Iran says no deal ‘imminent’ despite progress in talks with U.S.


Iran has warned that an agreement to end the war with the United States was not imminent, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a deal with Tehran was still possible Monday.

President Donald Trump was “not in a hurry” and won’t rush into “a bad deal,” Rubio said, speaking with reporters early Monday on an official visit to the Indian capital New Delhi.

“We’re either going to have a good agreement or we’re going to have to deal with it another way,” Rubio said. “We’d prefer to have a good agreement.”

The U.S. has a “pretty solid thing on the table,” Rubio added. “As I said, we thought we might have some news last night, maybe today.”

The U.S. will give diplomacy every chance to succeed “before we explore the alternatives,” he said, without elaborating.

Trump echoed that message, writing in a social media post hours later that the deal with Iran “will either be a great and meaningful one, or there will be no deal.”

Trump said Sunday that he would not “rush into a deal,” a step back from earlier public statements from Trump and officials from both nations that indicated an announcement may be close.

TOPSHOT-INDIA-US-DIPLOMACY
Rubio and his wife Jeanette at the Taj Mahal in Agra, India on Monday.Julia Demaree Nikhinson / POOL/AFP via Getty Images
INDIA-US-DIPLOMACY
Rubio’s four-day trip includes talks with members from the Indo-Pacific alliance known as the Quad.Julia Demaree Nikhinson / POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Emerging details from the possible memorandum of understanding had drawn pushback, with senior Republican lawmakers warning it could be a “disastrous mistake.”

Trump pushed back against this criticism early Monday, assailing what he termed “Dumocrats, RINOS, and Fools who know nothing about the potential deal.”

Iranian officials were cautious, meanwhile.

Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told reporters the focus of the negotiations was on ending the war and “at this stage we are not discussing the details of the nuclear issue.”

“It’s true that we have reached conclusions on many issues under discussion, but no one can claim that this means an imminent agreement is about to be signed,” Baghaei said, according to comments carried by the hard-line Student News Network.

The agreement in the works does not detail how the Strait of Hormuz will be managed, he said, adding that it should be “a matter for its coastal states.”

Iranians Gather To Commemorate War Dead
Iranians gather in Tehran on Sunday to commemorate those killed in the U.S.-Israeli war and previous conflicts.Majid Saeedi / Getty Images

Tehran’s effective closure of the key waterway has wreaked havoc on global energy markets, but oil prices fell more than $5 to two-week lows on Monday as optimism about a deal grew. The average gas prices in the U.S. dropped slightly to $4.51.

The framework of a potential agreement, according to a senior administration official, would give the two sides 60 days to reach a full peace deal that the official said “will deliver on President Trump’s priorities and ensure the United States and the region are safer and more prosperous going forward.”

The agreement would commit the Iranians to not developing a nuclear weapon, the senior administration official said, and commit them to giving up the “nuclear dust” — Trump’s term for enriched uranium — though it would leave details on how this may happen to talks over the following 60 days.

The official said the framework would also get the Strait of Hormuz “de-mined and back open for business.”

Vessels in the Strait of Hormuz are visible near the beach of Bandar Abbas
Vessels in the Strait of Hormuz are visible near the beach of Bandar Abbas, Iran, on Friday.Majid-Asgaripour / WANA via Reuters

In exchange the U.S. would gradually lift its naval blockade and offer Iran long-sought financial relief for its ailing economy, though the official said this would only happen once Iran followed through on its side of the agreement.

If the deal does go into effect soon, the 60-day window effectively pushes the next ceasefire deadline to late July or early August, depending on when the deal is reached.

That would mean dragging out the war even closer to the November midterm elections, and certainly in the middle of campaign season for some Republicans who want Trump to wrap the conflict up as it drags down the party’s poll numbers.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a key mediator in talks, was in Beijing on Monday to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. There have been growing calls for China to apply more pressure on Iran to end the war, given its significant influence with Tehran.



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