American and Iranian negotiators have struck a tentative deal to extend their fragile ceasefire by 60 days and open a new round of nuclear talks, but President Donald Trump has not yet given his approval, and both sides are still haggling over final language.
The White House confirmed Thursday that negotiators agreed to a proposed memorandum of understanding. Vice President JD Vance, however, made clear the agreement is far from final. AP News reported Vance saying the outcome remains uncertain.
"It's hard to say exactly when or if the president's going to sign. We're going back and forth on a couple of language points."
Trump himself struck a tougher tone a day earlier. During a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, he said Iran "very much" wants a deal but made plain the administration was not satisfied with where things stood.
"We're not satisfied with it, but we will be. We will be either that, or we'll have to just finish the job."
That remark, the clearest signal yet that military escalation remains on the table, landed against a backdrop of live combat. Over the previous 48 hours, tensions in and around the Strait of Hormuz had flared sharply, with U.S. forces shooting down multiple Iranian attack drones and striking an Iranian ground-control site near Bandar Abbas.
The framework, as Breitbart News detailed, would build on the ceasefire first reached in April. Its core elements include reopening the Strait of Hormuz to unrestricted commercial shipping, prohibiting Iranian tolls or harassment of vessels in transit, and requiring Tehran to remove mines from the waterway within 30 days.
In exchange, the United States would gradually lift its naval blockade on Iranian ports. Washington would also discuss sanctions relief and the release of frozen Iranian funds during the 60-day negotiating window.
The nuclear component is the centerpiece. Iran would commit not to pursue a nuclear weapon, and talks would address Tehran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium and its future enrichment activities. As we previously reported, earlier rounds of negotiation had already produced Iranian signals of willingness to surrender enriched uranium under a Trump-brokered framework.
Vance framed the strategic stakes in blunt terms. "We're in a position where we could substantially set back their nuclear program, not just during the term of this president but over the long term," he told reporters.
A U.S. official told mediators that Trump wanted "a couple of days to think about it" before making a final decision. Newsmax reported the same timeline, noting that the president's deliberation period leaves the agreement in limbo despite the progress at the negotiating table.
Iran's side faces its own approval bottleneck. The Jerusalem Post, cited in the primary reporting, noted that sign-off from Iran's senior leadership, including Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, has not been secured. The Times of Israel reported that diplomats described both sides as appearing close to an understanding but cautioned that final approvals remained outstanding.
That dual uncertainty is the crux of the matter. A tentative framework means nothing until the two men who hold actual power, Trump and Khamenei, put their names on it.
The path to this point has been anything but smooth. Trump had earlier signaled deal momentum while deploying the 82nd Airborne, a combination of diplomatic carrot and military stick that defined the administration's approach throughout the spring.
The tentative agreement emerged against a volatile military backdrop. U.S. Central Command accused Iran of committing an "egregious ceasefire violation" and said American forces shot down multiple Iranian attack drones threatening vessels near the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM also confirmed strikes on an Iranian ground-control site near Bandar Abbas that had been preparing to launch a drone.
The Pentagon described its operations as "measured" and "purely defensive."
Iran saw it differently. Tehran accused the United States of violating the ceasefire and warned of further retaliation if strikes continued. That retaliation came quickly: missiles and drones were fired toward Kuwait, where Kuwaiti forces intercepted them.
Fox News reported that the deal followed weeks of escalating military tensions, including defensive U.S. strikes on Iranian boats and missile sites in the strait. Trump told reporters Wednesday that Iran was "negotiating on fumes" and declared flatly: "Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon."
That sequence, combat operations running in parallel with diplomatic outreach, is characteristic of the Trump administration's posture toward Tehran. The administration has consistently paired maximum military pressure with an open door for negotiation, a strategy its supporters say brought Iran to the table and its critics call dangerously escalatory.
Strip away the diplomatic language and the proposed MOU reflects a straightforward trade. Iran gets economic relief: a lifted naval blockade, potential sanctions easing, and access to frozen funds. The United States gets a nuclear commitment, a demined Strait of Hormuz, and a 60-day clock to negotiate deeper restrictions on Tehran's enrichment program.
Whether that trade favors American interests depends entirely on enforcement. The April ceasefire was supposed to stabilize the situation. Instead, it produced 48 hours of drone combat, missile launches toward a U.S. ally, and mutual accusations of bad faith. A second ceasefire built on the wreckage of the first will need stronger teeth.
Trump's Cabinet meeting Wednesday, where Iran negotiations dominated the agenda, suggests the president understands that. His public comments have left no ambiguity about the alternative. "Finish the job" is not the language of a leader eager to sign a weak agreement for the sake of a headline.
The administration has also kept its rhetoric about the talks moving forward carefully calibrated, warning critics to withhold judgment until final terms are locked.
Several key questions hang over the proposed deal. The specific amount of frozen Iranian funds under discussion has not been disclosed. The scope of sanctions relief, which sanctions, on what timeline, with what snapback provisions, remains unclear. Iran's current stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the very material the deal is supposed to address, has not been publicly quantified in the context of these talks.
And the most basic question of all: what happens if the 60-day window closes without a nuclear agreement? The proposed MOU apparently does not spell out a dispute resolution mechanism or describe consequences for failure.
The Washington Examiner noted the deal still needs Trump's blessing, reinforcing that the president holds the decisive card.
That is exactly where it should be. After decades of arms-control agreements that relied on trust and delivered proliferation, the last thing American interests need is another framework that looks good on paper and collapses on contact with Iranian ambition. Trump is right to take his time, and right to remind Tehran that the alternative to a real deal is not more negotiation. It is the full weight of American military power.
