Updated ,first published
Washington: An agreement to end the war in Iran is being negotiated this weekend and is close to being signed, US President Donald Trump said, as Washington’s war chiefs publicly urged him to reject the peace deal and resume bombing.
Vice President JD Vance returned to Washington and headed to the White House on Saturday afternoon (US time), as did Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, amid reports that the US and Iran were on the verge of agreeing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and begin talks on Iran’s nuclear program.
Amid the growing speculation, Trump said at 4:30 (6.30am AEST) that he had discussed a deal with the leaders of America’s Gulf allies, including Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey and Jordan.
“The agreement has been largely negotiated, less than finalized between the United States, the Islamic Republic of Iran and various other countries, as listed,” Trump said on social media.
He added that he had a separate phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “went very well”.
“The final details and details of the deal are currently being negotiated, and will be announced soon,” Trump said. “In addition to many other aspects of the agreement, the Strait of Hormuz will be opened.”
But it will not be the first time that Trump has announced that the hostilities would end, and the situation will be reopened, just so that does not happen. He announced on April 17 that Iran had agreed to fully open the strait and surrender its stockpile of enriched uranium.
As news of the expected deal spread on Saturday, some prominent Republicans called on Trump to reject the peace deal and resume military action against Iran, saying he would be squandering the success of the previous military campaign.
Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina who was one of the main cheerleaders for the war, said a deal that appeared to allow Iran to continue to potentially control the Strait of Hormuz in the future would shift the balance of power toward Tehran and become a “dream” for Israel.
“Also, it makes one wonder why the war started,” Graham said on X.
Roger Wicker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said extending the ceasefire by 60 days would be a disaster. “Everything accomplished by Operation Epic Fury will be for nothing!”
Mike Pompeo, who in Trump’s first term served as CIA director and then secretary of state, said the deal looked like it was put together by members of the Joe Biden administration and “wasn’t America First”.
That drew a sharp rebuke from White House communications director Steven Cheung. “Mike Pompeo doesn’t know what the f— he’s talking about,” Cheung said on X. “He should shut his stupid mouth and leave the real work to the professionals. He doesn’t read anything that’s going on, so how would he know.”
There were mixed signals from Iran about the deal. His foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the country is working to finalize a compromise agreement that will end the war, while postponing talks on Iran’s nuclear program, according to state news agency IRNA.
But Iranian military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari said the status of the Strait of Hormuz is not a matter for the US government or the countries in the south of the Persian Gulf.
“We decide if the strait is open or closed,” he said.
A possible deal between Iran and the United States would end the war against both sides, and stipulate that the number of ships able to cross the Strait of Hormuz would return to pre-war levels within 30 days, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency.
The naval blockade must be completely lifted within 30 days according to the memorandum of understanding, Tasnim said, adding that part of Iran’s stored funds must be released in the first phase.
Pakistan continues to play an important mediating role in the talks, and language from the country’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, suggested that a deal is not yet complete.
He described Saturday’s call as “an important opportunity to exchange ideas on the current regional situation and how to move the ongoing peace efforts to bring lasting peace to the region”. Pakistan hoped to host the next round of peace talks soon, he added.
The potential breakthrough came after Trump announced he would not attend his son’s wedding in the Bahamas this weekend, canceling a planned trip to his New Jersey golf club to return to Washington.
The war began on February 28, with joint US-Israeli airstrikes inflicting heavy damage on Iran’s navy, air force, arsenal and defense industrial base. The ceasefire that started on April 8 is still ongoing.
Aaron David Miller, a veteran Middle East adviser and former State Department negotiator, said that if the agreement was real it would do one thing that is needed, “which is to buy time and space to deal with the complexity of the issues, none of which I suspect is locked into a one-page framework agreement”.
The remaining issues include the future of highly enriched uranium, other uranium reserves, its intermediate facilities, frozen Iranian assets, sanctions and Iran’s allies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“We are very far from what I would consider to be anything that remotely resembles a formal agreement on any issues,” said Miller, who is now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Danny Citrinowicz, an Iran analyst at the Israel-based Institute for National Security Studies and a former Iran expert in Israel’s military intelligence unit, said it is clear that the Gulf states fear Iran’s rise in the Strait of Hormuz and do not trust the United States to protect them.
“If the campaign ends under these conditions, Iran’s deterrence against the Gulf states will not be weakened but rather strengthened,” he said.
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Michael Koziol is the North American correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, deputy editor of the Sun-Herald and federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect through X or email address.
