Trump claims US and Iran on verge of signing peace agreement, but Tehran says no final decision made

Donald Trump has claimed a deal with Iran is very close, but senior regime officials said a final conclusion had not been reached. Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/CNP/ShutterstockView image in fullscreenDonald Trump has claimed a deal with Iran is very close, but senior regime officials said a final conclusion had not been reached. Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/CNP/ShutterstockIranTrump claims US and Iran on verge of signing peace agreement, but Tehran says no final decision madeIranian leadership has not confirmed claim, after the US president announced that planned strikes on Iran had been cancelled

Donald Trump claimed on Thursday that Washington and Tehran were on the verge of signing a peace agreement, and announced that he was cancelling fresh missile strikes, after two days of escalating attacks on Iran that threatened to collapse the fragile ceasefire.

His comments followed a new bout of public diplomacy by social media, but were dismissed by Iran’s foreign ministry, which said a final decision on an agreement had not been reached.

“Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have, as President of the United States of America, cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, the social network he owns.

While the White House has long sought a peace agreement with Iran – and it would mark a major achievement for this administration – Trump has claimed dozens of times to be close to a deal without any agreement eventuating.

“So far, Iran has not reached a final conclusion on the agreement,” Baghaei said.

Tasnim, the semi-official Iranian news agency, wrote that “until a potential understanding is announced by Iran, any news from Trump on this matter should be dismissed”.

A diplomat briefed on the talks said that the deal had largely been agreed to several weeks ago but that there was still a “50% chance” that it will collapse. “There are a lot of potential spoilers,” the diplomat said.

The new agreement would provide for a timeline for demining the strait of Hormuz, during which the US naval blockade would remain in place. It also discusses mechanisms for further nuclear talks and the release of frozen Iranian assets but does not contain concrete agreements about how that will take place.

Trump however, continued to claim that a deal had been reached, telling reporters at the White House that the strait of Hormuz would open “as soon as we sign, which could be soon … maybe over the weekend in Europe.”

Trump claimed the negotiations had been approved by other parties to the conflict, including Israel, which has been publicly skeptical about any deal with Iran. Others included the Gulf states of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as regional powers Turkey and Pakistan.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that Israel was not a party to the memorandum of understanding with Iran, but the prime minister “expressed his appreciation” for Trump’s commitment that the final deal would include the removal of enriched material, limits on missile production, and the cessation of support for proxies in the region, measures that have proved to be red lines for Iran in the past.