Shortly after Araqchi's statement, Trump posted on Truth Social: "IRAN HAS JUST ANNOUNCED THAT THE STRAIT OF IRAN IS FULLY OPEN AND READY FOR PASSAGE."
However, Trump said the U.S. military blockade of ships sailing through the Strait to Iranian ports - announced after talks with Iran last weekend in the Pakistani capital Islamabad ended without agreement - remained in place.
He said that blockade would remain in full force until "our transaction with Iran is 100% complete", which he said should happen very quickly given that most points were already negotiated.
Trump had said on Thursday that talks could happen as soon as this weekend, although that was looking increasingly unlikely by Friday afternoon given the logistics of assembling officials in Islamabad, where the talks are expected to take place.
Despite Trump's optimism, Iranian sources told Reuters on Friday that some "gaps remained to be resolved" before reaching a preliminary deal and senior clerics leading Friday prayers struck a defiant tone.
In a sermon in Tehran, cleric Ahmad Khatami said: "Our people do not negotiate while being humiliated," while in the central city of Isfahan, the imam said: "We did not accept the terms proposed by the other party."
In Islamabad, troops were seen along routes leading into the capital on Friday, but roads were still open and the government had not issued orders for businesses to shut down, as they did prior to the last meeting.

A Pakistani source involved in mediating between the U.S. and Iran said on Friday there was progress in backdoor diplomacy and that an upcoming meeting between the two sides could result in the signing of a memorandum of understanding, followed by a comprehensive deal within 60 days.
"Both sides are agreeing in principle. And technical bits come later," the source said on condition of anonymity.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters there had been an agreement on unfreezing billions of dollars in Iranian assets, as part of the accord to reopen the Strait, without giving a timeline.
One of the key sticking points has been over Tehran's nuclear ambitions, with the U.S. proposing at last weekend's talks a 20-year suspension of all Iranian nuclear activity. Tehran suggested a halt of three to five years, according to people familiar with the proposals.
Iran has demanded international sanctions on it be lifted and Washington has pressed for any highly enriched uranium to be removed from Iran. Two Iranian sources have said there were signs of a compromise on the HEU stockpile, with Tehran considering shipping part of it out of the country.
Trump repeated his Thursday comment that the U.S. would get all the "nuclear dust", referring to Iran's highly enriched uranium which he says was obliterated by U.S. bombers last June.
Earlier on Friday, Iran's state media outlet Mizan disputed that, highlighting ongoing differences.
No negotiation regarding the "transfer of Iran's highly enriched uranium to America had ever taken place, and naturally there is no agreement on this matter either", it said, citing sources.

The U.S.-backed ceasefire agreed between Israel and Lebanon to end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah appeared to be largely holding on Friday, despite some Lebanese Army reports of violations by Israel.
The conflict in Lebanon was reignited on March 2 when Hezbollah opened fire on northern Israel in support of Tehran, prompting an Israeli offensive that authorities say has killed more than 2,000 people.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the reported ceasefire violations on Friday.

This means the Americans are accepting the ten points for the terms of surrender

>>1506914
Ships are turning around. American blockade didn't leave and Iran is refusing to budge on uranium because they will now always have the strait as leverage. Complete and utter diplomatic failure. We are literally struggling to solve an issue that didn't exist prior to the war.

>>1506914
How many sections until the juice bomb a children’s hospital or something and ruin this too?

>>1507015
Once they got nukes they would have threatened the strait from an unassailable position with the support of Russia and China.

>>1507017
And without nukes they're... threatening the strait from an unassailable position with the support of Russia and China.

Yeah maybe if we didn't want them to use the Strait as a bargaining chip we shouldn't have started this fucking war. We effectively gave them permission to take what wasn't theirs before and no one can blame them since they did it as a response instead of as an attack.

>>1507017
They literally are threatening the strait from an unassailable position with the support of Russia and China right now. They don’t need nukes for that, evidently

Why do you think any country wants nukes? It’s worthwhile checking that out, the Soviets got them after the US so there’d be balance between them in the future. Then the UK got them, mostly because they didn’t want to just have to rely on the Americans. Then France because the didn’t want to be told what to do by anyone to be under any umbrella.
Then China so they wouldn’t be attacked by any of the others.
After that, Israel probably and so they could threaten their enemies.
Then India, because they don’t trust China. Then Pakistan because they don’t trust India.
Then North Korea so everyone leaves them alone.

Now try to think about an actual reason why Iran would want nukes now, and maybe why they didn’t get them earlier (they could’ve).
We also understand that South Korea and Poland are working on getting nukes.

>>1506914
So basically he's going to invent a new goal for the war every week until he figures out how to spin white peace as a victory? This would have been too ridiculous to even imagine just a little over a decade ago.