The US and Iran could sign a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz and taking steps to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program “in the next few days,” a senior Trump administration official said Friday.
But the official, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity to discuss the latest developments in the talks with Tehran, said the US “has no guarantee that the agreement they reached, called the memorandum of understanding, will be signed at all.”
“Maybe I would have said 75% this morning. He’s more like 80[%]-85% now,” said the official. “But it’s not 100%.
Iran’s system is “very complex” and there are fractures within the regime, the official said.
The memorandum of understanding, as it stands now, also “ensures long-term peace in the region” by ending Iran’s sponsorship of violence and imposing a “checking regime” on the Islamic Republic, a US official said.
If Iran complies, it will be rewarded with “significant” economic relief, including the easing of long-standing sanctions and an unfreezing of its assets, the official said.
But those benefits “only increase if they actually deliver,” the official stressed. The official also said that the two sides are not yet clear where the agreement will be signed.
The US, however, believes both sides like the text as it is and “will sign in the next few days,” unless “we see problems emerging,” the official said.
Israel and other regional allies are expected to “step in,” the official said, even after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Friday morning that Tel Aviv would not withdraw its forces from Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and the northern West Bank.
“We are not expecting any country, however [in] the Gulf Coast or Israel, to give up its right to defend itself,” said an American official.
The comments followed many politicians, including President Donald Trump, expressing more optimism than ever that a deal to end the war was imminent.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said earlier on Friday that the “final, agreed text” of the deal between the US and Iran “has been reached.”
Pakistan, which acted as a mediator between the two countries during their war, “is now working with both sides to finalize the next steps,” Sharif said in the X post.
“Peace has never been as close as it is now,” he wrote.
Trump said in the Oval Office on Thursday afternoon that the US “just made a good solution to the war with Iran,” depending on the “finalization of the documents.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X before Sharif’s post that a memorandum of understanding “is never close.”
All three officials also backed away from publicly sharing information about the content of the upcoming deal.
Iran’s Mehr News Agency earlier on Friday reported that there are 14 provisions in the draft agreement, including the US commitment to lift oil sanctions, end its naval blockade and release frozen Iranian funds.
Trump wrote in an angry Truth Social post later Friday morning that public reporting about the deal had “NOTHING to do with the terms that were agreed upon, in writing.”
