US and Iranian negotiators reach tentative deal to extend ceasefire – official
US and Iranian negotiators reached a tentative agreement to extend the ceasefire in the three-month-old war by 60 days and launch talks on Iran’s nuclear programme, according to a US official familiar with the matter.
Iran did not immediately confirm any deal, and the official noted that US President Donald Trump has yet to sign off on it.
Vice president JD Vance on Thursday confirmed there was a tentative agreement, but said it was unclear if Mr Trump would approve it.
“It’s hard to say exactly when or if the president’s going to sign,” Vance told reporters.
“We’re going back and forth on a couple of language points.”
The emerging memorandum of understanding came as the fragile ceasefire in the war between the US and Iran appeared to be wavering.
The latest flare-up in fighting happened less than a day earlier, when Kuwait intercepted missiles fired from Iran, according to US Central Command.
The memorandum makes clear that Iran will not be able to impose tolls on the Strait of Hormuz and that Iran will have to remove all mines from the vital waterway within 30 days, according to the official, who was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
During the war, Iran has effectively closed the strait, which had been the conduit for about a fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas.
Its closure has sent oil prices skyrocketing around the world.
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent predicted on Thursday at a news briefing that the cost of oil could “come down very quickly” once a deal is finalised.
Iran has said it is letting some commercial vessels pass — about two dozen daily in recent days, compared with more than 100 a day before the war — but the Islamic Republic also has charged tolls for at least some ships.
It set up a formal gatekeeper agency earlier this month, spurring a new round of US sanctions this week.
Under the tentative agreement, the US would gradually lift its naval blockade on Iranian ports.
The US would also agree to relax sanctions, allowing Iran to sell more of its oil.
Yet even as word of the potential deal emerged, the US Treasury Department imposed additional sanctions on the Iranian military’s oil sales arm.
The new penalties, first reported by the Associated Press, extend the Trump administration’s economic pressure campaign on the Islamic Republic.
A second US official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private diplomacy, said the broad outlines of an agreement have been reached but stressed that until Mr Trump signs off on it, there is no deal.
The official said there still are questions about whether Mr Trump will accept the proposal.
Among the first issues to be negotiated during the 60-day ceasefire is what will happen to Iran’s highly enriched uranium, the first official said.
The Islamic Republic has 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium that is enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran has not publicly committed to giving up the stockpile, which is believed to be buried under a trio of nuclear sites that were badly damaged by US airstrikes last year.
Nuclear analysts have said that Iran might consider China or Russia, which have close relations with Tehran, to be a potential acceptable third party to take possession of the enriched uranium.
But Mr Trump said on Wednesday that he “wouldn’t be comfortable” with such a plan.
Details of the tentative pact were first reported by the news outlet Axios.
Kuwait announced that its air-defence systems intercepted incoming missiles and drones on Thursday, without detailing what had been targeted.
Iran said it had retaliated for strikes earlier in the week by firing on a US base in a Gulf state it did not name.
The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry condemned Iran for what it called “blatant aggression” and US Central Command called the attack on one of America’s top allies in the Persian Gulf an “egregious ceasefire violation”.
Kuwait repeatedly came under fire from Iran and Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq before the April ceasefire began.
The exchange took place after US officials said late on Wednesday that American forces launched more strikes on Iran, shooting down four one-way attack drones that posed a threat around the strait and hitting an Iranian ground-control station in Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged the attack around Bandar Abbas International Airport and said via the state-run IRNA news agency that it launched a retaliatory attack on the air base that launched the assaults.
The Revolutionary Guard did not specify whether the response targeted Kuwait, which houses US Army Central’s forward headquarters, air bases and a naval base.
On Monday, the US said it conducted what the Pentagon called “self-defence” strikes on missile launch sites and minelaying boats in southern Iran.
Although they have traded strikes and accusations of ceasefire violations, Washington and Tehran have not returned to full-scale hostilities and keep negotiating.
The developments unfolded with the Middle East on edge.
Besides sanctions relief and the release of frozen assets, Iran has insisted that any deal must include an end to Israel’s military operations in Lebanon against the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Tensions deepened on Thursday in Lebanon as Israel conducted an airstrike on a southern suburb of the capital, Beirut, and other strikes in the southern coastal city of Tyre.
At least 14 people were killed across the country’s south.
Later on Thursday, Iran’s defences destroyed “a hostile aircraft” around the southern city of Jam, the area’s governor, Masood Tangestani, told state broadcaster IRIB.
No other information was immediately available.
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