The United States and Iran are approaching an agreement to extend the ceasefire

WashingtonThe United States and Iran are showing themselves this Friday closer than ever to closing a preliminary agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and extend the ceasefire for 60 days. Both sides are optimistic about the possibility of closing at least part of the agreement, but at the same time they exhibit great mistrust and make it clear that they remain far apart in numerous aspects, which suggests that there may still be surprises. Trump met for two hours in the White House crisis room, but although he had said he would make a "final decision", he left without announcements.

It should be noted that, over the past few weeks, there have been announcements and denials on several occasions, as happened in April with the first ceasefire. In recent days, the same situation has been repeated: Iran has announced a preliminary agreement that the United States has subsequently denied, and vice versa.

In this vein, the main Iranian negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has said that he does not trust the words of the United States. "We do not trust guarantees or words, only actions," he wrote on the social network X. In the same vein, the Iranian state agency Fars says that Iranian sources describe Trump's words as "a mix of truths and lies".

The mistrust shown by both sides towards the other makes it seem very complicated for the agreement to remain in force, to be fulfilled, and to advance in the direction promised by the United States. Furthermore, this is the point of maximum approximation that the two countries have reached in weeks, in a war that began on February 28 and has already caused at least 3,000 deaths in Iran and a dozen American casualties.

One of the points of friction is the formula for materializing the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has been insisting for weeks that it is essential to reach an agreement that will allow maritime traffic to be reactivated through this route and find a way out of the global economic crisis, but so far he has not achieved it. 20% of the world's oil and natural gas transit passes through the strait, and the fact that it has been practically closed since the beginning of the war between the United States and Israel against Iran keeps the markets tense. In a message on Truth Social, Trump demanded the immediate opening of the strait, without tolls or restrictions, in both directions: "All mines (bombs), if any, must be removed (we have removed many through detonations with our minesweeper ships)".

Iran has responded by assuring that this point was not included in the draft agreement. The same sources stated that Trump had also not mentioned other important parts of the draft, such as the release of billions of dollars in Iranian assets frozen in the United States and a total ceasefire in Lebanon.

On Wednesday, Trump again made his impatience regarding the strait clear when he threatened to "explode" Oman after it emerged that Iran and this Gulf emirate, an ally of the United States, were negotiating to jointly charge a toll to ships transiting through Hormuz. The strait is in Iranian and Omani waters and Tehran justified that both countries had to "adopt a mechanism" that would protect the security and interests of both.

Iranian uranium, another point of dispute

Another of the issues that continues to divide the two parties is what to do with the enriched Iranian uranium, which is why both have postponed this issue to a later phase of the negotiations. Nevertheless, Trump has insisted that this issue is essential. "Iran must accept that it will never have a nuclear weapon or bomb," he wrote on Truth Social, emphasizing that the United States will extract the uranium "in coordination with Iran" and destroy it.

However, Iran continues to show itself to be very far from this position. The spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmaeil Baghaei, told Iranian public radio and television that the nuclear issue is outside the negotiations, which are currently "focused on ending the war." U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance confirmed on Friday that the two parties continue to disagree on Tehran's enriched uranium reserves.

While the United States and Iran were evaluating the preliminary agreement, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar to discuss Pakistan's role as a mediator in the conflict. "We have agreed on the importance of working together to further strengthen the agreement in favor of greater security and prosperity for both nations."