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The United States and Iran appear to be close to signing the first phase of a peace deal, but both sides are giving different timelines for when it will happen.
US President Donald Trump and mediators from Pakistan said the agreement should be signed on Sunday. But Iran’s Foreign Ministry has said it will not be on Sunday – and the exact date has not been specified.
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So, what do we know as the debate enters day 107?
In Iran
Commemorating the first anniversary of the 12-day war, Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Saturday that the Iranian people will stand until “final victory”. “Following the example of the brave and oppressed martyrs of the 12-day war, we will stand until the end with pride and the final victory of our beloved Iran,” Ghalibaf wrote on X.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that Israel’s desire to weaken Iran failed in the 12-day war against Israel last June. The Iran deal forced the adversary to agree to a ceasefire, he said on Saturday.
Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Friday that the agreement has 14 points, the first of which is the lifting of the US blockade on Iranian ports. He said the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) calls for an end to hostilities in all areas, including Lebanon, with an agreement not to start a war or use force.
Discussions of war
Trump wrote on Truth Social that after signing the agreement, the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil channel blocked by Iran, will be “open to all”. “The agreement must be signed tomorrow, and once it is signed, the Strait of Hormuz is OPEN TO ALL,” a post on Trump’s Truth Social platform read on Saturday.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Saturday that the date of the signing had not been determined, but “it is not tomorrow.” However, he added: “The possibility of this happening in the coming days cannot be ruled out.”
The “finalization” of the agreement is expected “within the next 24 hours,” Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Saturday at X, adding that it would be signed electronically, without going into detail or explaining what it would entail.
Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, speaking from Washington, DC, said that the US president said that the memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran will be signed approximately. “Now, the agenda of the president of the United States is set for Sunday. There has been no mention of the actual signing ceremony. However, we may be extended,” he said.
Al Jazeera’s Almigdad Alruhaid, reporting from Tehran, said the path to a deal is closer than ever, but the final decision to sign the deal has not been announced by Iranian officials. “Now it has been 24 hours since Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the Iranian people are reviewing the draft of the memorandum of understanding,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who launched the war alongside the US in February, said Trump had promised him any deal that would include removing nuclear weapons.
In the US
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Saturday that Iran had “launched several drones in an attempt to hit commercial ships passing through the Strait (of Hormuz)”. It added that “US forces have shot them all down in recent hours.”
Democratic lawmakers have expressed skepticism about Trump’s proposal, with one secretary calling the potential deal a “commitment letter”. “The president says the war is over. I hope he’s right,” Adam Schiff, a California senator, said on X. “But we’ve heard it before.
In Lebanon, Israel
Al Jazeera’s Heidi Pett, reporting from Beirut, said Israel’s attacks on Lebanon are continuing despite reports of an imminent deal with Iran. In the town of Deir ez-Zahrani, in the town of Deir ez-Zahrani, there was shelling that killed two people in Nabatieh province.” The mayor of a town called Rihan in the Jezzine region was killed this morning, and one person was killed in a cemetery south of the city of Tire. “Hezbollah has also said it has been fighting Israeli forces that have been trying to advance.”
The Israeli military says sirens are sounding in northern Israel following a “bad plane entry”. It added that “two suspicious terrorist attacks in Israeli territory were identified near the Israel-Lebanon border.”
The proposed deal has also led to early withdrawal from Israel, with some saying it will empower Iran. “The only event whose power exceeds the military victories we have achieved in recent years against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran is the political defeat we have suffered since,” Israeli columnist Ben Caspit wrote in Maariv.
