![\"US](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/trump-generic-LXX6GZ7RORH2DG427P4LZMLNOA.jpg\")
<\/p>\nUS President Donald Trump says a deal with Iran, including opening the Strait of Hormuz, has been \u201clargely negotiated\u201d after calls with Israel and other allies in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinal aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly,\u201d Trump said on social media, with no details on timing. <\/p>\n
He said he had spoken with leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain, and separately with Israel.<\/p>\n
He described it as a \u201cMemorandum of Understanding pertaining to PEACE” that still must be finalized by the United States, Iran and the other countries that participated in Saturday\u2019s talks.<\/p>\n
There was no mention of Iran’s nuclear program and highly enriched uranium, which Iran has sought to discuss later.<\/p>\n
There had been growing optimism among officials<\/p>\n
The United States and Iran were closing in on a deal to end the war, a regional official with direct knowledge of the Pakistan-led mediation efforts said earlier Saturday, after the US weighed a new round of attacks on the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door deliberations, cautioned that \u201clast-minute disputes\u201d could blow up the efforts. This is not the first time in recent weeks that a deal has been described as close.<\/p>\n
He said the potential deal would include an official declaration of the war’s end, with two-month negotiations on Iran\u2019s nuclear program. The Strait of Hormuz would be reopened and the US would end its blockade of Iran\u2019s ports.<\/p>\n
Iran, meanwhile, had signaled \u201cnarrowing differences\u201d in negotiations with the US after Pakistan\u2019s army chief held more talks in Tehran, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told journalists in India that \u201cthere\u2019s been some progress made\u201d and \u201cthere may be news later today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Iran and the US emphasised their key positions and have warned of the risks of resuming attacks and disrupting their ceasefire. <\/p>\n
Rubio repeated the US stance that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon and must turn over its highly enriched uranium, and the Strait of Hormuz must be open.<\/p>\n
Iran describes it as a \u2018framework agreement’ for more talks<\/p>\n
Iran state TV earlier quoted Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei as describing the draft as a \u201cframework agreement\u201d, adding: \u201cWe want this to include the main issues required for ending the imposed war and other issues of essential importance to us. <\/p>\n
Then, over a reasonable time span, between 30 to 60 days, details are discussed and ultimately a final agreement is reached\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said the Strait of Hormuz is among the topics discussed. Positions have moved closer in recent days, Iran\u2019s official IRNA news agency quoted Baghaei as saying.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the past week, the trend has been toward narrowing differences,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will have to wait and see what happens over the next three or four days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baghaei said nuclear issues are not part of the current negotiations, as Tehran first seeks to end the war before discussing its nuclear program that has long been at the heart of international tensions.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur focus at this stage is on ending the war on all fronts, including Lebanon,\u201d Baghaei said, adding that lifting sanctions on Tehran \u201chas explicitly been included in the text and remains our fixed position\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah\u2019s Al-Manar TV reported that the Lebanese militant group’s leader, Naim Kassim, received a letter from Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi saying Tehran will not abandon its allies. <\/p>\n
There is a fragile, US-brokered ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon, a conflict that began two days after the Iran war started.<\/p>\n
Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the lead negotiator in historic face-to-face talks with the US last month, said Iran has rebuilt its military assets and if Trump resumes attacks, the result would be \u201cmore crushing and more bitter\u201d than at the start of the war. He spoke after meeting with Pakistan\u2019s army chief Asim Munir, state TV reported.<\/p>\n
Trump had said \u2018serious negotiations\u2019 were underway<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n
Trump earlier said he was holding off on a military strike against Iran because \u201cserious negotiations\u201d were underway, and at the request of allies in the Middle East. Trump has repeatedly set deadlines for Tehran and then backed off.<\/p>\n
The US and Israel sparked the war with attacks on February 28, cutting short nuclear talks with Iran. Tehran retaliated by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the region\u2019s oil, natural gas and fertilizer, causing global economic pain.<\/p>\n
The US then blockaded Iranian ports. The US Central Command today said US forces had turned away more than 100 commercial vessels and disabled four since the blockade began April 13.<\/p>\n
On his visit to Tehran, Pakistan\u2019s army chief also met with Araghchi, President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior officials, the two officials said, adding that Islamabad continues efforts to arrange a second round of direct negotiations.<\/p>\n
It was not clear whether Munir met with Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, who heads Iran\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, has become a major player in formulating Iran\u2019s tough stance in talks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump says a deal with Iran, including opening the Strait of Hormuz, has been \u201clargely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,5107,43,64,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-442197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}