Donald Trump said he was making a “final determination” on an agreement with Iran that would extend a fragile ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz even as Tehran warned the deal was not finalised.
The US president laid out his demands for the agreement in a social media post on Friday.
“Iran must agree that they will never have a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb. The Hormuz Strait must be immediately open, no tolls, for unrestricted shipping traffic, in both directions,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Iran would also remove any remaining mines from the waterway – through which one-fifth of global oil supplies normally pass – and the US counter-blockade would “now be lifted”, he said.
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Oil prices have fallen this week on growing hopes of a deal between Washington and Tehran. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was down 1.8 per cent at $92 a barrel on Friday – a six-week low.
The US will excavate Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile from beneath the rubble of a previous US bombing campaign, “in close co-ordination and conjunction with the Islamic Republic of Iran, plus the International Atomic Energy Agency”, and then destroy it, Trump said.
“No money will be exchanged, until further notice,” he added, referring to the sanctions relief and access to frozen overseas Iranian assets that have been components of the negotiations.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson on Friday said that while “messages are being exchanged”, no agreement had been finalised.
Abbas Araghchi, Tehran’s foreign minister, also told his Omani counterpart on Friday that Washington must drop its excessive demands and refrain from “taking contradictory positions”.
Iran’s Fars news agency, which is close to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, had earlier quoted unnamed officials who said Trump’s comments were “a mix of lies and truths” and “a fake show of victory” through “baseless claims”.
Fars added the US president’s comments on the nuclear dossier were “baseless” and that the unfreezing of $12 billion of assets had to happen “immediately” before Iran could enter into any new rounds of talks. It also said Tehran insisted on a “thorough ceasefire” between Israel and Hizbullah, the militant movement in Lebanon.
Trump made his comments after a week of conflicting signals over progress to get the warring parties to agree to a “memorandum of understanding” that would extend a ceasefire agreed on April 8th by 60 days.
Under the proposed terms that both parties have been reviewing, Iran would gradually allow the strait to reopen and remove mines from the waterway during the first 30 days.
It would not charge ships a fee for the duration of the 60-day period, said people briefed on the talks.
Negotiations would also begin over Iran’s nuclear programme, with a commitment to discuss Tehran either diluting or handing over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Iran would also agree not to develop a nuclear weapon.
In return, the US would agree, in phases, to sanctions relief and the unblocking of Iran’s assets held overseas, although that would depend on progress towards a final pact, people briefed on the proposal said.
Washington would also ease its naval blockade on Iranian ports.
Both sides have indicated they are close to reaching a deal, while cautioning that outstanding issues need to be resolved.
The Islamic republic’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, posted earlier on Friday that “no action will be taken before the other side acts”.
“We seize concessions not through dialogue, but with missiles,” he said in a post on X. “In negotiations, we merely make them understand.” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026
