President Trump told reporters Friday that he expects to hear from Iran “tonight” on a proposal to end hostilities in the region.
“I’m getting a letter supposedly tonight. So we’ll see how that goes,” Trump said as he prepared to depart the White House for a dinner at his golf course in Northern Virginia.
When asked if he thought Iran was slow-walking the process, the president responded: “I don’t know. We’ll find out soon enough.”
The one-page memorandum of understanding Trump is waiting to hear back on is expected to serve as the foundation for a broader treaty to be negotiated at a later date.
The US has offered to ease sanctions in exchange for Iran halting uranium enrichment and the reopening of commercial shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz, sources familiar with negotiation efforts have told The Post.
“We should know something today,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters at the US Embassy in Rome. “I mean, we’re expecting a response from them. We’ll see what their response entails.
“The hope is it’s something that – it can put us into a serious process of negotiation.”
Rubio noted that the Iranian government is “still highly fractured and a bit dysfunctional” which “may be serving as an impediment.”
He also warned that efforts by Tehran to control ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz would be “unacceptable.”
“The normalizing of their controlling of an international waterway is both illegal and it’s just something that’s unacceptable,” Rubio said. “And the world has to start asking itself what is it willing to do if Iran tries to normalize a control of an international waterway. I think that’s unacceptable.”
Other major sticking points include where Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium would go – Trump insists the radioactive material must be turned over to the United States rather than to a third country – and whether or when Tehran would be allowed to resume any enrichment activity in the future.
In-person talks could resume as early as next week in Pakistan if a framework is agreed to, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Trump did not answer reporters’ questions about whether he had heard back from Iran upon returning to the White House late Friday night.
