U.S. officials indicate that Tehran could take days to respond to Trump’s tougher terms on a possible deal to end the nearly three-month war.
Posted on May 31, 2026
President Donald Trump attempted to change several terms of a proposal to end the US-Israel war against Iran, according to US media reports, as a finalized deal remains elusive.
The New York Times reported Saturday that Trump’s changes involved tightening the terms of the deal, and the United States has returned the new framework for Iran to consider, according to officials familiar with the proceedings.
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The report said it was not immediately clear what the changes entailed. However, Axios reported that Trump wanted to reinforce multiple points of the agreement that he considered important, such as what to do with Iran’s nuclear material.
A senior US official told Axios that Trump was informed that it could take three days for Iran to respond.
“They are literally in caves and don’t use email,” the official told Axios.
“There will be an agreement. The imminence of it, we will see. We are willing to wait for the president to get what he asks for. It could be a week. It could be less. It could be more. At the end of the week, we hope to have something,” the official added.
The new adjustments could prolong negotiations between the sides for days before a decision is reached on whether the deal would end the war, which began after the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.
US sources told the AFP news agency that the proposal had been awaiting Trump’s approval, but he made no decision after a White House Situation Room meeting on Friday.
Trump has said his priorities for any deal included Iran agreeing to never develop nuclear weapons and reopening the blocked Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil supply transits.
On Saturday, the Iranian military’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters reaffirmed the country’s control over the strait, warning that foreign commercial and military ships would be attacked if they did not comply with regulations governing passage through the strategic waterway.
Tehran has also repeatedly said it has no intention of building nuclear weapons. In March 2025, Tulsi Gabbard, former US director of national intelligence, addressed Congress saying that Washington “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.”
