US and Iranian officials have suggested that they may be closer to reaching a framework agreement to end the war after mediators from Qatar and Pakistan held talks in Tehran .
“There may be news later today. I don’t have news for you at this very moment, but there might be some news a little later today. There may not be. I hope there will be, but I’m not sure yet,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in New Delhi on Saturday.
The mediation efforts come after US President Donald Trump met with top US national security officials to discuss his next steps in the war, including the possibility of resuming fighting .
Rubio said diplomatic efforts remain underway behind the scenes, and Washington remains focused on making sure Iran cannot possess a nuclear weapon and addressing its stockpiles of enriched uranium.
“Even as I speak to you now, there’s some work being done,” Rubio said. “There is a chance that, whether it’s later today, tomorrow, in a couple days, we may have something to say.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign ministry said Tehran has been focused on finalizing a memorandum of understanding through the Pakistani-mediated talks.
That memorandum would focus on ending the war, ending the US naval blockade of Iran and the release of Tehran’s blocked assets overseas, but not its nuclear program, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Saturday.
“Sanctions are definitely part of the negotiation topics, but since we are not discussing the nuclear issue at this stage, there will be no negotiation on the details of lifting sanctions either,” Baghaei was cited as saying by semi-official FARS news agency.
Several regional sources told CNN that there was cautious optimism about negotiations.
“Things are moving in a positive trajectory,” said one regional source.
Another source with knowledge of the talks said, “the deadlock is over,” although it was not immediately clear if this was a reference to a deadlock over key sticking points or more simply on the text of a memorandum.
Chief among the disagreements is what happens to Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, its domestic enrichment program and navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has effectively shut.
After meetings in Tehran on Friday and Saturday, Pakistan’s military chief Field Marshal Asim Munir left for Islamabad late in the afternoon local time.
Baghaei said that 30- and 60-day timeframes had been included in a text of the memorandum, but it had not yet been finalized.
“Over the past week, the viewpoints have been getting closer,” he said. “We must wait and see what will happen in the next three to four days.”
Baghaei said any mechanism concerning the Strait of Hormuz should be agreed between Iran, Oman and the countries bordering the waterway, and that the United States “has nothing to do” with it.
Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, struck a defiant note after his talks with Munir, warning that Iran “will not back down from the rights of our nation and country – especially when dealing with a party that has never shown sincerity and in which no trust exists.”
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“Our armed forces have rebuilt themselves during the ceasefire in such a way that if Trump makes the mistake of restarting the war, it will definitely be more crushing and bitter for America than the first day of the war,” Ghalibaf added, according to a report from Iran’s state broadcaster.
A member of Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Fada Hussain Maleki, in an interview with semi-official agency ISNA, said that “it feels like we are getting closer to a final agreement, but there are still challenges,” adding there would be further talks Saturday.
CNN’s Nic Robertson, Matthew Chance and Becky Anderson contributed to this report.
