President Donald Trump says Iran has pledged not to develop nuclear weapons, a development that could reshape negotiations to end Middle East hostilities and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while fighting continues in Lebanon and tensions over Iranian assets persist.
Washington - President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he has obtained a firm commitment from Iran that it will not pursue the development of nuclear weapons, a claim that comes amid renewed diplomatic overtures aimed at ending the conflict in the Middle East and reopening the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
In an interview on his daughter‑in‑law Lara Trump's Fox News program, the president said the agreement - which he described as a "guarantee" - was the cornerstone of any future settlement. He added that Tehran had accepted the key provision that it would abandon any nuclear weapons program, a point he framed as a major breakthrough after weeks of intense negotiations, public posturing and occasional flare‑ups of armed hostilities.
While Trump highlighted the nuclear restriction as the primary objective, he also emphasized the need to restore free navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that has been choked by parallel U.S. and Iranian blockades and whose closure threatens global oil supplies and market stability. According to reporting by The New York Times and Axios, the White House has sent Iran a revised framework that incorporates "tougher" terms, though the exact details of those provisions have not been disclosed.
Tehran, however, remains skeptical of Trump's assurances. Iranian officials have reiterated that a release of roughly $12 billion in frozen assets is a precondition for any substantive dialogue on its nuclear programme, and they dismissed Trump's earlier statements about destroying Iran's enriched uranium as "baseless".
Moreover, Iran insists that any comprehensive peace deal must include provisions for Lebanon, where Israeli forces continue to push deeper into territory, and that the Hezbollah‑led resistance be addressed as part of a broader settlement. Iranian state media reported that the Revolutionary Guard downed a U.S. drone that was allegedly approaching Iranian waters, an incident that the United States has not confirmed, adding another layer of tension to the fragile cease‑fire that has held since April.
On the ground, the conflict remains volatile. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israeli troops have advanced more than 30 kilometres into southern Lebanon, prompting Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam to accuse Israel of a "scorched‑earth" policy and to call for an immediate, genuine cease‑fire. The Israeli military confirmed that its forces have crossed the Litani River and are conducting operations in the Beaufort Ridge and Wadi al‑Saluki areas, targeting Hezbollah positions.
Hezbollah, backed by Tehran, has continued to fire rockets into Israel in retaliation for a series of U.S.-Israeli strikes that killed Iran's supreme leader earlier this year. Despite the ongoing hostilities, diplomatic channels remain open. Trump has signalled on social media that, once the blockades are lifted, Iran would allow toll‑free passage for ships through the Strait of Hormuz, although Iranian news agency Fars reported that no such clause appears in the current draft of the agreement.
Iran's parliament is reportedly preparing to approve a plan that would assert Iranian management and sovereignty over the strait, a move that could complicate any future arrangement. The United States, meanwhile, faces pressure to negotiate a deal that would simultaneously end the dual blockades, secure the flow of oil, and prevent a wider regional war, all while managing the political fallout of a contentious election cycle
Iran Nuclear Guarantee Strait Of Hormuz Trump Diplomacy Israel‑Hezbollah Conflict Middle East Peace Talks
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