• Trump says informed representatives not to rush into deal.
• Tasnim says key clauses of possible deal remained “unresolved”.
• Talks on nuclear issue deferred for 60 days after any deal: Iran.

US President Donald Trump tempered expectations of a Middle East deal by saying he had told his negotiators not to “rush,” even after both Tehran and Washington signalled progress towards an agreement to end the war.

The United States and Iran have observed a ceasefire since April 8 while mediators push for a negotiated settlement, although Iran has imposed controls on Gulf shipping and the US has blockaded Iran’s ports.

The war erupted after the United States and Israel attacked the Islamic Republic on February 28, and Iran responded with missile and drone attacks across the region.

“I have informed my representatives not to rush into a deal in that time is on our side,” Trump said in a social media post Sunday.

“The Blockade will remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified and signed,” he added.

Earlier, Trump had posted that the deal “has been largely negotiated, subject to finali[s]ation between the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the various other Countries.”

Iran’s Tasnim news agency said Sunday its information was that key clauses of a possible agreement remained “unresolved at this time,” including the issue of frozen Iranian assets.

Nuclear issue

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, told The New York Times that an agreement with Iran had garnered regional support but a nuclear deal couldn’t be achieved “in 72 hours on the back of a napkin.”

“Right now, we have seven or eight countries in the region that are endorsing this approach, and we´re prepared to move forward on this approach,” he said.

Earlier, Rubio had said a bargain could be struck to end the regional war as early as Sunday.

But Trump again reined in expectations, posting on social media that “If I make a deal with Iran, it will be a good and proper one” and adding: “It isn’t even fully negotiated yet.”

Staunch Trump ally Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he and the president had agreed that “any final agreement with Iran must eliminate the nuclear threat entirely.”

‘Lasting peace’

Iranian officials confirmed the existence of a draft agreement but stressed that — despite the long-standing US demand for an end to its uranium enrichment — talks on the issue of Iran’s contested nuclear programme have been deferred for 60 days after any deal.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told state television that Tehran was “still prepared to assure the world that we are not seeking nuclear weapons,” but it was unclear if this promise would be enshrined in the text of the deal.

According to Iran’s Fars news agency, “sanctions on oil, gas, petrochemicals and their derivatives would be temporarily lifted during the negotiation period so that Iran can freely sell its products.”

Leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain, as well as representatives from Turkey and Pakistan, joined a call with Trump to discuss the deal on Saturday.

Pakistan, which mediated historic face-to-face negotiations between US and Iranian delegations in April, hopes to host another round of talks “very soon,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said.

He said Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir, who visited Tehran on Friday and Saturday, also joined the call, which “provided a useful opportunity… to move the ongoing peace efforts forward to bring lasting peace in the region.”

US President Donald Trump wrote on Saturday that a memorandum of understanding on a peace deal with Iran is “largely negotiated,” as both countries and mediators in Pakistan reported progress.

Trump posted on social media that the emerging agreement would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping passage whose closure upended global energy markets after the conflict started in February when the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran.

Trump did not say what else would be included in an agreement. “Final aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly,” Trump said.

Iran’s Fars news agency reported early on Sunday that the agreement would allow Iran to manage the Strait of Hormuz. It said Trump’s assertion that an agreement was nearly final was “inconsistent with reality.”

Iran had said earlier on Saturday that it was working toward a memorandum of understanding laying out an approach to ending the war after its top officials met with Pakistan’s Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that the negotiations had resulted in “encouraging” progress towards a final understanding. Two Pakistani sources involved in negotiations said the deal being negotiated is “fairly comprehensive to terminate the war.”

Sources have told Reuters the proposed framework would unfold in three stages: formally ending the war, resolving the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz and launching a 30-day window for negotiations on a broader agreement, which can be extended.

Earlier on Saturday, Trump told Axios that he expected to decide on Sunday whether to resume attacks on Iran. “Either we reach a good deal or I’ll blow them to a thousand hells,” Axios quoted him as saying.

One of the Pakistani sources said there was no guarantee the US would accept the memorandum; if it does, it would lead to further talks after the Eid holiday ends on Friday.

Trump to speak with Middle East leaders

Trump, whose approval ratings have been hit by the war’s impact on energy prices for US consumers, said on Friday he would not attend his son’s wedding this weekend, citing Iran among the reasons he planned to stay in Washington.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that he had a phone call on Saturday with leaders from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan. Axios reported that the leaders encouraged Trump to agree to the emerging framework.

Pakistan has aimed to narrow differences between Iran and the US after weeks of war have left the vital Hormuz waterway closed to most shipping despite a nervous ceasefire.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier on Saturday reiterated Trump’s terms for ending the fighting. “Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. The straits need to be open without tolls. They need to turn over their enriched uranium.”

Rubio, who is visiting India, said some progress had been made and work was continuing.

“Even as I speak to you now, there’s some work being done. There is a chance that, whether it’s later today, tomorrow, in a couple days, we may have something to say,” Rubio told reporters in New Delhi.

US Vice President JD Vance returned to the White House on Saturday afternoon, cutting short a trip to Ohio.

Iran denies it is pursuing nuclear weapons and says it has a right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes. It has demanded supervision of the strait, an end to the US blockade on its ports and the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil sales.

“The trend this week has been towards a reduction in disputes, but there are still issues that need to be discussed through mediators. We will have to wait and see where the situation ends in the next three or four days,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei.

Baghaei said the issue of the US blockade on Iran’s shipping was important, but that its priority was ending the threat of new US attacks and the ongoing conflict in Lebanon, where Iran-allied Hezbollah is fighting Israeli troops who have moved into the south.

CDF Munir left Tehran on Saturday after talks with Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.

Qalibaf said Iran would pursue its “legitimate rights,” both on the battlefield and through diplomacy, but added that it could not trust “a party that has no honesty at all,” an allegation Iran has made several times before.

He said Iran’s armed forces had rebuilt their capabilities during the ceasefire and that, if the US “foolishly restarts the war,” the consequences would be “more forceful and bitter” than at the start of the conflict.

Despite weeks of conflict, Iran has preserved its stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium as well as missile, drone and proxy capabilities.

• Rubio says US immigration reforms are not aimed at India.
• Every country in the world has stupid people, says Rubio.
• Jaishankar says legal mobility should not suffer under US rules.
  

NEW DELHI: India voiced concern on Sunday over a US visa crackdown, striking a rare critical note even as it expressed broad alignment with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on other fractious issues.

Paying his first visit to India, Rubio said the two democracies were on the same page on all major issues, brushing aside recent unease in New Delhi over trade, China and the Iran war.

India’s foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar agreed that the two countries had a “convergence of national interests in many areas” but publicly took Rubio to task over President Donald Trump’s assault on visas.

Jaishankar said he “apprised Secretary Rubio of challenges that legitimate travellers face in respect of visa issuance”.

“While we cooperate to deal with illegal and irregular mobility, our expectation is that legal mobility should not be adversely impacted as a consequence,” he said, noting that visas were key for US-India tech cooperation.

Trump, who has made curbing non-Western immigration a key political priority, has ramped up restrictions and fees for H-1B visas used largely by Indian tech workers, sending applications tumbling.

The Trump administration followed up Friday by saying that applicants for permanent residency, even when in the United States legally, must leave for processing, likely splitting up many families for extended periods.

Trump has been influenced by nativist critics who say Indian workers take away skilled jobs from Americans who would have earned more.

Last month, Trump reposted a far-right commentator who described India as a “hellhole” and inaccurately alleged that Indian immigrants lack English proficiency.

Asked about racist remarks in the United States about Indians, Rubio said, “every country in the world has stupid people”.

“Our nation has been enriched by people who come to our country,” said Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants.

He said the immigration reforms were “not India-specific” but in response to a “migratory crisis” in the United States.

Aligned on ‘all’ issues

Rubio, who is paying an unusually long four-day, four-city trip to India, called the country “one of our most important strategic partners in the world”.

“It begins with the fact of our shared values. We are the two largest democracies,” Rubio said.

“Our nations are strategically aligned on all of the key issues that will define the new century — all the great challenges that are before us now in the modern era,” he said.

Such grand statements of US-India partnership would have raised a few eyebrows over the past two decades as Washington put a top priority on building ties with the billion-plus nation.

But Trump abruptly shook up core assumptions of US foreign policy. He temporarily imposed punishing tariffs on India, held a friendly visit last week to China and has hailed India’s historic adversary Pakistan, which has positioned itself as the key mediator on the Iran war.

Pakistan has also heaped praise on Trump over his diplomacy in a short war last year with India, which launched unprovoked strikes following the Pahalgam attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi annoyed Trump by refusing to credit him with ending the war.