Donald Trump met top aides in the White House Situation Room on Friday to make a final determination on a framework meant to extend the ceasefire with Iran, but the meeting ended late without a clear next step.
That uncertainty is why Trump Iran News is drawing attention now: the president had only hours earlier laid out his conditions publicly, saying Iran must agree to never have a nuclear weapon or bomb, that the Strait of Hormuz should reopen to unrestricted shipping traffic in both directions, and that any mines in the waterway should be terminated. He also said he was prepared to lift the US naval blockade and let ships caught in the strait start heading home, but he insisted that Iran allow the US to remove and destroy its enriched uranium and that no money would be exchanged until further notice.
The meeting mattered because Thursday's reported framework would have extended the current ceasefire for 60 days and opened talks on the future of Iran's nuclear programme, pending approval from Trump and Iran's leadership. A White House official told CBS that Trump would only make a deal that was good for America and met his red lines, a line that helps explain why the Friday session ended without a public decision.
The friction point was visible on Saturday. Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency said the blockade on Iranian shipping was still in place, with vessels still being prevented from crossing the blockade line and continuing to receive warnings from US forces. At the same time, Tehran said it was not negotiating over its nuclear programme and maintained that the programme is entirely peaceful, leaving the gap between Trump's words and the reality at sea wide open.
Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, sharpened the dispute on X, writing that the president of the United States was betraying diplomacy for the third time. He said Trump was continuing the naval blockade and making excessive demands in negotiations, while Iran's Fars news agency cited informed sources as saying the latest US comments were a mixture of truth and lies and that there was no provision to destroy nuclear materials in the memorandum of understanding.
Since the ceasefire took effect on 8 April, Trump has repeatedly suggested that the United States and Iran were close to a deal. What Friday showed is that closeness is not the same as agreement: both sides still need to sign off, the shipping restrictions remain in place, and the most sensitive part of the bargain — Iran's nuclear programme — is still unresolved.
