By Asif Shahzad, Ryan Patrick Jones and Akanksha Khushi
WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD, May 24 (Reuters) – A “largely negotiated” memorandum of understanding on an Iran peace deal would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday, as expectations rose that a turning point might be imminent in the three-month-old war.
Trump posted on social media that the emerging agreement would reopen the strait, the vital shipping passage whose closure has sparked a global energy crisis since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran in February. He did not say what else would be included in an agreement.
“Final aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Various media in the U.S. and Iran said the memorandum that could yield an agreement lays out a phased framework for ending months of fighting, reopening the strategic waterway soon and lifting a U.S. blockade on Iran. Plans for Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, which Washington has insisted it give up, would be negotiated within 30 to 60 days, the reports said.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on a visit to India, said more news on Iran could come on Sunday and there was a possibility of good news on the strait over the next few hours.
IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM IN FOCUS
A deal cementing a fragile ceasefire in the war that the U.S. and Israel launched on February 28 would bring relief to markets but would not immediately quell a global energy crisis, which has driven up costs of fuel, fertilizer and plastics.
Even if the war ended now, full oil flows through the strait would not return before the first or second quarter of 2027, the head of the United Arab Emirates’ state oil firm ADNOC said last week.
Axios reported late on Saturday that the U.S. and Iran were close to a deal, which it said would include no tolls on ships transiting the strait, while Iran would be able to freely sell oil and negotiations would be held on curbing Iran’s nuclear program.
In exchange, the U.S. would lift its blockade on Iranian ports and issue some sanctions waivers on Iranian oil, the U.S. news outlet said, citing a U.S. official.
The draft agreement also includes commitments from Iran never to pursue nuclear weapons and to negotiate over a suspension of its uranium enrichment program and the removal of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, Axios said.
Trump, while offering various war aims during the three-month-old conflict, has repeatedly said the U.S. struck Iran to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons. Iran has denied it is pursuing nuclear weapons and says it has a right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes.
Iran’s Fars news agency said on Sunday the draft agreement also stipulates that the U.S. and its allies will not attack Iran or its allies, and in return Iran pledges not to launch any preemptive attacks on the U.S. or its allies.
Prominent Israeli politician Benny Gantz said Israel must not accept a ceasefire in Lebanon as part of a deal with Iran, calling such an agreement a strategic mistake. He posted on X that Israel has an obligation to protect residents near the border and should tell the United States “no” to such a proposal.
Sources have told Reuters the proposed framework would unfold in three stages: formally ending the war, resolving the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz and launching a 30-day window for negotiations on a broader agreement, which can be extended.
One of the Pakistani sources said that if the U.S. accepts the memorandum, further talks could take place after the Eid holiday ends on Friday.
Trump, whose approval ratings have been hit by the war’s impact on U.S. energy prices, said on Friday he would not attend his son’s wedding this weekend, citing Iran among the reasons he planned to stay in Washington.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency said any changes in passage and navigation through the Strait of Hormuz were conditional on implementation of other commitments by the U.S. It also said some Iranian funds that have been frozen globally as part of sanctions must be released in the first phase of the deal.
‘ISSUES STILL NEED TO BE DISCUSSED,’ IRAN SAYS
Trump spoke on Saturday with leaders from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan, who encouraged Trump to agree to the emerging framework, Axios reported.
A call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also went “very well,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Pakistan has aimed to narrow differences between Iran and the U.S. after weeks of war have left the vital Hormuz waterway closed to most shipping despite the ceasefire.
“The trend this week has been towards a reduction in disputes, but there are still issues that need to be discussed through mediators. We will have to wait and see where the situation ends in the next three or four days,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei.
Iran has demanded supervision of the strait, an end to the U.S. blockade on its ports and the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil sales.
Baghaei said the issue of the U.S. blockade on Iran’s shipping was important, but that its priority was ending the threat of new U.S. attacks and the ongoing conflict in Lebanon, where Iran-allied Hezbollah militants are fighting Israeli troops who have moved into the south.
Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said Iran’s armed forces had rebuilt their capabilities during the ceasefire and that, if the U.S. “foolishly restarts the war,” the consequences would be “more forceful and bitter” than at the start of the conflict.
(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Ariba Shahid, Hatem Mater and Andrew Mills; Writing by Philippa Fletcher, Rod Nickel, Sergio Non and Kim Coghill; Editing by Kevin Liffey, David Gregorio, Nia Williams and William Mallard)
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