Fresh days after former U.S. President Donald Trump announced a final draft nuclear and war-ending deal with Iran was ready for signing, Tehran made its non-negotiable demands clear on Friday: the Islamic Republic will retain its sovereign right to enrich uranium and maintain full control over the strategic Strait of Hormuz, no matter what final agreement is reached with Washington.
The current negotiations mark weeks of indirect diplomatic talks between the two nations, aimed at ending the full-scale conflict that erupted when U.S. and Israeli forces launched strikes on Iran on February 28. A ceasefire has been in place since April, but intermittent clashes have continued to stoke global fears of a resumption of open war, even as Trump has repeatedly claimed a final agreement is imminent.
Israel, a key U.S. ally in the region, has stated that Trump promised it any deal would require Iran to give up all of its existing enriched nuclear material. But Iran’s official IRNA news agency has flatly rejected this condition, saying such a concession is not even under discussion. According to IRNA, after both sides signed an initial memorandum of understanding, formal detailed negotiations will extend over 60 days, and Tehran will make its right to enrich uranium and retain enriched material a core priority for inclusion in the final text.
Beyond its nuclear demands, Iran is also refusing to cede authority over the Strait of Hormuz, the critical global chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas supplies pass. Since the outbreak of the war, Tehran has blockaded most international traffic through the waterway, only allowing a small number of vessels to transit after receiving approval from Iranian armed forces. IRNA confirmed Friday that the current draft text contains no Iranian commitment to hand over management of the strait or restore pre-war access conditions.
Iran’s state Mehr news agency, citing an anonymous source close to the country’s negotiating team, published details of the draft agreement currently being finalized Friday. The draft would end hostilities across all fronts, including Lebanon, unlock $24 billion in Iranian assets frozen by international sanctions, suspend restrictions on Iranian oil and petrochemical exports, and lift the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports imposed in mid-April. It also requires the U.S. and its allies to pay war reparations to Iran and commit at least $300 billion to post-war reconstruction projects in the country. Final negotiations will not begin until half of Iran’s blocked funds are released, oil sanctions are suspended, and the naval blockade is lifted, the report added.
Trump’s announcement that a draft deal had been approved by Iranian leadership triggered immediate global market shifts: major stock markets rallied on reduced geopolitical risk, while oil prices dropped sharply in response to expectations that Iranian crude would soon return to global markets. The U.S. leader also canceled a planned wave of bombings on Iranian targets Thursday, saying the signing date and location would be announced shortly, and maintained that the fine print of the deal had been approved by the U.S. and its regional allies including Israel. When pressed Friday about whether Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei had signed off on the draft, Trump reaffirmed his position, saying he understood the answer was yes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, has pushed back against Tehran’s current demands. His office confirmed that Netanyahu had spoken with Trump, who repeated his vow that any final deal would include the removal of all Iranian enriched uranium and the dismantling of Iran’s missile infrastructure. “As long as I am the Prime Minister of Israel, Iran will not have nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu reiterated Friday.
Inside Tehran, ordinary Iranian citizens hold mixed views on the potential deal. Many expressed uncertainty over whether an agreement would improve their daily lives. “I don’t know if it will be good or bad for us,” a 29-year-old cafe worker told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity out of fear of government retaliation. “The main purpose of this war was for the US to remove the system and this did not happen. So what does a deal do?” Some locals fear any deal would only strengthen the hold of Iran’s current ruling establishment, leaving ordinary citizens with few tangible benefits.