WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump said on Sunday (May 24) that he told his diplomatic representatives not to rush into a deal with Iran because “time is on our side”, less than a day after announcing that an agreement with Tehran had been largely negotiated.
“The blockade will remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified, and signed. Both sides must take their time and get it right,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“There can be no mistakes! Our relationship with Iran is becoming a much more professional and productive one.”
Expectations for a turning point in the three-month-old war rose on Saturday after Trump said an emerging agreement with Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz. 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 US and Iran said the agreement sets out a framework for ending months of fighting, lifting a US blockade on Iranian shipping and reopening the waterway, which Iran has shut with threats to attack shipping.
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.
HOPE FOR RELIEF IN GLOBAL ENERGY CRISIS
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on a visit to India, said earlier that more news on Iran could come on Sunday.
A senior Iranian source told Reuters that if Iran’s Supreme National Security Council approved the memorandum, it would be sent to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei for final approval.
But Iran’s Tasnim news agency said differences remained over one or two clauses.
It cited a source as saying there would be no final understanding if the US continued to create obstacles.
A deal cementing the current fragile ceasefire would bring relief to markets but not immediately quell a global energy crisis, which has driven up costs of fuel, fertiliser, and food.
At around US$103.50, the price of Brent crude is 43 per cent higher than when the US and Israel attacked Iran in February.
Even if the war ends now, full flows through the strait will not return before the first or second quarter of 2027, the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company said last week.
The US news outlet Axios late on Saturday cited an unnamed US official as saying that under the prospective deal, the US would lift its blockade on Iranian ports and waive some sanctions on Iranian oil.
The draft also includes commitments from Iran never to pursue nuclear weapons, Axios said.
Trump, while offering various war aims during the conflict, has repeatedly said the US struck Iran to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Iran has long denied it is pursuing such weapons and says it has a right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes, although the purity it has achieved far exceeds that needed for power generation.