Trump Still Will Not Sign Ceasefire Deal With Iran
Washington and Tehran agreed on a draft to extend the truce by 60 days and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but Trump is demanding new terms after a marathon meeting.
- The US and Iran agreed on a draft to extend the truce by 60 days
- Trump is delaying his signature and demanding new terms on Hormuz
- Washington wants Iran's enriched uranium stockpile destroyed
- Tehran insists talks cover only the end of the war
The price of cheap fuel at petrol stations across the Balkans now hinges on a single signature that has yet to be made. Donald Trump refused to immediately endorse the draft agreement with Tehran after a marathon meeting in Washington, even though negotiators on both sides said they were within reach of ending a war that has kept the Strait of Hormuz closed for three months.
The preliminary memorandum of understanding, agreed on May 28 and 29, calls for extending the truce by 60 days and opening talks on a permanent end to the conflict. The US president asked for a final decision on May 29, but by May 31 there was still no green light, and in the meantime the White House issued fresh demands that have complicated an already fragile calculation.
What is Trump asking for before he signs?
On Truth Social, Trump laid out two conditions that Tehran reads as an intrusion into its sovereignty. The first is opening the Strait of Hormuz to unrestricted traffic, and the second is the destruction of Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile. He also announced the lifting of the naval blockade that Washington had used for three months to squeeze the Iranian economy.
The White House meeting was attended by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance, a sign that Washington is treating the matter as a top priority. Vance told reporters a deal was close, but that key details were still unresolved.
We’re not there yet, but we’re very close, and we’re going to keep on working at it.
The backdrop to the talks grew tenser after an incident in the Gulf of Oman, where US forces disabled the Gambia-flagged cargo ship Lian Star with a Hellfire missile. The Pentagon says the vessel ignored more than twenty warnings before it was hit, a move Tehran described as a show of force in the middle of a delicate phase.
Why is Tehran refusing to negotiate over its nuclear programme?
Iran has drawn a sharp line between two issues. Tehran says it is ready to discuss ending the war, but not its nuclear programme, which it treats as an internal matter and a right to domestic uranium enrichment.
At this stage, we are focused on ending the war, and there are no negotiations on the nuclear issue.
The enrichment dispute is the very point on which earlier mediation attempts broke down. Washington insists there can be no lasting peace without guarantees on uranium, while Tehran argues that accepting those terms would mean surrendering its sovereignty.
The cost of this stalemate is also being felt on global markets. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a large share of the world’s oil trade passes, has already pushed crude prices higher, and every day without a signature prolongs the uncertainty for importers across the Balkans and Europe. For Serbia, which builds its energy stability on predictable prices, the outcome of these talks is not abstract geopolitics but a question of the bill at the end of the month.
Will Trump sign tomorrow, or will the new conditions collapse a deal that was already within reach?
