Topline<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump said a memorandum leading to a peace agreement with Iran has been \u201clargely negotiated\u201d and would be announced soon, although \u201cfinal aspects and details\u201d were still being discussed Saturday.<\/p>\n
A plume of smoke rises from Tehran after an air strike in March. Officials in Pakistan told Reuters ongoing peace negotiations were \u201cencouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n
AFP via Getty ImagesKey Facts<\/p>\n
Trump announced the potential agreement, which he called a \u201cMemorandum of Understanding pertaining to PEACE,\u201d in a post on Truth Social<\/a> after finishing a conference call with Middle Eastern leaders from multiple countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan.<\/p>\n Reuters<\/a> previously reported the U.S. was approaching a \u201cfairly comprehensive\u201d deal to end the conflict, citing military officials in Pakistan.<\/p>\n The agreement would be a \u201cmemorandum of understanding,\u201d a framework that would set up a longer window to negotiate another deal, Reuters reported citing Pakistani officials, who are mediating talks between the two sides.<\/p>\n If the memo is signed, further talks would begin after the Muslim holiday of Eid, Reuters reported, which begins on Wednesday and ends on Friday.<\/p>\n Earlier on Saturday, the Financial Times<\/a> reported a deal would likely extend the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran by 60 days and set up further negotiations over Iran\u2019s nuclear program.<\/p>\n Axios<\/a> later reported an agreement was close, and was coming down to the “wording” of some points in the deal.<\/p>\n What To Watch For<\/p>\n It is still unclear what is in the deal as of Saturday afternoon, but Trump said in his Truth Social post the Strait of Hormuz \u201cwill be opened.\u201d The president has been adamant about refusing to sign a deal that would allow Iran to keep its enriched uranium<\/a> or continue developing nuclear weapons\u2014a point Iran has refused to back down from<\/a> in the past. Earlier on Saturday, Trump told Axios<\/a> there was a \u201csolid 50\/50\u201d chance he would approve a deal on Sunday, or else he would “blow them to kingdom come.” The president was more optimistic when speaking to other news outlets on Saturday, telling CBS News<\/a> the negotiations were getting close, noting “every day it gets better and better.” However, Trump again insisted he would \u201conly sign a deal where we get everything we want,\u201d and again threatened to restart the fighting if negotiations fell through, threatening \u201ca situation where no country will ever be hit as hard as they’re about to be hit.\u201d<\/p>\n Chief Critic<\/p>\n Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a longtime Iran hawk, warned that accepting a deal because the U.S. cannot protect the Strait of Hormuz or stop Iran from attacking its allies in the Gulf would lead to a \u201cmajor shift\u201d in the balance of power in the Middle East, as well as a \u201cnightmare for Israel.\u201d Writing in a post on X<\/a>, Graham said, \u201cit makes one wonder why the war started to begin with if these perceptions are accurate.\u201d In the past week, the South Carolina senator called for Trump<\/a> to restart attacks on Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss, the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also dismissed the idea of a 60-day ceasefire. \u201cThe rumored 60-day ceasefire \u2014 with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith \u2014 would be a disaster,\u201d Wicker wrote in his own post on X<\/a>. \u201cEverything accomplished by Operation Epic Fury would be for naught!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline President Donald Trump said a memorandum leading to a peace agreement with Iran has been \u201clargely negotiated\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[54,42,117780,43,40,38,41,39,4374],"class_list":["post-456935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-iran-war","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-u-s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}