US, Iran aim to finalise ‘largely negotiated’ deal to end war, open Hormuz

US President Donald Trump said a deal with Iran on the war in the Middle East, including opening the Strait of Hormuz, has been “largely negotiated” after calls with Israel and other allies in the region over the weekend. But other officials counselled caution on Sunday, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio noting that “significant progress, although not final progress has been made” in the negotiations. Rubio, on a four-day visit to India for meetings with Indian, Australian and Japanese officials, said he hoped that there would be good news in the coming hours. The negotiations have succeeded in one of Trump’s main aims, Rubio said, “that is a world that no longer has to be in fear or worry about an Iranian nuclear weapon”. Iranian officials have stressed that gaps between the sides persist and the dispute over the nuclear programme would not be part of initial negotiations. The US president emphasised that the deal was still “subject to finalisation”, while The New York Times reported that the two sides would only address thorny issues about Iran’s nuclear programme after an initial pact was reached. “An Agreement has been largely negotiated, subject to finalization between the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the various other Countries,” Trump said on social media on Saturday. “In addition to many other elements of the Agreement, the Strait of Hormuz will be opened,” he said, a development that would bring relief to global energy markets after a months-long Iranian blockade of the crucial thoroughfare for oil shipments. Leaders from Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain, as well as representatives from Turkey and Pakistan, joined a call with Trump to discuss the deal on Saturday, the US president said. Washington and Tehran are still at odds over “one or two provisions,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, citing an “informed source”. The Fars agency dismissed Trump’s claims as “far from reality,” without citing anyone. US news website Axios reported the pact would involve a 60-day extension of the current ceasefire, during which the strait would be reopened and Iran be allowed to sell its oil. Further negotiations would follow on Tehran’s nuclear programme, Axios said, citing a US official who was not identified. Pakistan, which mediated historic face-to-face negotiations between US and Iranian delegations in April, hoped to host another round of talks “very soon”, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said. He said Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir, who visited Tehran on Friday, also joined the call with Trump, which “provided a useful opportunity to exchange views on … how to move the ongoing peace efforts forward to bring lasting peace in the region”. Trump said a separate call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “went very well”. US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 sparked the war, with fighting persisting for weeks before a temporary ceasefire came into force in April. “Final aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly,” Trump said, without providing specifics. The New York Times, citing unnamed American officials, reported that the details of an “apparent commitment” by Tehran to give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium would be discussed after the initial agreement was struck. The report said the current proposal does not define how exactly Tehran would relinquish its stocks of the fuel crucial for building nuclear weapons, a scenario that Washington has long said it will not accept in Iran. Iran has not commented on Trump’s announcement. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei earlier noted “a trend towards rapprochement” with Washington but said “it does not necessarily mean that we and the United States will reach an agreement on the important issues”. “Our intention was first to draft a memorandum of understanding, a kind of framework agreement,” he said on state television. Baqaei added that he hoped the details of a final agreement could be worked out “within a reasonable time frame between 30 to 60 days” after the initial framework was complete. Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf had warned earlier that Washington would face a tough response if it resumed hostilities, after US media reports raised the prospect of new strikes. “Our armed forces have rebuilt themselves during the ceasefire period in such a way that if Trump commits another act of folly and restarts the war, it will certainly be more crushing and bitter for the United States than on the first day of the war,” Ghalibaf said. On the war’s other main front in Lebanon, where fighting has continued despite an April 17 ceasefire, Israel’s military on Sunday warned residents of around a dozen villages to evacuate their homes ahead of expected strikes against alleged Hezbollah targets. “For your safety, we urge you to immediately move at least 1,000 metres away from the areas mentioned,” the military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Colonel Avichay Adraee, said in a post on X, listing the names of the villages. Iran-backed Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the war on March 2 with rocket fire at Israel after US-Israeli strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader. Hezbollah said on Saturday its chief Naim Qassem had received a message from Iran’s foreign minister indicating that Tehran “will not give up its support” for the Lebanese group. Additional reporting by Associated Press, Bloomberg

US, Iran aim to finalise ‘largely negotiated’ deal to end war, open Hormuz

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}US President Trump said the agreement was still ‘subject to finalisation’

US President Trump said the agreement was still ‘subject to finalisation’