US, Iran give mixed signals on truce deal

WASHINGTON/TEHRAN — The US and Iran gave conflicting reports of progress on a potential deal to extend a ceasefire between them on Thursday as the latest strikes tested the fragile truce.

US sources told AFP earlier on Thursday that the two sides had reached an agreement on a 60-day memorandum of understanding to prolong the truce.

But US Vice-President JD Vance said Trump had yet to sign on the dotted line.

"It's hard to say exactly when or if the president is going to sign the MoU," Vance, who has played a key role in the negotiations, told reporters.

"We're going back and forth on a couple of language points. We've made a lot of progress here."

Vance said the Iranians were negotiating in "at least so far in good faith" and both sides wanted to reopen the Straits of Hormuz — but there was still disagreement on Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium.

"Hopefully, we'll continue to make progress and the president will be in a position where he can endorse the agreement, but obviously that's still TBD," meaning to be determined, he added.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent earlier said that "we perhaps have the makings of a deal here", but said some of Trump's red lines had still not been met.

"He's not going to take a bad deal. He's going to make a great deal for the American people," Bessent said in a briefing at the White House.

US sources had earlier confirmed a report by the Axios news outlet that the MoU would open the Strait of Hormuz but leave Iran's nuclear program unresolved, with further talks to follow on the issue.

According to the report, the proposed 60-day MoU would state that shipping through the Strait of Hormuz would be "unrestricted". The MoU would reportedly include an Iranian commitment not to pursue nuclear weapons. It would also state that the first issues to be negotiated during the 60-day window will be how to dispose of Iran's highly enriched uranium and how to address Iranian enrichment.

However, a source close to Iran's negotiating team has denied that the text of the proposed MoU had been finalized, Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported on Thursday, rejecting earlier claims in US media.

The source told Tasnim that reports suggesting the text was merely awaiting a formal announcement by the two sides were "not consistent with the facts", adding that the document "has not yet been finalized".

The Iranian source, rejecting the Axios account, stressed that if an agreement text is ultimately finalized, Iran will formally notify Pakistani mediators and make the matter public.

Until then, any Western reports claiming the agreement has already been completed "lack credibility", the source added.

Claims of violation

Washington and Tehran both accused each other of violating the truce earlier on Thursday following an exchange of fire.

US strikes on the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas prompted Iran to target "the American airbase that served as the source of the attack", state broadcaster IRIB reported, citing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

They did not specify the location of the base, but Kuwait, which hosts US troops, said its air defenses responded to incoming fire.

Kuwait's Foreign Ministry condemned "the criminal Iranian attacks that targeted the territory of the State of Kuwait with missiles and drones, in a dangerous escalation".

US Central Command called the attack an "egregious ceasefire violation".

Iranian forces fired at four ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz without authorization, IRIB reported on Thursday. Iran has blockaded the waterway since the fighting began.

US forces said they had intercepted five attack drones in and around the strait and prevented the launch of a sixth near Bandar Abbas. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei called the US strikes a violation of truce.

Amid conflicting reports on progress toward a potential deal and the exchange of fire, Iran said it has no plans to take highly enriched uranium outside the country, Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, told RIA Novosti on Friday.

"We have no plans to take highly enriched uranium outside the country. We have no intention of transferring our enriched uranium to third countries, intermediaries, or anywhere else," he said.

AGENCIES-XINHUA