
Trump Claims Iran Deal ‘Largely Negotiated’ Amid Republican Pushback Over Terms
President Donald Trump announced Saturday evening that a peace agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran had been “largely negotiated” — stopping well short of declaring a completed deal and offering no specifics about its terms, even as a chorus of Republican voices warned that the emerging framework would squander the gains of the military campaign against Tehran.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he had convened an Oval Office call with leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain, followed by a separate conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. He said the discussions centered on a Memorandum of Understanding pertaining to peace and cited the opening of the Strait of Hormuz as one element, but provided no further details.
“An Agreement has been largely negotiated, subject to finalization,” Trump wrote, adding that “final aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly.”
What those details are — or whether the parties can actually agree on them — remains unclear.
The announcement landed just hours after Trump himself cast serious doubt on whether any agreement was within reach. In an interview with Axios earlier Saturday, he put the odds of reaching a “good” deal at “a solid 50/50,” with the alternative being, in his words, to “blow them to kingdom come.” He said he would meet with chief negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, along with Vice President JD Vance, to review Iran’s latest offer before making a decision he expected to reach by Sunday.
The afternoon was marked by frantic regional diplomacy. Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir, who had been mediating between Washington and Tehran, departed Iran on Saturday after meeting with senior officials there. Islamabad described the talks as showing “encouraging progress toward a final understanding” but acknowledged that no deal had been finalized.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said from Tehran that the two sides were in the “final stage” of discussions on an MOU framework that would address the Strait of Hormuz, the lifting of a U.S. blockade, and frozen Iranian assets — followed by a 30-to-60-day period of more detailed negotiations. Iran separately said that nuclear issues were not part of the current negotiations at all — a direct collision with the terms Trump and his secretary of state have publicly insisted upon.
Trump’s apparent pivot toward a deal triggered sharp pushback from prominent members of his own party.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said he was “deeply concerned” about what he was hearing, warning that if the military campaign — which he credited with “destroying all of their missiles and drones and sinking their entire navy” — resulted in an Iran “still run by Islamists who chant ‘death to America,’ now receiving billions of dollars, being able to enrich uranium and develop nuclear weapons, and having effective control over the Strait of Hormuz, then that outcome would be a disastrous mistake.” Cruz noted that he was still waiting on details, but added that former Obama-era Iran negotiator Rob Malley’s reported praise of the deal was “not encouraging.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned that a deal struck on the premise that the Strait of Hormuz cannot be protected from Iranian threats would represent “a major shift of the balance of power in the region” and would over time become “a nightmare for Israel.” His post was amplified by the Senate Republicans’ official account and by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was more blunt, warning that “the rumored 60-day ceasefire — with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith — would be a disaster.” He added: “Everything accomplished by Operation Epic Fury would be for naught.” On Friday, Wicker had blamed unnamed Trump advisers for pushing the president toward “a deal that would not be worth the paper it is written on,” warning that “further pursuit of an agreement with Iran’s Islamist regime risks a perception of weakness.”
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who served under Trump in his first term, went further, likening the reported terms to the Obama administration’s 2015 nuclear deal and calling them “straight out of the Wendy Sherman-Robert Malley-Ben Rhodes playbook.” He said the emerging framework was “not remotely America First.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday there had been “some progress” in talks and hinted that news could come later in the day. But he reiterated that Iran must surrender its enriched uranium stockpile, can “never” possess a nuclear weapon, and that the Strait must be reopened “without tolls” — positions that remain far from Iran’s stated terms and that any preliminary MOU would likely defer rather than resolve.
The Republican dissent over the deal comes amid broader congressional turbulence over the Iran war. The Senate this week advanced a war powers resolution that would end the conflict absent congressional authorization, in a 50-47 vote that reflected a small but growing bloc of Republicans willing to challenge the president. A similar House vote, which observers said had the votes to pass, was abruptly canceled by Republican leadership and pushed off until after the Memorial Day recess.