The United States and Iran have agreed on the precise language of a peace agreement aimed at ending their war in the Middle East, Pakistan’s prime minister announced Friday, bringing the two countries closer to a formal settlement than at any point since hostilities began and raising cautious hopes that one of the most destabilizing conflicts in recent memory may be approaching its end.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose government has taken the lead in brokering the negotiations, confirmed that both sides had reached a “final, agreed upon text” of the proposed deal and that mediators were actively working with Washington and Tehran on the steps needed to complete the process. “Peace has never been this close as it is now,” Sharif wrote on X.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi echoed that assessment the same day, writing on X that an agreement “has never been closer,” a post that U.S. President Donald Trump then shared on his own social media platform in what observers interpreted as a signal of American optimism about the outcome.
What We Know So Far
The agreement being negotiated, referred to in diplomatic circles as the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, is structured in two stages, Araghchi confirmed in a live interview on Iranian state television, details of which were carried by the semi-official Fars news agency. The first stage covers the immediate cessation of hostilities and reopening of vital shipping routes. The second stage, for which a 60-day negotiation window has been set, will address the more complex questions of Iran’s nuclear program and the lifting of international sanctions.
The war began on February 28 when the U.S. and Israel launched military operations and has since caused severe disruption to global energy markets by effectively shutting down oil and natural gas shipments from the Persian Gulf. A fragile ceasefire took hold on April 7 but largely collapsed this week when both sides resumed strikes, adding urgency to the push for a permanent arrangement.
Three regional officials with direct knowledge of the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the talks, told the Associated Press and NBC News that the emerging deal is also expected to include the phased lifting of sanctions on Iran and the release of frozen Iranian assets, and that a formal signing ceremony could take place within days pending final approvals in both Washington and Tehran.
The final authorization from Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei remains the last outstanding requirement, according to sources familiar with the agreement’s status. Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei confirmed Friday that Iran was in the “final stages of internal deliberations” but declined to specify where or when a signing might occur. “We must first wait for a final decision to be made internally,” Baghaei said, according to Fars.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led the Iranian delegation during talks with the U.S. in Islamabad in April, posted a pointed message on X. “Commitments made must be commitments kept. No ifs, no buts, no excuses. For the close deal ahead, there is no other way,” he wrote.
What Authorities Are Saying
A senior U.S. administration official, briefing reporters under White House ground rules that required anonymity, confirmed Friday that the emerging agreement would begin the process of destroying or removing Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which is believed to be stored beneath three nuclear sites damaged by American strikes last year. The official said the 60-day window following the initial signing would be used to work out the technical arrangements for that removal but did not specify which entity the U.S. envisions taking physical custody of the material.
Vice President JD Vance pushed back against what he characterized as deliberate distortions of the deal’s terms circulating on social media. “The Iranians are not receiving any cash, and no funds are being released for simply signing a deal or attending a meeting,” Vance wrote on X, adding that economic benefits would flow to Iran only after it honored its commitments.
Trump, speaking to Axios by phone, said he still expected a signing to occur over the weekend or on Monday, despite publicly condemning what he described as fabricated information released by Iranian state media about the deal’s contents. He said Iranian officials had privately apologized for the misleading statements. In an earlier post on Truth Social, Trump stated that the terms Iran’s media described “bear no relation to the truth.”
Iranian Major General Mohsen Rezaie, a military adviser to Supreme Leader Khamenei and former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said in a separate account carried by the Young Journalists Club, which is affiliated with Iranian state television, that Trump had privately agreed to release $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets but was unwilling to acknowledge it publicly. The report offered no supporting documentation, and U.S. officials did not immediately address the claim.
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina expressed measured relief after Trump denied the Iranian state media version of events. “I am very glad to hear from the president that Iranian media reports about the so-called deal are fake because the deal as described by Iran would be awful,” Graham posted on X.
Why This Matters
The stakes attached to this negotiation extend far beyond the two countries directly involved. The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran imposed during the war, has created cascading disruptions throughout the global economy. Fuel prices have risen sharply, food costs have climbed across import-dependent nations in Asia and Africa, and shipping insurance rates have reached levels not seen since the early 1980s. A deal that reopens the strait would send immediate relief through commodity markets worldwide.
NBC News, citing a regional source, a person familiar with the agreement, and a diplomat with direct knowledge of the text, reported that the memorandum would require the strait to reopen immediately upon signing without tolls, with prewar shipping conditions restored within approximately 30 days, and the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports lifted as part of the arrangement.
Araghchi complicated that picture somewhat by insisting in his state television interview that Iran intends to charge service fees for ships transiting the strait going forward. “Under international law, it is not possible to levy a toll on passage through the Strait of Hormuz, but charges for services provided will be collected,” he said, according to Fars. He added that Iran and Oman would jointly issue a statement formalizing the new administrative arrangement for the waterway.
That position puts Tehran on a potential collision course with Washington and international maritime law, and suggests the strait question, while provisionally resolved enough to permit a deal, remains a source of longer-term friction that could resurface in the second-stage negotiations.
The involvement of Israel adds another layer of complexity that the current framework does not fully resolve. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed Friday that Israel is not a party to the negotiations and that he and Trump were in full agreement that Iran must not acquire nuclear weapons. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz went further, warning that Israel reserves the right to act independently against Iran and would not withdraw from any of the territories it currently occupies in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, or the West Bank.
Araghchi stated explicitly during his state television interview that the end of the war must include Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, a condition that Israel has already publicly rejected. Whether Washington can bridge that gap, or whether the initial agreement will simply defer it, is one of the most consequential unresolved questions surrounding the deal.
What Happens Next
The deal’s architecture, as described by multiple officials and sources, calls for an immediate ceasefire on all fronts upon signing, a 60-day formal negotiation period to address nuclear and sanctions questions, and a reconstruction fund to address war-related damage in Iran. The agreement also contains provisions for the U.S. and Iran to respect each other’s sovereignty, Araghchi confirmed.
Pakistan’s mediation role, led operationally by Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and supported diplomatically by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, and Qatar, has been the scaffolding holding the process together. Sharif also cautioned Friday that an active misinformation campaign was underway to derail the agreement, though he declined to name the parties responsible.
A signing ceremony involving Vice President Vance has been discussed, NBC News reported, though the White House did not confirm those arrangements. Araghchi said the full 14-point memorandum would be shared with the public in its entirety once finalized.
What remains genuinely uncertain is whether the political will on all sides, including in Tel Aviv, where Israeli leaders retain significant leverage over American domestic politics, will hold long enough to convert the agreed text into a durable framework. The two months it reportedly took negotiators to produce a document shorter than two pages, as Araghchi noted, is itself a measure of how many competing interests are packed into every line.
If it holds, the Islamabad agreement would represent the most significant diplomatic achievement of Trump’s second term and one of the most consequential de-escalation agreements in Middle Eastern history. If it fractures, the region faces the very real prospect of a return to full-scale war with global consequences that no party to the conflict appears fully prepared to manage.
NBC/AP
