Trump says peace deal with Iran ‘largely negotiated’ with strait of Hormuz to open

Original article by José Olivares and Robert Mackey

Donald Trump announced on Saturday that a peace deal with Iran “has been largely negotiated”, after calls with a Pakistani mediator, Gulf allies and Israel, potentially paving the way for an end to the war launched by the US and Israel in February.

Trump wrote on his social media platform that “final aspects and details” of a “Memorandum of Understanding” are still being discussed and “will be announced shortly”, but said the strait of Hormuz will be opened as part of the deal.

“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 posted.

The announcement came after a Pakistani source told Reuters that Iran and Pakistan had submitted a revised proposal to the United States to end the war and reopen the strait of Hormuz.

A regional official with direct knowledge of the Pakistan-led mediation efforts told the Associated Press earlier on Saturday that the potential deal would include an official declaration of the war’s end, with two-month negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, the opening of the crucial shipping lane by Iran and an end to the US blockade of Iranian ports.

There had been hints before the announcement that indirect talks between the US and Iran had progressed in the past few days. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said during a visit to India that “news” might arrive “later today”, even as Trump continued to threaten striking Iran.

In his post, Trump said that he had had phone discussions with many Middle Eastern leaders, including those of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain, as well as Pakistan’s army chief, field marshal Asim Munir, and Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. “Separately, I had a call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, which, likewise, went very well,” Trump said.

Details of the exact negotiations remain sparse. Trump on Saturday said he’d met with American negotiators, including special envoy Steve Witkoff and adviser Jared Kushner, along with JD Vance, to discuss the latest round of proposals.

The lead-up to the announcement remained tense, with Trump continuing to threaten strikes. Trump had told CBS and Axios he would only sign a deal “where we get everything we want”, adding that if a deal was not reached, the US would begin striking Iran again.

Drop Site News reported late Friday night that the latest proposal submitted to mediators by Iran included the provisional reopening of the strait of Hormuz. However, Iran also requested the US end its blockade of Iranian ports, the release of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets and a plan to compensate Iran for damages suffered during the war. According to Drop Site’s source, the Iranian proposal included permanently ending the war before negotiating any deal on Tehran’s nuclear program. It is unclear how many of these points were included in the memorandum Trump referred to in his post.

Iran’s top negotiator said earlier in the day there would be no compromise over its national rights during a meeting with the Pakistani army chief in Tehran.

“Our intention was first to draft a memorandum of understanding, a kind of framework agreement composed of 14 clauses,” he said on state television.

Iran’s Fars news agency, which is close to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported that the strait of Hormuz would remain under Iranian control. It said Trump’s assertion that an agreement was nearly final was “inconsistent with reality”.

Three senior Iranian officials told the New York Times the agreement would stop the fighting in Iran and in Lebanon, and could release $25bn in Iranian assets frozen overseas, with a nuclear agreement to be negotiated within 30 to 60 days.

Shortly after Trump’s post characterizing the draft agreement, the news agency reported on Telegram that “the management of the Strait, determining the route, time, method of passage, and issuing permits will continue to be the monopoly and discretion of the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

News of the potential deal triggered dismay among Republican hawks who had spent years calling for US military action against Iran, and deriding the 2015 deal to limit Iran’s nuclear enrichment in return for sanctions relief negotiated during the Obama administration. Trump withdrew from that international deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2018.

Mike Pompeo, who served as CIA director and secretary of state during Trump’s first term, denounced the rumored terms of the deal as too close to what Barack Obama’s negotiators had achieved and a boon to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“The deal being floated with Iran seems straight out of the Wendy Sherman-Robert Malley-Ben Rhodes playbook: Pay the IRGC to build a WMD program and terrorize the world,” Pompeo wrote on social media, referring to Obama’s negotiators. The alternative, Pompeo added, is “straightforward: Open the damned strait. Deny Iran access to money. Take out enough Iranian capability so it cannot threaten our allies in the region.”

Malley responded: “Not quite the path Wendy, Ben or I would have taken. But if this deal brings an end to an unlawful, unjustifiable war, to the senseless loss of life and destruction, and to the cascading global economic fallout, I am quite sure we’d willingly accept it over the alternative.”

After Republican senator Roger Wicker wrote the “rumored 60-day ceasefire – with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith – would be a disaster. Everything accomplished by Operation Epic Fury would be for naught!”, , Rhodes replied: “Nothing was accomplished by Operation Epic Fury except putting the IRGC in charge of Iran and the Strait of Hormuz.”