WASHINGTON – The United States and Iran have reached a preliminary deal to extend their ceasefire by 60 days and discuss the future of Tehran’s nuclear programme, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, buoying hopes for a resolution to a three-month conflict that has killed thousands and roiled the global economy.
The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are private, confirmed an earlier report from Axios.
US President Donald Trump has yet to agree to the terms.
Both countries have previously hailed progress, with Mr Trump repeatedly indicating the US was close to securing an agreement – only for the standoff to drag on.
Underscoring the tension, Mr Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament and a key figure in Iran’s wartime leadership, said on May 29 “we have no trust in guarantees or words”.
“The only criterion is action; no action will be taken before the other side acts,” he said in a post on X. “The winner of any agreement is the one who is better prepared for war the day after.”
US Vice-President J.D. Vance said the potential breakthrough still hangs on Mr Trump’s approval.
Mr Trump remained notably silent early on May 29, despite US sources saying a deal just needed his sign-off.
“It’s hard to say exactly when or if the President is going to sign the MOU,” Mr Vance told reporters on May 28. “We’re going back and forth on a couple of language points. We’ve made a lot of progress here.”
Should an agreement be finalised, it could give Mr Trump an off-ramp from a war that has driven up oil prices and grown deeply unpopular at home.
It could also eventually allow Iran to regain access to frozen overseas assets and provide a route for Iran to get billions of dollars of oil revenue flowing again.
The potential deal would see shipping through the strait be unrestricted, with no tolls or harassment, while Iran would remove mines within 30 days and the US would lift its naval blockade if commercial traffic resumes, according to US media reports.
But Iran has not confirmed any commitments to a deal, and sources have told Iranian media that any agreement unilaterally announced by Mr Trump would not be recognised.
On May 29, Iran’s Tasnim news agency, citing a source, said the text had not yet been finalised, and that the wording of the potential memorandum of understanding had “undergone some changes in recent days”.
The role of Qatar in talks has grown, and the Gulf nation’s state news agency said late on May 28 that Mr Trump had called its ruler to discuss the “latest updates” on efforts to end the war.
Doha hosted Iranian officials this week as regional nations push for a resolution to the US-Iran war despite a fragile ceasefire that has held since April 8.
As the backroom diplomacy continues, Washington and Tehran have accused each other of violating the truce, with US strikes on the southern Iranian port of Bandar Abbas this week countered by retaliatory Iranian fire.
Tehran responded to US strikes by targeting “the American air base that served as the source of the attack”, state broadcaster IRIB reported, citing the Revolutionary Guards.
The Guards did not specify the location of the base, but Kuwait, which hosts US troops, said its air defences 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 also fired at four ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz without authorisation, IRIB reported on May 28. Iran has blockaded the waterway since the war began.
US forces said they intercepted five attack drones in and around the strait, and prevented the launch of a sixth near Bandar Abbas.
A US official said the actions were “measured” and “intended to preserve the ceasefire”.
Iran’s Guards threatened a “firm response” to any renewed attacks.
Iranian state TV said on May 29 that 24 ships had transited the Strait of Hormuz in the last 24 hours, in coordination with the Revolutionary Guards and the Iranian Foreign Ministry.
But it warned that “ships from hostile countries face a severe response” from the Iranian military.
On the war’s Lebanon front, the country’s culture minister said on May 29 that Israel struck a mediaeval castle that overlooks the southern city of Nabatieh, warning that other heritage sites were in “serious danger”.
“Bombings fell very close to the ruins of Tyre”, a UNESCO World Heritage site, Mr Ghassan Salame said, adding that the medieval Beaufort castle in the Nabatieh area was “directly hit”.
Israeli forces used the castle, also known as Qalaat al-Chakif, as a base during their previous two-decade occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in 2000.
A ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah was supposed to have taken effect on April 17 but has never been observed.
Both sides accuse each other of violating it and justify their attacks by the other camp’s alleged breaches.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war in early March when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel over the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in US-Israeli attacks, prompting Israeli strikes and a ground invasion.
On Thursday, Israel pounded south Lebanon with deadly strikes and widened its offensive with the first raid near Beirut in weeks, where authorities said a woman and two children were killed despite the truce. BLOOMBERG, AFP
