Iran has poured cold water on suggestions that a deal with the United States is imminent, pointing to confusion in American positions and Israeli interference as key factors explaining why a comprehensive deal is proving difficult to reach.
Speaking at the Foreign Ministry’s weekly press briefing, Esmail Baghaei, spokesman for Iran’s negotiating team, also said that the future management of the Strait of Hormuz was an issue on which Oman and Iran needed to reach an agreement, and that no tolls but “fees for navigation services” were proposed.
Referring to the status of the talks, Baghaei said: “It is correct to say that we have reached a conclusion on a large part of the issues under discussion. But to say that this means that the signing of an agreement is imminent, no one can make such a claim.”
He also insisted that a ceasefire in Lebanon must be included in the memorandum of understanding that would lead to Iran allowing commercial shipping through the strait and the United States lifting its blockade of Iran’s ports.
By contrast, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio still held out hope that a deal could be reached on Monday, but there appeared to be a growing list of unresolved issues in what was intended to be a roadmap for reopening nuclear talks that Trump abandoned in February in favor of war.
Rubio said it took time to receive a response from the Iranian political system but emphasized: “Either we will have a good agreement or we will approach this issue in another way, and we would prefer to have a good agreement.”
Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Rubio said there was “something pretty solid on the table in terms of his ability to open the strait.” [of Hormuz]open the strait, start a very real, meaningful and time-limited negotiation on the nuclear issue, and hopefully we can achieve it.”
The plan reportedly being considered would restore full access to the Strait of Hormuz within 30 days of any agreement to end hostilities between the two countries.
Under the proposed framework, Iran would use a 30-day period after the ceasefire to remove mines from the strategic waterway, Reuters reported on Monday, citing a Middle East diplomatic source who spoke to Nikkei.
Amid efforts to reach a peace deal, the U.S. military’s Central Command said Monday that U.S. forces have carried out strikes against southern Iran in “self-defense.”
The attacks targeted missile launch sites and Iranian ships seeking to lay mines, Centcom said.
He said the military will defend U.S. forces “with restraint” during the current ceasefire.
US President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Monday that the deal would be “great and significant, or there will be no deal at all.”
Trump added that he had called on countries such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey to join the Abraham Accords en masse to normalize relations with Israel.
He said he spoke Saturday with the leaders of those countries, as well as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which have already signed the agreements, a set of agreements to normalize relations with Israel.
“I compulsorily request that all countries immediately sign the Abraham Accords and that, if Iran signs its Agreement with me, as President of the United States of America, it would be an honor for them to also be part of this incomparable Global Coalition,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
He cited “all the work done by the United States to try to solve this complex puzzle.”
Barbara Leaf, former US undersecretary for Middle East affairs, said: “Suffice it to say that among those who are not part of the Abraham Accords there are no ones who want to join that agreement. We are not going to get Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to do that. Absolutely not.” He said the proposal was met with “stunned silence” when Trump presented it to regional leaders by phone over the weekend.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid suggested that the Abraham Accords plan would not make the emerging agreement more acceptable to Israel, describing it as disruptive and bad for the region. He said the Israeli government was at “a historic low in its ability to influence decisions in Washington.”
At his news conference, Baghaei also said the memo would not address nuclear issues, such as what to do with Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, except for a commitment to negotiate in the next 60 days. Trump, under growing pressure from critics within the Republican Party, wants the memo to contain a commitment from Iran to get rid of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, even if the precise method is not detailed.
In previous rounds of talks with the United States, Iran has said it is willing to reduce the mix of enriched uranium, but will not allow the transfer of stockpiles to either the United States or Russia. He has talked about suspending domestic enrichment for up to five years, but not the 20 years the United States is seeking.
Iranian officials also claimed that political outcry over the deal within the United States was putting pressure on Trump to backtrack on his plans to release up to $12bn (£9bn) in Iranian assets frozen in Qatar. Iran’s central bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati traveled to Qatar on Monday.
The release of the assets is a central demand for Iran, but it has painful parallels for Trump, who lashed out at Barack Obama for giving $1.7 billion in cash to Iran at the time of the 2015 nuclear deal.
Baghaei, referring to the chaos in Washington, said: “They are facing a wave of layoffs, contradictory statements, opposition from Congress and also opposition from sectors of public opinion.”
Trump, by contrast, has dismissed his critics, saying he wouldn’t “listen to losers who criticize something they know nothing about.”
The deal contains nothing on Iran’s ballistic missiles or support for its regional proxy groups; As such, it contrasts with Trump’s promise that the war would end with Iran’s complete surrender.
Baghaei accused Israel of trying to thwart the deal and said nothing more should be expected from the Israelis.
In the Strait of Hormuz, Baghaei said talks between Omani and Iranian officials took place on Monday. He stated that the reason Oman and Iran were trying to establish a reliable and effective mechanism to ensure safe passage through the strait was precisely because “we believe in using this international waterway for free trade and safe navigation.”
Rejecting claims that the Iranian plan amounted to the nationalization of an open waterway, he said that if “navigation services are provided, in addition to the necessary measures to protect the environment of the strait, this requires the collection of fees. The term tolls should not be used. We do not charge tolls. I think we should be careful in the choice of words.”
European and Gulf states are likely to see this as a distinction without difference, especially if commercial shipping is in practice required to seek Iran’s shipping services.
Inside Iran, many commentators saw the impending deal as a roadmap toward hostile coexistence aimed at managing tension, rather than ending it.
The sense that the war may now be coming to an end was underscored by reports that Iranian officials would reconnect Iran to the international Internet a week after a vote by the supreme national security council. Iranian officials, facing soaring food price inflation, are nervous about the public’s reaction once internet controls are lifted. The spate of executions inside Iran continues unabated.
