U.S. officials said on Friday that they expected Iran would issue in coming days a public statement acknowledging that all channels through the Strait of Hormuz are open, and that Iranian forces will cease shooting at ships passing through the narrow waterway.
The officials, who spoke to reporters on the condition that they not be identified, said that if Iran did not issue the statement and stick with it, “we’re not going to have a good outcome for them.”
In a 30-minute conversation, the officials said that Iranian negotiators had told them the drone attacks on ships passing through the strait had been conducted by rogue units of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps who were trying to undermine the vague nuclear accord signed last month. But they said that the Trump administration planned to continue negotiating on the broader, permanent deal on the future of Iran’s nuclear program, and would respond militarily to any more strikes on ships.
Earlier in the day, President Trump issued a Truth Social post saying negotiations would continue, but that the cease-fire between Iran and the United States — a key element of the 14-paragraph agreement reached last month, was over.
One of the three senior American officials said that no final nuclear deal would be reached unless Iran turned over to the United States what he called the “nuclear dust,” the near bomb-grade uranium fuel that is largely buried at the Isfahan nuclear enrichment and conversion center, and that the fuel would be diluted so that it could not be used in a weapon.
But the 14-point plan left unclear who would possess that fuel, and Iranian officials have since declared that it could not leave their territory. It is also unclear whether the retrieval and dilution would be conducted by the Iranians or by the United States in partnership with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear inspector.
The officials did not indicate that any further talks on the broader deal were planned. To hit the 60-day deadline described in the June agreement, a final accord would have to be reached by mid-August.
