The United States and Iran are expected to finalize a deal Sunday that would extend their fragile ceasefire, paving the way for a longer truce, President Donald Trump and Pakistan’s prime minister said — though Tehran appeared to cast doubt on the prospect.
The possible deal represents the closest the two sides have come to ending their four-month war, which has fueled a spiraling global oil crisis and comes after one of the most intense weeks of conflict since the ceasefire began in April.
“The Deal is scheduled to get signed tomorrow, and immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL,” Trump said Saturday in a social media post on his Truth Social site.
Shehbaz Sharif, prime minister of mediator Pakistan, said in a post on X that the two sides were “closer to a peace deal than ever before,” with finalization “likely expected” by Sunday. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry echoed that timing in a social media post Saturday morning.
However, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said no agreement would be signed Sunday, although he did not rule it out in the days ahead, according to comments posted by state-run media outlets.
An Iranian media outlet closely affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps criticized what it described as Trump’s “unusual insistence” on a Sunday signing, noting that Iranian officials had not endorsed the timeline and suggesting that the U.S. president was seeking to secure a deal that would coincide with his 80th birthday, which is also Sunday.
Trump and Sharif’s apparent confirmation of the imminent agreement come a day after officials from the United States, Iran and Pakistan outlined the proposed ceasefire deal. In addition to haggling over signing logistics, the two sides also appeared to differ over key aspects of terms to ensure longer-term peace.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Tehran had confirmed the signing timeline.
Trump is eager to end the unpopular war, but he is also under political pressure from critics, including those on the right, who say he did not complete his stated objectives.
Trump, in a post criticizing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal with Iran during President Barack Obama’s tenure, said that the United States would retrieve nuclear materials from Iran at “an appropriate time” and that he “looks forward” to working with Tehran.
“Hopefully, this process will all work out quickly, easily, and smoothly. If it doesn’t, we have the ultimate alternative, hopefully never to be used again!” he said.
Sharif wrote on social media Friday that the “agreed upon text of the peace deal has been reached.” Pakistan has acted as the main mediator between Washington and Tehran since the ceasefire was declared in April.
A senior Trump administration official confirmed in a call with reporters Friday that the two sides were 80 to 85 percent of the way to reaching a deal but added that there was still uncertainty that the Iranians would agree.
Hours later, U.S. Central Command said it downed multiple Iranian attack drones attempting to strike commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Since last weekend, the conflict has intensified, as Israel carried out airstrikes in southern Beirut, targeting the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. Iran fired missiles Sunday at Israel, which then retaliated, and Iranian forces downed a U.S. helicopter in the strait Monday.
On Saturday morning there was a flurry of diplomatic activity, as regional countries appeared to endorse the upcoming deal and Tehran’s allies were briefed of the plans.
Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani expressed “great satisfaction” with work on the final text of the agreement during a call with Sharif, while Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud voiced similar sentiments in a separate call with Pakistan’s deputy prime minister, Mohammad Ishaq Dar, according to Pakistani readouts released Saturday.
Meanwhile, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, convened a meeting with the ambassadors of key allies China and Russia to discuss the memorandum, according to Iranian media.
Officials suggested that the initial deal would extend the ceasefire for 60 days, during which time Iran would be expected to reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz and work with the United States to dismantle nuclear material in the country that could be used to create a weapon. In exchange, Iran would eventually receive relief from sanctions and the U.S. blockade, as well as access to billions of dollars in frozen assets — but would have to reach certain benchmarks that would be set through further negotiations.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told state media Friday that he was “hopeful” about the prospects of a deal, but some of the terms he described differed — including the future of the Strait of Hormuz.
He said Iran would not impose tolls on vessels transiting the waterway but suggested a legal framework could include “service fees,” without explaining he distinction. He said the entire agreement might only be two pages long and affirmed that it would initially be signed digitally.
Araghchi also said the agreement included a pledge from the United States not to attack Iran in the future — a concession that Tehran has long demanded.
The nearly four-month war has strangled global shipments of oil, gas and other commodities through the strait and driven a global spike in energy prices.
As expectations of an imminent deal grew Saturday, Iranian state media outlets also announced dates for the funeral proceedings of the late supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a joint U.S.-Israeli airstrike during the opening days of the war. His funeral had originally been scheduled for March but was postponed amid intense fighting.
Israel is not party to the negotiations, and the extent to which Israel’s clashes with Hezbollah in Lebanon could derail any agreement also remains unclear. On Saturday, Israel ordered residents of towns and villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate and said it had intercepted a “hostile aerial target” that had crossed into Israeli airspace from Lebanon.
Experts have said that substantial agreements for a longer-term peace appear only far on the horizon, and the terms remain uncertain.
Mohammed Baharoon, the director general of B’huth, a Dubai research center, said he believes that immediate steps taken by either the U.S. or Iran will be about “confidence-building” for future negotiations — and still leave both countries further apart than they were when negotiations began under the second Trump administration in April 2025.
Baharoon said attacks in the past week by Iran have made clear Trump’s relative weakness and the strength of hard-liners in Iran’s government, who now see themselves as “the policemen of the Arab world.”
“The ones who have benefited from this are the hard-liners in Israel and Iran,” he said.
Adam Taylor and Suzan Haidamous contributed to this report.
The post U.S. and Iran to close deal within a day, Trump says, but Tehran yet to confirm appeared first on Washington Post.
