US President Donald Trump said negotiations with Iran over an interim deal to extend their ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz were “proceeding nicely.”
Trump’s comments, made in a Truth Social post on Monday in which he also urged Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other countries to join the Abraham Accords, added to signals that the US and Iran are nearing an agreement. Oil prices dropped 5 percent in the session, with Brent falling below $100 a barrel, while global equity markets rose.
Pakistan’s military chief, Asim Munir, the main interlocutor between the warring sides, told China an agreement is “close to being reached.”
Meanwhile, an Iranian delegation headed by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf traveled to Doha for consultations with senior Qatari officials on the negotiations. The Iranian central bank governor, Abdolnaser Hemmati, was part of the group and was set to discuss the release of frozen Iranian funds, the Fars news agency reported.
The US and Iran still need to finalize key details, including whether ships transiting the Hormuz Strait will be allowed free passage and how quickly billions of dollars of Iranian funds will be unfrozen.
Iran has stuck to its position from early in the war, which erupted with US-Israeli attacks in February, that it must be able to manage maritime traffic through the crucial chokepoint. The US, Arab states and Europe say that cannot be allowed.
Iran has shifted away in recent days from the idea that it will charge tolls. It will instead charge vessels for “navigation services,” a foreign ministry spokesman said on Monday.
The US and Iran have been negotiating a deal that would see them extend their ceasefire for around two months, with the US lifting a naval blockade of Iranian ports and Tehran reopening Hormuz in that time frame.
Iran insists the truce must cover “all fronts,” including Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Tehran-backed Hezbollah militants. Israel, which is not part of negotiations with Iran, has pushed back on the idea.
“We will insist that Israel’s freedom of action on all fronts will be preserved,” Energy Minister Eli Cohen told radio station Galey Israel. “Israel won’t be obliged by any deal that doesn’t prevent all the threats facing it – nuclear, ballistic missiles and funding for terrorist organizations.”
An interim pact would go a long way to ending a war that’s killed thousands of people across the Middle East, mainly in Iran and Lebanon.
The conflict has put pressure on Trump at home ahead of midterm elections in November. Most Americans are against the war, in part because of soaring fuel prices.
“It will only be a Great Deal for all or, no Deal at all – Back to the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before,” Trump said. “And nobody wants that!”
A longer truce would calm the Middle East and ease the concerns of countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which Iran fired thousands of missiles and drones at before the pause in hostilities began on April 8. Those nations, as well as Qatar, have urged Trump not to restart fighting.
Even with an interim agreement, Iran and the US would still need to negotiate curbs on Tehran’s nuclear program. Those talks would be complicated and there’s no guarantee they would be successful.
The US insists Iran must hand over more than 400 kilograms (882 pounds) of highly-enriched uranium, which it fears could be used to build an atomic weapon. It also wants Iran to commit to ceasing enrichment for around 20 years.
Trump is under pressure from Iran hawks, such as Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, claiming that the emerging accord concedes too much to Tehran.
“It will be the exact opposite of the JCPOA disaster negotiated by the failed Obama Administration,” Trump said in an earlier social media post, referring to a deal from 2015 that limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief and monitoring by the United Nations.
Trump’s call for more states to join the Abraham Accords, which saw the UAE and a few other Arab countries formally recognize Israel from 2020, could be a way for him to appease the hawks. The Saudis and Qatar have long said they won’t recognize Israel until it grants statehood to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, or makes moves in that direction.
Here’s more on the Iran war:
- Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. has been quietly ferrying oil shipments out of the Persian Gulf using its own fleet, leaning on practices including dark transits.
- Three tankers loaded with liquefied natural gas appear to have crossed the Strait of Hormuz in recent days, as suppliers in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates attempt to get fuel out to key buyers despite the near-total closure of the waterway.
