TEHRAN/WASHINGTON: Iran is reviewing a proposed agreement with the US to halt their war but has not communicated with Washington for a few days, Iranian media reported on Tuesday, though US President Donald Trump said negotiations had been going on continuously. More than three months after the US and the Zionist entity launched strikes against Iran, the conflict is stuck in a stalemate, with a shaky ceasefire in place while the pivotal Strait of Hormuz remains largely shut to maritime traffic.
Iran has not yet responded to a proposed final text of a temporary deal, and was taking a “stern” approach given what it sees as a history of US non-compliance and longstanding mistrust, Mehr News Agency cited a source as saying. The semi-official Fars agency, also citing a source, added that messages on the possible deal, or memorandum of understanding, had stopped a few days ago, with the last one being Tehran’s “clear message” over Lebanon, where Iran is seeking a halt to the Zionist entity’s incursion against its ally Hezbollah.
Trump said that suggestion was “false and erroneous” and that the conversations between the two sides had continued without a pause. “The conversations between us have been going on continuously, including four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago, and today,” he said in a social media post. He made similar comments on Monday, before the Iranian report.
Iranians sit on Suru Beach in Bandar Abbas along the Strait of Hormuz on June 1, 2026.
Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Tuesday that 24 vessels had transited the strait in the past 24 hours, after obtaining permission from the Guards’ navy. Trump said on Monday there would be a deal over the next week to extend a ceasefire agreed in early April and reopen the strait. Since mid-March, he has repeatedly said he is close to a deal, which would postpone thorny issues including the future of Iran’s nuclear program.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers on Tuesday that Iran had agreed to negotiate aspects of its nuclear program that it previously refused to discuss, but added that was not a guarantee that negotiations would lead to a deal. Trump has said stopping Iran acquiring nuclear weapons was his top priority. Iran has always denied wanting to build a nuclear bomb, saying its atomic program is for peaceful purposes only.
On Tuesday, the Zionist entity kept up strikes on a string of towns in southern Lebanon, Lebanese security sources said, despite a US-mediated partial ceasefire announced on Monday. But the announcement failed to reassure many Lebanese, 1.2 million of whom have been displaced, and the din of a Zionist drone over Beirut kept residents on edge on Tuesday. – Reuters
