U.S. President floats a “very good” agreement with Tehran even as American officials contradict one another and Iranian seafarers report the hostile maritime siege is still in force.
U.S. President Donald Trump has once again claimed that Washington is close to a “very good” deal with Iran, praising the experience of Tehran's negotiators while insisting he is “in no rush.” Speaking to Fox News, Trump said disputes are best resolved through diplomacy. Yet the remarks landed more like a publicity show than a policy statement, coming as Washington simultaneously hardened its demands and as competing American accounts of the talks exposed deep contradictions within the administration.
According to the Iranian-state supported Nournews, Trump repeated his familiar line that the goal is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon — an assertion Tehran has long rejected, reaffirming the peaceful nature of its program and conditioning any agreement on sanctions relief, the protection of its national interests, and recognition of its legitimate nuclear rights. The New York Times reported that Trump has stiffened his conditions and sent revised proposals to Tehran, even as other U.S. sources told markedly different stories about where the negotiations actually stand.
The sharpest contradiction concerns the Strait of Hormuz. In a late-night post on Truth Social, Trump declared the U.S. naval blockade “will now be lifted,” telling stranded ships they could begin the “journey home.” But Iranian seafarers, speaking to domestic media, said the siege remains fully in place: vessels attempting to cross the blockade line continue to receive stop warnings from CENTCOM and are threatened with fire if they do not retreat. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed as much on camera, declaring bluntly that “the siege of Iran remains in place” while insisting Trump will sign no deal that does not benefit the United States.
Trump's demands, repeated before a roughly two-hour Situation Room meeting with his national security team, included a guarantee that Iran “will never” possess a nuclear weapon, the immediate clearing of sea mines, and toll-free passage through Hormuz. He also claimed enriched material — which he called “nuclear dust” buried under collapsed mountains from a U.S. B-2 strike eleven months ago — would be extracted with the cooperation of the U.S., China, and the IAEA, a claim no Iranian source has confirmed. Trump added that “no money” would change hands until further notice, a reference read in Tehran as targeting Iran's blocked foreign assets. The New York Times later reported he left the meeting without any final decision, despite having promised one.
Iranian officials say Trump has distorted the substance of what is being discussed. According to informed sources, the most important elements — the immediate release of $12 billion in frozen Iranian assets and a full ceasefire in Lebanon — went entirely unmentioned by Trump, even though both are preconditions to any further talks. There is no clause in the draft, the sources said, on “unconditional” reopening of Hormuz or the dismantling of nuclear material. Tehran has not yet decided whether to accept or reject the latest draft memorandum of understanding, which observers note falls far short of Trump's original fifteen-point demands.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei dismissed Trump's ultimatums outright: “We said goodbye to the language of ‘must’ forty-seven years ago,” he said, adding that Western officials' demands should be read as requests, and that Iran acts on its own national interests. He stressed that the current phase is focused on ending the war, not on nuclear details, and that what the U.S. calls a maritime blockade was an illegal act and a ceasefire violation from the outset. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a final agreement depends on Washington abandoning its “excessive” and contradictory posture, while parliamentary security chief Ebrahim Azizi declared that Iran, as the victor on the battlefield, sets the terms: “cash for cash, credit for credit, nothing for nothing.”
The pattern, Iranian analysts argue, is consistent: hurried, self-aggrandizing claims online followed by quiet retreat behind the scenes. The pro-Trump outlet Axios reported that Washington had received “verbal commitments” from Iran on its nuclear material — a framing seen in Tehran as an attempt to paper over the gap between Trump's earlier boasts and the thin substance of the memorandum. Axios also confirmed the deal would include a Lebanon ceasefire. Meanwhile IAEA chief Rafael Grossi claimed Kazakhstan had offered to store Iran's highly enriched uranium, an assertion Astana did not immediately confirm.
The Nournews add that, the financial markets reacted instantly to the blockade-lifting claim: the tether rate fell by roughly 3,000 toman, slipping below the 170,000-toman channel, while Brent crude dropped under $90 a barrel for the first time in about 50 days — a move analysts attributed to easing fears over energy flows through Hormuz. For now, no final understanding has been reached. As Baghaei put it, the seriousness of any blockade lift must first be seen in practice: if real, it would amount merely to halting an illegal act that should never have begun.