomatic developments, according to the Tasnim news agency.
Since imposing its blockade on the strait, a key route for Gulf oil and gas shipments, Iran has required vessels to obtain permission from its armed forces and established a new body to collect tolls. The US responded with its own blockade of Iranian ports.
The US military's Central Command said Saturday that Iran had launched multiple one-way attack drones targeting commercial ships transiting the strait, and that US forces had downed all of them.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday the deal on the table called for lifting the US naval blockade. He called the strait one of Iran's "main instruments of deterrence" and said its administration would not be the same as before. Trump's post made no mention of tolls or other arrangements.
Another sticking point has been Iran's enriched uranium stockpile, believed buried by US strikes last year. Araghchi said the only way to handle it was to dilute it inside Iran. Trump said the US would "go in and get the Nuclear Dust" and destroy it in Iran or the United States.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Trump had promised any agreement would include removal of the enriched material.
A senior US official said Friday the proposed deal would also cover Lebanon, where Israel has been attacking Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. An April ceasefire in Lebanon was never observed, and fighting has continued despite a new conditional truce deal announced last week.
On Sunday, the Israeli military issued evacuation warnings for 29 villages in southern Lebanon ahead of planned strikes. Three drones suspected to have been launched by Hezbollah struck northern Israel but caused no casualties, the military said.
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