President Donald Trump said overnight Friday that the United States has “ended the war with Iran,” but Tehran has yet to confirm any agreement, and international media treated the claim cautiously after a series of shifting statements from the president.
Trump said he understood that Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had approved an agreement. The comment came after days in which Trump announced progress, backtracked, threatened new strikes, ordered attacks and then again declared that a deal was near.
Axios reported new details of an emerging memorandum of understanding, but headlines around the world remained skeptical as governments and media outlets waited for an official signal from Tehran.
The New York Times did not lead its homepage with Trump’s announcement, placing the Iran developments below a SpaceX offering. Its headline read: “Trump Again Claims Deal Is Close After Retracting Threat of Strikes.”
British outlets were also cautious. The Guardian wrote: “Trump claims US and Iran on verge of signing peace agreement, but Tehran says no final decision made.” The BBC similarly noted that Tehran had not given a final answer: “Trump claims deal to end Iran war near as Tehran says 'nothing' finalised.”
CNN led with the announcement but added a caveat: “Trump says US ‘ended the war with Iran,’ though Tehran has yet to confirm a deal.”
According to Axios, Iran would commit under the memorandum to several nuclear steps, chiefly that it would not obtain a nuclear weapon and would resolve the dispute over its stockpile of enriched uranium. The report said Trump agreed that Tehran could dilute uranium enriched to 60% on Iranian soil under the supervision of UN inspectors.
The nuclear issues have not been finalized, the report said. Any practical steps would be implemented only if an additional agreement is reached after the memorandum, which would set a 60-day full ceasefire for negotiations.
The report said the memorandum also calls for reopening the Strait of Hormuz without fees and restoring shipping traffic to prewar levels within a month. The U.S. blockade would be lifted, and Tehran would receive a temporary 60-day sanctions waiver for oil sales. Sanctions relief would expand if Iran meets its commitments and shows “good faith” in further negotiations.
In Lebanon, the Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper Al-Akhbar presented the agreement as a victory for the group’s camp. Its headline read: “The U.S.-Iranian understanding — the end of the war in Lebanon.”
The newspaper claimed Iran had received a final U.S. answer that Lebanon was included in the agreement and that Trump had spoken three times with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Lebanon.
According to the report, the agreement would not be limited to a ceasefire but would include a full halt to military operations, a timetable for a rapid Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, guarantees to stop demolition and bulldozing operations, and the release of Lebanese prisoners.
Al-Akhbar said the breakthrough came through talks in Doha under Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, with the participation of a senior Iranian official and an envoy of Trump.
The newspaper also claimed the deal opens a process to end the state of war in the Gulf and the wider region, including Lebanon, and that Qatar had proposed a formula on Iran’s frozen funds acceptable to both Washington and Tehran.
Al-Akhbar further reported that Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa advised Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam during a recent meeting in Damascus not to repeat what he called Syria’s mistake of making concessions to Israel without receiving anything in return.