United States President Donald Trump has instructed his diplomatic team to slow down negotiations with Iran to ensure a flawless agreement, while Iranian officials have echoed that a final deal is not yet imminent.
United States President Donald Trump has ordered American diplomats to temper their timeline and take the necessary time to perfect an emerging peace agreement with Iran. In a statement published on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, May 24, 2026, Trump emphasized that while bilateral discussions are advancing in an orderly and constructive manner, the high stakes of the Middle East conflict require an absolute lack of procedural errors. The president’s shift toward a more cautious timeline effectively cooled intense global speculation over the weekend that a comprehensive treaty to end the three-month-old war and fully reopen the blockaded Strait of Hormuz was on the verge of being signed.
In Tehran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry mirrored this measured outlook during a Monday morning press conference, confirming that while a large portion of the administrative text has been successfully concluded, substantial diplomatic hurdles remain. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei explicitly pushed back against assertions that a final signing ceremony was hours away, attributing the friction to erratic shifts in Washington’s diplomatic messaging. Baqaei disclosed that the core of the active deliberations centers on a 14-article memorandum framework mediated by Pakistan, which outlines a phased approach: an immediate cessation of the U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports running concurrently with Tehran ensuring unhindered, safe maritime passage through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Providing further operational context from New Delhi, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio clarified that the proposed agreement functions as a foundational memorandum of understanding rather than a finalized, legally binding treaty. Rubio described the proposal currently on the table as a “pretty solid” roadmap that has garnered extensive multilateral backing from Arab Gulf states, though he reemphasized that the Trump administration will not settle for an inadequate pact. According to senior Western diplomats, the highly sensitive and technical elements regarding Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities and the disposition of its stockpiled uranium are slated to be cordoned off into a separate 60-day negotiation track, allowing both nations to prioritize immediate maritime de-escalation first.
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