Trump says U.S. and Iran have largely negotiated a deal

President Donald Trump said the United States and Iran had “largely negotiated” a deal and expected it to be finalized shortly, but the most important terms remained unsettled as American and Iranian accounts pointed in different directions.

Trump said the emerging agreement followed a call with leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain. He also said he spoke separately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that the conversation “went very well.” The diplomatic outreach suggested a broad regional effort to lock in a ceasefire, yet the central question was still whether the two sides had actually agreed on the terms that matter most.

The sharpest divide concerned the Strait of Hormuz. Trump said the deal would reopen the waterway, but Iran’s Fars news agency disputed that claim and said the strait would remain under Iranian control. That dispute goes to the heart of the talks, because the Strait of Hormuz is a critical passage for global energy shipments and a leverage point for regional security. If the status of the strait is still contested, the agreement is far from settled.

Other core issues also remained unresolved. It was still unclear whether the deal would impose formal limits on Iran’s nuclear program, its missile development or its regional proxy activity, the same sticking points that have repeatedly stalled prior efforts. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran was in the final stages of drafting a 14-point memorandum of understanding and that its approach was to include the most important issues needed to end the war. Mediator Pakistan said progress had been made and suggested a final decision could come within about 48 hours.

The latest push came after weeks of negotiations and a fragile ceasefire that had periodically frayed. Iran, the United States and Pakistan all said progress had been made in talks aimed at ending almost three months of war, but the history of the issue cuts against any quick declaration of success. The last major nuclear agreement with Iran took almost two years to negotiate, a reminder that a preliminary framework and an actual settlement are not the same thing.