US President Donald Trump said that a deal with Iran to end the war in the Middle East could be signed on Sunday, and that the strategic Strait of Hormuz would be “open to all” immediately after.
Iran had offered a different timeline earlier in the day, but nonetheless signalled an agreement was in the offing, as both the warring parties and their mediators expressed increasing optimism that weeks of halting negotiations were drawing to a close.
The leader of key mediators Pakistan said a deal was closer “than ever before”.
The “finalisation” of this agreement is expected “within the next 24 hours”, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Saturday on X, adding that it will be signed electronically, without going into further detail or specifying what this would involve.
He said “technical level talks” are expected to follow next week.
A Pakistani foreign ministry statement also said the signing was planned for Sunday.
The momentum came in spite of fresh skirmishes in the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has blockaded since early in the war, throwing global markets into turmoil.
“The Deal is scheduled to get signed tomorrow, and immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL,” a post on Trump’s official Truth Social platform read on Saturday.
Since an April 8 truce paused the worst of the fighting, Trump has repeatedly insisted a deal was imminent, only for the wrangling to drag on.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei had said earlier on Saturday that the date of the signing was yet to be determined, but “it will not be tomorrow”.
However, he added: “The possibility of this happening in the coming days cannot be ruled out.”
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