While the US and Iran have both expressed optimism that they are near an agreement, they have offered differing accounts on what the terms are — including when they are signing the agreement.
Trump says US-Iran agreement will be signed Sunday
President Donald Trump said an agreement with Iran is “scheduled to get signed” on Sunday and would reopen the Strait of Hormuz. CNN’s Julia Benbrook reports Iran has not committed to signing the agreement, and accounts differ on what it would include.
Here’s what they have said:
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday an agreement with Iran “is scheduled to get signed tomorrow,” adding that “immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL.”
He said that “hopefully, this process will all work out quickly, easily, and smoothly” but added that if it doesn’t, “we have the ultimate alternative.”
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a key mediator, said that they are “closer to a peace deal than ever before.” He said on Saturday the terms of the potential agreement could be finalized in the “next 24 hours.”
However, Iran’s military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), denied that Tehran would sign an agreement with the US on Sunday and criticized Trump’s “unusual insistence.”
The IRGC described the timeline as a “test for Iran’s negotiating team” and that Trump’s announcement comes “despite Iranian negotiators explicitly stating that the memorandum has not yet been finalized and that signing on Sunday is definitely not happening.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei also said Saturday that the signing of the framework will “not be tomorrow,” according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency.
“The possibility that it will happen in the coming days is not ruled out,” Baghaei said, according to Tasnim. “However, due to the other party’s instability, we must be cautious about any statements regarding this process.”
CNN’s Mitchell McCluskey, Catherine Nicholls, Mostafa Salem and Julia Benbrook contributed reporting.