Updated ,first published
Washington: A deal to end the war in Iran is being negotiated this weekend and is on the verge of being signed, US President Donald Trump said, as prominent Washington war hawks publicly pleaded with him to reject the peace plan and resume bombing.
Vice President JD Vance returned to Washington and headed to the White House on Saturday afternoon (US time), as did Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, amid reports the US and Iran were on the cusp of agreeing on a road map to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and start negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program.
Amid the intense speculation, Trump said at 4.30pm (6.30am AEST) that he had discussed a memorandum of understanding with the leaders of America’s Gulf allies, as well as Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey and Jordan.
“An agreement has been largely negotiated, subject to finalisation between the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the various other countries, as listed,” Trump said on social media.
He added that he had a separate call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “went very well”.
“Final aspects and details of the deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly,” Trump said. “In addition to many other elements of the agreement, the Strait of Hormuz will be opened.”
But it would not be the first time Trump has announced that hostilities would end, and the strait would reopen, only for that not to eventuate. He proclaimed on April 17 that Iran had agreed to fully open the strait and surrender its stockpiles of enriched uranium.
As word of an impending deal spread on Saturday, several prominent Republicans urged Trump to reject the peace plan and resume military action against Iran, arguing he would be squandering the gains of the initial military campaign.
Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina who was one of the key cheerleaders for the war, said a deal that was seen to allow Iran to survive and potentially control the Strait of Hormuz in the future would shift the balance of power towards Tehran and be a “nightmare” for Israel.
“Also, it makes one wonder why the war started to begin with,” Graham said on X.
Roger Wicker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said extending the ceasefire another 60 days would be a disaster. “Everything accomplished by Operation Epic Fury would be for naught!”
Mike Pompeo, who in Trump’s first term served as CIA director and then secretary of state, said the deal sounded like it was put together by members of Joe Biden’s administration and was “not remotely America First”.
That earned a strong rebuke from White House communications director Steven Cheung. “Mike Pompeo has no idea 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’s not read into anything that’s happening, so how would he know.”
There were mixed signals from Iran as to the deal at play. Its foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the country was working to finalise a memorandum of understanding that would end the war, while deferring talks about Iran’s nuclear program, according to state-run news agency IRNA.
But Iranian military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari said the status of the Strait of Hormuz was not a matter for the American government or countries in the south of the Persian Gulf.
“We determine whether the strait is open or closed,” he said.
A potential deal between Iran and the United States would end the war on all fronts, and stipulates that the number of ships able to transit the Strait of Hormuz would return to the pre-war level within 30 days, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency.
The naval blockade must be completely lifted within 30 days according to a memorandum of understanding, Tasnim said, adding that part of Iran’s frozen funds must be released in the first phase.
Pakistan continues to play a key mediating role in the talks, and language from the country’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, suggested a deal was still some way off.
He described Saturday’s call as “a useful opportunity to exchange views on the current regional situation and how to move the ongoing peace efforts forward to bring lasting peace in the region”. Pakistan hoped to host the next round of peace talks soon, he added.
The possible breakthrough came after Trump announced he would not attend his son’s wedding in the Bahamas this weekend, and cancelled a planned trip to his New Jersey golf club to return to Washington.
The war began on February 28, with joint US-Israeli air strikes inflicting significant damage on Iran’s navy, air force, weapons stocks and defence industrial base. A ceasefire that began on April 8 is still in effect.
Aaron David Miller, a veteran Middle East adviser and former State Department negotiator, said if the agreement was real it would do the one thing required, “which is to buy time and space to deal with the complexity of issues, none of which I suspect have been closed in a one-page framework agreement”.
Those outstanding matters include the future of Iran’s highly enriched uranium, other uranium stockpiles, its centrifuges, frozen Iranian assets, sanctions and Iran’s proxies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“We’re a long way away from what I would consider to be anything that remotely resembles a formal agreement on any of the issues,” said Miller, 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 specialist for Israel’s military intelligence unit, said it was evident the Gulf states feared Iran’s leverage over the Strait of Hormuz and did not trust the US to protect them.
“If the campaign ends under these conditions, Iran’s deterrence against the Gulf states will not weaken but will instead be strengthened,” he said.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X or email.