President Trump and administration officials temper expectations of imminent Iran deal, urge broader Middle East normalization
President Donald Trump and senior administration officials are downplaying prospects for an immediate agreement to end hostilities with Iran, while calling for additional Middle Eastern nations to normalize relations with Israel as part of any potential deal. Iranian officials have also signaled lingering disagreements on key issues.
Trump backtracks on deal timeline
Trump, who said Saturday that the United States and Iran had "largely negotiated" a memorandum of understanding that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, backed away from the idea that a final agreement is imminent. In a Monday morning post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote: "Negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran are proceeding nicely! It will only be a Great Deal for all or, no Deal at all — Back to the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before — And nobody wants that!"
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking Monday in New Delhi, said the United States would "give diplomacy every chance to succeed before we explore the alternatives." Trump and other top administration officials have previously made bold statements about progress in negotiations with Iran, only to have deals fail to materialize.
Republican reactions and Iranian signals
The negotiations have raised concerns among some of Trump’s Republican allies. However, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, a frequent critic of Trump’s Iran policy, praised efforts to reach a deal Sunday: "War virtually always ends with negotiations. Critics of President Trump's peace negotiations should give President Trump the space to find an American First solution."
Iran has not officially commented on the proposed agreement. But semi-official news agencies, often used for Iranian leadership messaging, have reported that disputes over "one or two" issues were jeopardizing the potential deal. According to the Associated Press, an Iranian delegation led by parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf traveled to Qatar on Monday for talks. Qalibaf led negotiations with Vice President JD Vance in Pakistan last month.
On Monday, Tasnim news agency, close to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, accused the United States of "obstructionism" over the release of some frozen Iranian funds in exchange for lifting restrictions on transit through the Strait of Hormuz. The news agency also said the agreement being negotiated called on Iran to restore the number of ships transiting through the waterway to pre-war levels within 30 days, and for the United States to completely lift its blockade within the same period. Another state-backed agency, ISNA, reported that Iran would insist on administering the strait jointly with Oman. The two countries share the narrow waterway, with transit passage governed by United Nations law of the seas.
Normalization with Israel added as condition
Trump has added a "mandatory" request that countries normalize relations with Israel as part of any final deal. Vessels were anchored off the coast of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates on May 21, 2026, according to an image from Agence France-Presse via Getty Images.
Context: The current negotiations follow a pattern of U.S.-Iran talks collapsing after initial optimism, including the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, from which Trump withdrew in 2018. Similar normalization demands were part of the Abraham Accords brokered during Trump’s first term, which saw the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco establish diplomatic ties with Israel.