U.S. and Iran are 'very close' to a deal

Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the U.S. and Iran were "very close" to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that would extend the ceasefire by 60 days, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and launch talks on limiting Tehran's nuclear program. Why it matters: The signing of the MOU would be the most significant diplomatic breakthrough since the war started, but a final agreement tackling President Trump's nuclear demands would require further intensive negotiations. Trump and his advisers thought they were close to a deal several times at earlier stages in the war, but talks repeatedly stalled. Driving the news: U.S. and Iranian negotiators have reached an agreement on a 60-day MOU, but Trump has yet to give his final approval, Axios reported earlier Thursday. U.S. officials claimed their Iranian counterparts told them through mediators that they had the necessary approvals and were prepared to sign. An official from one of the mediating countries confirmed this. The American negotiators briefed Trump on the details of the final deal, but he did not immediately sign off. "The president relayed to the mediators that he wants a couple of days to think about it," a U.S. official said. The Iranian regime has not commented publicly on the story, but Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, quoted a source that claimed the MOU hadn't been finalized. State of play: Senior U.S. officials said that as of Thursday afternoon, Trump was leaning toward signing off on the deal but had yet to do so. Trump spoke Thursday afternoon with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim Al Thani to discuss the deal with Iran. Qatar is a key mediator between the two countries. One reason Trump wants to wait another few days is to make sure Iranian officials would sign the deal and not back away, a U.S. official said. The U.S. official said another reason is that Trump wants to see how the domestic political debate around the deal plays out before he makes a final decision. What he's saying: Vance, who led the U.S. negotiations team in talks with Iran in Islamabad, Pakistan, in April and has been deeply involved in the issue since, said Thursday that it was hard to say when or if Trump would sign off on the MOU with Iran. "We're going back and forth on a couple of language points. We've made a lot of progress here," Vance said. "Hopefully, we'll continue to make progress and the president will be in a position where he can endorse the agreement, but obviously that's still TBD," he added. "I can't guarantee that we're going to get there ... but right now I feel pretty good about it." Go deeper: What's in the deal