WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said the United States and Iran could reach an agreement within days to extend a ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, offering an upbeat view of negotiations even as regional fighting and disputed terms continued to cloud a broader settlement.
Speaking by telephone with ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl, Trump said talks with Tehran were moving forward and that a deal might be completed within about a week. He acknowledged a “little glitch” in the discussions but described it as a temporary problem that had already been handled.
He framed diplomacy as preferable to further military confrontation, arguing that a negotiated outcome could matter more than another battlefield result. He also said talks would not be simple for either side, given decades of hostility and the range of issues on the table.
The Strait of Hormuz is the core of those talks. The narrow passage between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman carries a large share of the world’s seaborne oil. Any lasting disruption would affect global energy supplies, shipping costs and markets. Trump said a memorandum of understanding on the waterway could be finished in roughly a week, though he added that “a few more points” still had to be settled.
ABC News later reported that a proposed U.S.-Iran memorandum envisioned a 60-day pause in fighting and the reopening of the strait to commercial traffic, as a framework for longer negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, sanctions and maritime rules. Senior U.S. officials described the document as a starting point, not a final peace deal.
The diplomacy has been complicated by fighting involving Israel, Hezbollah and Iran. Trump said he had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and tried to keep that fighting from derailing the U.S.-Iran process. Iranian officials have not always matched his public account of the talks, leaving uncertainty about how much common ground actually exists.
Later reporting showed how thin the arrangement was. After an initial framework in June, the United States and Iran resumed exchanging attacks. By July, Trump at times declared the ceasefire “over” while saying talks could still continue. By September, Reuters reported renewed warnings over Gulf energy infrastructure and continued tension around Hormuz.
Trump’s seven-day forecast was an expectation, not a guarantee. Converting a pause in fighting into a durable settlement has remained the harder task — for Washington because of energy security and regional alliances, and for Tehran because of sovereignty, sanctions and its nuclear program.
