Tehran on Friday flatly denied claims that a conclusive diplomatic agreement has been reached with Washington, according to an official broadcast by Iran's state television network.
Speaking on behalf of the regime, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei clarified that despite a continuous, fluid exchange of messages between the two adversarial nations, a final understanding remains elusive.
The spokesperson adopted a fiercely defiant tone regarding diplomatic pressure, noting that the Islamic Republic refuses to accept unilateral ultimatums from foreign powers.
Baghaei said Iran “said goodbye to the language of ‘must’ 47 years ago" and that Western governments cannot dictate terms to the Islamic Republic.
“We make our own decisions based on the interests and rights of the Iranian people," he asserted.
Baghaei also criticized the US naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, declaring the US naval actions illegal from the very beginning. He further characterized the deployment as both a violation of the ceasefire and a disruption of international freedom of navigation.
Tehran would wait to see whether the United States follows through in practice on its stated position or whether it is merely a “propaganda claim," Baghaei stated. “If they do it, it means stopping an unlawful act they started a few weeks ago and should never have committed in the first place," he added.
Concluding his remarks on the status of the ongoing Pakistani-mediated backchannel talks, the spokesperson reiterated that while active communications are still being exchanged through intermediaries, no final agreement had been reached between the two governments.
His comments came after President Donald Trump announced, in a post on Truth Social, that he was entering the Situation Room for a final determination on whether to strike a deal with Iran. The meeting ended two hours later without a decision on a new deal.
Trump also outlined what a deal must look like, writing, “Iran must agree that they will never have a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb. The Hormuz Strait must be immediately open, no tolls, for unrestricted shipping traffic, in both directions. All water mines (bombs), if any, will be terminated (we have removed, through detonation, numerous such mines with our great underwater mine sweepers."
He added, “Iran will complete the immediate removal and/or detonation of any mines that are left, which will not be many!). Ships caught in the Strait due to our amazing and unprecedented Naval Blockade, which will now be lifted, may start the process of ‘heading home!’"
Trump continued, “The enriched material, sometimes referred to as ‘Nuclear Dust,’ which is buried deep underground with virtually collapsed mountains, caused by our powerful B2 Bomber attack 11 months ago, sitting on top of it, will be unearthed by the United States (which, it is agreed, is the only Country, along with China, with the mechanical capability of doing so!), in close coordination and conjunction with the Islamic Republic of Iran, plus the International Atomic Energy Agency, and DESTROYED. No money will be exchanged, until further notice. Other items, of far less importance, have been agreed to."
Iran’s Fars news agency, citing informed sources, subsequently reported that the latest comments by Trump about a potential deal were a “mixture of truth and lies."
“Trump claimed that Iran was obligated to open the Strait of Hormuz without tolls, even though no such clause appears in the text of the agreement," the sources told Fars.
Responding to Trump’s assertion that the US and Iran would coordinate on destroying Iran’s enriched uranium, the agency said, “Well-informed sources emphasized that not only does this not appear in the memorandum of understanding, but this claim is fundamentally baseless."
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)