American and Iranian negotiators believe they have arrived at a draft agreement.
\nPresident Donald Trump announced “major combat operations” against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israeli strikes targeting military, government, and infrastructure sites.
\nFollowing the announcement of a two-week ceasefire, initial U.S.-Iran talks in Pakistan in April failed to reach a peace deal.
\nTrump later announced the open-ended extension of the ceasefire and the continuation of a U.S. blockade until negotiations are concluded “one way or the other.”
\nAfter meeting with his team in the Situation Room for about two hours on Friday to make a “final determination” about a deal with Iran, President Donald Trump has yet to announce a decision.
\nFollowing the meeting, a White House official said in a statement, “President Trump will only make a deal that is good for America and satisfies his redlines. Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon.”
\nIt is not clear why the president still has not announced a decision.
\n-ABC News’ Mary Bruce and Michelle Stoddart
\nThe U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned the Persian Gulf Strait Authority – the entity created by Iran to manage and charge for passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
\nPrior to this move, the Treasury Department had already warned that providing payment to the PGSA for passage through the strait could open the payer up to sanctions risks, and that firms that facilitate financing could be subject to secondary sanctions. The move to formalize the sanctions is a potential sign the administration could seek to step up enforcement of the penalties.
\nPresident Donald Trump’s meeting in the Situation Room about the possible draft deal with Iran has ended, according to a White House official.
\nPresident Donald Trump said he will be meeting in the White House Situation Room “now” to make a “final determination” regarding Iran.
\n“Iran must agree that they will never have a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb. The Hormuz Strait must be immediately open, no tolls, for unrestricted shipping traffic, in both directions. All water mines (bombs), if any, will be terminated,” Trump said in a post on social media Friday.
\nTrump also suggested that the U.S. will unearth and destroy Iran’s enriched material, which he said is buried deep underground after the U.S.’s bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities last year.
\n“No money will be exchanged, until further notice. Other items, of far less importance, have been agreed to. I will be meeting now, in the Situation Room, to make a final determination,” Trump added.
\n#IranDeal #Trump #USIran #SituationRoom #NuclearWeapons #StraitOfHormuz #Sanctions #MiddleEast #Diplomacy #WhiteHouse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
American and Iranian negotiators believe they have arrived at a draft agreement. President Donald Trump announced “major combat operations” against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israeli strikes targeting military, government, and infrastructure sites. Following the announcement of a two-week ceasefire, initial U.S.-Iran talks in Pakistan in April failed to reach a peace deal. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}