U.S.-Iran peace deal emerging, while war threats still loom : NPR
Ships are anchored off the coast of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, May 21, 2026.
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President Trump and other administration officials are tempering expectations over an imminent deal to end the war in Iran, while Iranian officials have signaled there are still disagreements on key issues.
Trump, after saying Saturday that the United States and Iran had “extensively negotiated” a memorandum of understanding to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, said in a series of social media posts Sunday that the United States would not rush to reach a deal.
“If I make a deal with Iran, it will be a good deal,” adding, “So don’t listen to the losers, who are criticizing something they know nothing about,” Trump said Sunday.
Speaking in New Delhi, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that the United States would “give diplomacy every chance to succeed before exploring alternatives.”
Iran has not officially commented on the proposed deal. But semi-official news agencies, often used by Iran’s leaders, said disputes over “one or two” issues jeopardized the potential deal.
On Monday, the Tasnim news agency, close to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, accused the United States of “obstructionism” over the release of some frozen Iranian funds in exchange for lifting restrictions on transit through the Strait of Hormuz.
The news agency also said the deal being negotiated called on Iran to restore the number of ships transiting the vital waterway to pre-war levels within 30 days and for the United States to completely lift its blockade within the same time frame. Another state-backed agency, ISNA, said Iran would insist on administering the strait with Oman. The two countries share this narrow waterway, with the transit passage governed by United Nations maritime law.
The United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, sparking a regional war that, for the first time, spread to the United States’ allies in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Iran has struck US military bases and energy infrastructure in these countries in retaliation for US and Israeli strikes. A ceasefire was agreed in April. Several thousand Iranians are believed to have been killed during American and Israeli strikes.
While Trump initially focused on the idea of regime change in the Islamic Republic and the perceived threat of Iran building nuclear weapons, current negotiations have focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Global oil prices rose sharply after Iran restricted access to the vital waterway. Maritime disruptions linked to container traffic across the Strait have affected the global availability and cost of a wide variety of products, from fertilizers to plastic consumer goods.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to reporters before boarding his plane at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, May 25, 2026.
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Rubio, on an official visit to India, said the deal being discussed with Iran was “a pretty solid thing on the table in terms of being able to open the strait.” He said the United States intended to engage in “a very real, meaningful, time-limited negotiation on the nuclear issue.” “I hope we can achieve this,” he added.
Iran’s ISNA news agency quoted a senior Iranian diplomat as saying that Iran had not made any commitments in the negotiations on the initial deal on nuclear issues, including highly enriched uranium.
The United States has pressed Iran to send highly enriched uranium out of the country for safekeeping. Iran, which claims that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, sees it as a question of sovereignty and has expressed its opposition to this option.
Hossein Nooshabadi, a senior Foreign Ministry official quoted by Iran’s ISNA news agency, said Iran’s demands include “an end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, the release of billions of dollars of frozen Iranian assets, the lifting of the US naval blockade and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, the withdrawal of US forces from the environment of the Islamic Republic, and the freedom to sell Iranian oil are envisaged in the potential agreement between Iran and the United States.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Sunday that if a deal is signed, Iran and the United States would discuss nuclear issues over a 60-day period, which Nooshabadi said would begin after the initial 30-day deal on the Strait of Hormuz.
“At this stage we are not discussing nuclear details and the 14-point memorandum of understanding is focused on ending the war,” he said.
Nooshabadi said the 60-day talks depended on the lifting of sanctions and a full release of Iranian assets frozen by the United States.
Trump wrote Saturday that the United States would continue its naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz until an agreement with Iran is “reached, certified and signed.”
Iranian Parliament spokesman Ebrahim Rezaei said in a social media post that Iran would not give in to threats and that if the United States wanted a deal it would have to negotiate it, but if it wanted even higher prices at the pump it would have to “keep bluffing.”
Israel, which played a key role in Trump’s decision-making on Iran, is strongly opposed to a deal to end the war in Lebanon.
Despite a US-brokered extension of the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon this month, Israel has continued to occupy southern Lebanon and launch waves of airstrikes. Lebanon’s Health Ministry says more than 3,200 people, including women, children, medical personnel and first responders, have been killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the war with the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah in March.
Israel says 22 soldiers and a military contractor as well as two civilians were killed in Hezbollah attacks.
