Dubai: After signaling that a US-Iran deal could be announced within hours, US President Donald Trump suddenly moved struck a more cautious tone on Sunday, saying Washington would not “rush into a deal” and stressing that negotiations still require time and precision.
The sudden shift in messaging highlighted key gaps still unaddressed depending on the proposed framework — from Iran’s uranium reserves and sanctions relief to the future of the Strait of Hormuz and whether Tehran’s hard-line structure would ultimately support the deal.
On Saturday, Trump announced that a deal had been reached with Iran “Mostly negotiated” and suggested The Strait of Hormuz was set to reopen, fueling expectations that a major announcement could come within hours.
But on Sunday morning, Trump was tempering expectations.
“Negotiations are proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner and I have informed my representatives not to rush to reach an agreement while it is on our side,” Trump wrote on social media.
“Both sides have to take their time and get it right. There can be no mistakes.”
The more cautious tone came as conflicting signals emerged from Washington and Tehran over what had actually been agreed.
According to New York Times, three senior Iranian officials said Tehran had agreed to a memorandum of understanding that would halt the fighting, reopen the Strait of Hormuz free of charge and lift the US naval blockade of Iran.
Officials also said the proposed framework would free up $25 billion in frozen Iranian assets and begin negotiations over Tehran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile within 30 to 60 days.
At the same time, however, Iranian state-affiliated media publicly denied that Tehran had accepted new nuclear launches at this stage.
The Tasnim news agency said Iran had not agreed to any new measures regarding its nuclear program and insisted the Strait of Hormuz would not simply return to its pre-war status.
This contradiction seemed to expose the fragile nature of the proposed agreement.
Temporary fix
While Washington sees the emerging framework as the start of a broader nuclear settlement, Tehran appears to be presenting it domestically as an interim agreement focused primarily on maritime access, sanctions relief and avoiding a renewal of war.
US officials also acknowledged that some of the most contentious issues – particularly how Iran would surrender or neutralize its stockpile of highly enriched uranium – had effectively been postponed to later negotiations.
According to the New York Times, Iran had initially resisted including any commitments on enriched uranium in the first phase of the deal, prompting US negotiators to threaten new military action if Tehran refused.
The issue remains politically explosive on both sides.
Impact on Hormuz
Republican Senator Ted Cruz warned that any deal that allows Iran to enrich uranium or maintain influence over Hormuz would be a “catastrophic mistake.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also publicly toughened his tone on Sunday, insisting that “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon” and that any final deal “must eliminate the nuclear threat.”
At the same time, analysts say Tehran’s domestic politics may be complicating the negotiations.
Although Iranian officials pursued diplomacy through regional mediators, hardline rhetoric continued domestically.
Military commanders threatened Gulf infrastructure if war resumed, state television broadcast images of armed volunteer fighters and senior officials repeatedly stressed that Iran would not surrender strategic leverage.
of New York Times also reported that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had authorized powerful figures, including parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, to make decisions about the talks – a sign that wartime decision-making may now be increasingly concentrated between military and security figures.
This raises one of the biggest unanswered questions about the negotiations: whether Iran’s hardline establishment, particularly the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), will ultimately support compromises on Hormuz and the nuclear issue.
For now, the proposed deal looks less like a final peace settlement and more like an attempt to freeze a dangerous conflict before it spirals back into a full-scale war.
