Key mediator Pakistan said a deal to end the Iran war was closer than ever and US President Donald Trump asserted it would be “signed tomorrow”.
Meanwhile, Iran made some of its most optimistic statements yet but indicated a bit more time was needed.
Mr Trump said the Strait of Hormuz would open immediately after the signing.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said a deal was expected to be finalised within 24 hours, with each side expected to sign electronically.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry said the signing ceremony was scheduled for Sunday but did not provide details.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei, in statements carried by state media, said the signing “will not happen tomorrow”, but “the likelihood of finalising the memorandum of understanding in the coming days is high”.
A tenuous ceasefire has been in place since April 7. Mr Trump has asserted multiple times in recent weeks that the countries were on the cusp of a deal.
Iran has long expressed wariness in negotiations, pointing out that previous talks with the US last year and early this year ended with attacks by the US and Israel.
Mr Trump is also expected to discuss plans to demine the Strait of Hormuz with allies during next week’s Group of Seven summit in France, a senior US administration official said.
The official said Mr Trump also plans to meet on the sidelines of the summit with the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to discuss efforts to wind down the Iran war.
Britain and France, who are both members of the G7, have expressed interest in assisting with demining the critical waterway once the conflict is paused.
It was not clear how many mines are in the strait that Iran has effectively controlled since shortly after the war began, virtually shutting down oil and natural gas shipments from the Persian Gulf. The US has blockaded Iranian ports in response.
https://x.com/CMShehbaz/status/2065751039136207357?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said the memorandum of understanding under discussion was focused on ending the war and “at this stage, it has been decided that there will be no discussion of the nuclear issue”.
Iran’s nuclear program and highly enriched uranium have long been at the centre of tensions with the US and Israel and an international source of concern.
Mr Trump on social media asserted that “when all is calm”, the US would go in and “downblend and destroy” the enriched uranium in Iran or in the US.
The apparent breakthrough in negotiations came after Iran exchanged fire with the US and Israel earlier in the week, threatening to rupture the ceasefire and push the Middle East back into full-scale war.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X on Friday that an agreement “has never been closer”.
Mr Trump on Thursday claimed significant progress in negotiations, hours after he threatened to seize Iran’s oil industry.
Elsewhere, funeral ceremonies for former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will be in July, the country’s state-run television said.
The funeral, burial and farewell events for Khamenei will take place between July 4 and 9 during Muharram, a traditional period of mourning in the Shiite Muslim calendar.
Khamenei was killed in the opening attack of the war that Israel and the United States launched against Iran in late February. He is succeeded by his son, Mojtaba, who is seen as even less compromising.
The funeral ceremonies for Khamenei are expected to begin in Tehran, and the procession will move to Qom, a stronghold of many senior Shiite clerics, and then to Mashhad, his birthplace. He’ll be buried there at the Imam Reza Shrine, considered the holiest place among Shiite devotees.
Funerals for Khamenei’s daughter and son-in-law, who were also killed in the February strike, will be on the same day.
Khamenei remoulded the Islamic Republic after taking the reins following the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989. Khomeini was the fiery, charismatic ideologue who led the overthrow of the Shah and installed rule by Shiite Muslim clerics.
Khamenei ruled far longer than Khomeini. He greatly expanded the Shiite clerical class and built the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard into the most important body underpinning his rule.
The Guard became a military and business behemoth, the country’s most elite force and head of its ballistic missile arsenal.
