Iran says US deal 'closer than ever' to finalization

Iran’s ⁠⁠foreign ⁠⁠minister, Abbas Araghchi, has said a deal to permanently end the US-Israeli war with Iran has “never been closer”, Al Jazeera reported.

Araghchi’s post on X on Friday is the clearest signal yet from Iran that a potential breakthrough touted by the administration of US President Donald Trump may materialise.

Speaking on Iran’s Press TV late Friday, Araghchi stressed that an agreement had not been signed.

He said that an agreement being considered consisted of two stages, the first being a memorandum of understanding and the second the beginning of negotiations on several issues.

Under the first stage, fighting would be halted, including Israel’s offensive in Lebanon, with commitments not to relaunch attacks.

He said the question of the future of Iran’s nuclear programme, the lifting of sanctions and the unfreezing of Iran’s assets would be addressed in the second stage of the plan. He added that the Strait of Hormuz would remain under Iranian and Omani sovereignty, and that its future administration would be different than in the past.

Araghchi stressed that the initial memorandum of understanding was still being reviewed, pointing to deep distrust with the administration of US President Donald Trump, which twice launched amid ongoing nuclear talks.

A senior US official, meanwhile, told reporters on Friday that a deal was “not quite at the finish line yet, but we are very close”.

The official said the memorandum of understanding would involve “significant” sanctions relief and the unfreezing of Iranian assets, in exchange for Iran agreeing to dismantle its nuclear programme and hand over its nuclear material.