U.S. and Iranian negotiators have agreed to extend the ceasefire for two months and begin substantive negotiations on the future of Iran’s nuclear program, but President Donald Trump is still mulling the final agreement.
The agreement, officially a memorandum of understanding, comes as Trump’s negotiating team has raced to close the gap between Washington, D.C., and Tehran, even as light fighting in and around the Strait of Hormuz continues, including two separate incidents in the past two days.
The Washington Examiner confirmed the details of the deal after Axios first reported it. As agreed to, the deal will lead to “unrestricted” commerce through the Strait of Hormuz, while Washington and Tehran continue to negotiate on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“This is an agreement to get everybody to the table,” a U.S. official told Axios. “We will work out the details in the negotiations. The president relayed to the mediators that he wants a couple of days to think about it.”
Trump on Wednesday expressed confidence that a deal could be made with Iran but predicted that wouldn’t happen for one to two weeks.
Furthermore, Trump said he would like to see the Arab Gulf nations sign onto the Abraham Accords as part of the broader deal, but stopped short of making that a requirement for ending the war.
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“It’ll be historic if they do it,” he told reporters during his Cabinet meeting. “I think they owe that to us. To be honest, I think, because that really would be a tremendous sign.”
The president additionally stated that he would not be “comfortable” with either of Iran’s remaining global allies, China and Russia, handling the removal of enriched uranium from the country. Trump has repeatedly stated that his core focus of the war and ceasefire negotiations is to prevent Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon.