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Key developments
• Drones shot down amid push for agreement: The US military said it downed multiple Iranian drones near the Strait of Hormuz after the White House signaled optimism about a prospective agreement, voicing confidence it would earn buy-in from Tehran and Israel.
• Remaining questions: US President Donald Trump lashed out Friday at Iranian state media reports that differed from US descriptions of the potential terms, adding uncertainty to the state of talks. It’s not yet clear if Iran’s supreme leader has signed off, but the country’s foreign ministry is also signaling that a framework is in reach.
• Next steps: A signed memorandum of understanding would trigger 60 more days of “technical” negotiations on implementation and remaining issues, according to a US official. While sources said a signing ceremony could be held in Switzerland in the coming days, Iran’s foreign minister suggested the signing could take place remotely.
Sources: In recent weeks, Iran escalated efforts to seal uranium cache and placed mines
In recent weeks, Iran has dramatically escalated efforts to seal off its cache of near bomb-grade uranium, deliberately collapsing tunnels and booby-trapping entrances with explosive mines, according to five sources familiar with US intelligence.
Getting to the roughly half-a-ton of highly-enriched uranium is now far more difficult, dangerous and time-consuming than it already was just a month ago, when President Donald Trump was publicly signaling that he might order the US military to seize it, the sources said.
The new fortifications by the Iranians add an additional layer of complexity to the Trump administration’s proposed deal with Tehran to remove and destroy its uranium, and the move raises questions about who will take on the dangerous task of digging it out.
Iran’s diplomatic delegation to the United Nations did not immediately return a request for comment, and the White House did not immediately reply to questions from CNN.
Trump has repeatedly stated that securing the material is a priority for the US in the ongoing negotiations to end the war and re-open the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively closed.
And according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters Friday, the two sides are inching closer to a deal that would require Iran to turn its enriched uranium over to the US.
But US and Iranian officials have offered conflicting accounts of the tentative deal, and its precise terms remain unclear.
12 months ago, a 12-day war between Iran and Israel began
Saturday marks one year since a 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel began — a precursor to the longer ongoing war that would kick off eight months later.
The conflict began on June 13, 2025, when Israel targeted the heart of Iran’s nuclear program and its missile capabilities — an unprecedented attack that also killed several of Iran’s most powerful figures.
The operation, called “Rising Lion,” aimed to halt what Israel said was Tehran’s rapid progress in developing nuclear weapons.
The US was not involved in Israel’s initial attack, but it entered the conflict in its second week, with President Donald Trump ordering the bombing of several Iranian nuclear sites.
Behind the scenes, the Trump administration worked furiously to find a diplomatic solution, with the Qatari government serving as mediator — finally brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Iran on June 24.
But the short-lived conflict dealt a heavy blow to Tehran. In 12 days, Iran lost most of its air defenses, missiles, launchers and plants; the echelon of its military command; and its crown jewel nuclear facilities along with its leading nuclear scientists.
Advisor to Iran's supreme leader claims Trump has agreed to release frozen funds
As the United States and Iran give signals they are close to a deal, a top Iranian official claimed the US has agreed to release part of the country’s frozen assets, despite the Trump administration earlier denying any such agreement.
“Trump has agreed to the release of part of Iran’s frozen assets, but he is unwilling to announce it publicly,” said Mohsen Rezaei, military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency on Saturday.
After several differing media reports on what is being included in the deal proposal, Vice President JD Vance called out what he said was “fake information about a potential deal” on Friday, saying economic benefits will only flow to Iran if it “meets its obligations.”
Some context: Iran has reportedly demanded the release of $12 billion in frozen funds as soon as an interim agreement is signed with the US, and another $12 billion at a later stage.
But US officials are concerned that any unfreezing of funds at this stage could remove a key leverage point over the regime. Trump has demanded that any agreement appear far stronger than the nuclear deal struck in 2015, and to avoid anything that could be construed as handing over “pallets of cash.”
CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.
US downs multiple Iranian one-way attack drones near Strait of Hormuz, CENTCOM says
The US military has downed multiple Iranian one-way attack drones near the Strait of Hormuz, US Central Command announced Friday evening.
Iran launched several attack drones that sought to disrupt commercial shipping near the strait, CENTCOM said in a post on X.
The US military said its forces “have downed all of them in recent hours as traffic flow through the strait continues unimpeded. “
“The international trade corridor remains open for transit,” CENTCOM said.
What Iranian officials are saying Friday about a possible agreement with the US
An “understanding has been reached on the majority of issues” between the United States and Iran, according to an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, as a final agreement gets closer.
Earlier in the day, a senior Trump administration official echoed the optimism, but said there are still details to be worked out.
Here’s the latest on where things stand:
- Iranian government officials are in the final stages of discussing the terms of an agreement with the US, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said.
- The memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran will address the regime’s nuclear program and sanctions relief, among other issues, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said.
- A statement with regards to future control of the Strait of Hormuz should be expected “soon,” Araghchi said. Under the agreement, the waterway would not return to how it operated before the war, according to the foreign minister, and the regime would not charge tolls but “service fees.”
- The agreement includes a resolution for the conflict of Lebanon “and all other fronts,” Araghchi said on Iranian state television.
- The timing, location and details related to the agreement will depend on how the diplomatic process moves forward, Baghaei said. The framework could be signed by both sides remotely in the next few days, Araghchi said.
A senior US administration official spelled out several points in the prospective agreement between the US and Iran, framing the document as accomplishing President Donald Trump’s objectives for the negotiations. CNN’s Kevin Liptak reports from the White House.
CNN’s Mitchell McCluskey and Dalia Abdelwahab contributed reporting to this post.
Iranian official says joint statement with Oman on the Strait of Hormuz coming “soon”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced Friday evening that a statement with regards to future control of the Strait of Hormuz should be expected “soon.”
Araghchi told the Iranian state television that the statement will be jointly released with the Omani government, per the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA). The Strait of Hormuz is situated between Iranian and Omani territory.
The comments come as a purported framework of a US-Iran deal is said to be finalized, with its signing expected in the coming days. US officials have outlined several of the points laid out in the memorandum of understanding, including a complete reopening of the strait and lifting of a US blockade on Iranian ports along the strait.
Araghchi said that, under the agreement, the waterway would not return to how it operated before the war.
He added that the regime would not charge tolls but “service fees” for transiting the strait.
US-Iran agreement could be signed remotely, foreign minister says
A memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran could be signed by both sides remotely in the next few days, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said on state television on Friday.
The statement would be signed and then announced following the final stages of negotiations, Araghchi said.
Iranian official says agreement addresses Strait of Hormuz, conflict in Lebanon
The memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran will address various issues, including the regime’s nuclear program, sanctions relief and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Friday.
The agreement, which has not yet been signed, includes a resolution for the conflict of Lebanon “and all other fronts,” Araghchi said on Iranian state television.
The memo would also focus on other sources of tension in the relationship between Washington and Tehran, including a written statement from the US stating that it “respects Iran’s sovereignty,” the foreign minister said.
“Threats must stop, and the Iranian people must be addressed with respect,” he said.
Araghchi added that Iran is poised to return to war if the US chooses the path.
“If the terms of the memorandum of understanding are not honored, the final agreement will not be signed,” he said.
Tehran's internal talks on US agreement in “final stages,” Iranian official says
Iranian government officials are in the final stages of discussing the terms of an agreement with the United States, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Friday.
“At present, understanding has been reached on the majority of issues, and we are in the final stage of internal deliberations,” Baghaei said, according to state media.
“With close observation of the other side’s positions, we will announce our stance according to circumstances. Even as I am speaking with you now, meetings among the relevant institutions are underway,” he added.
Baghaei added that the timing, location and details related to the agreement will depend on how the diplomatic process moves forward.
What we learned from a Trump administration official about the possible US-Iran agreement
A senior US administration official spelled out several points of the prospective agreement between the US and Iran – but there are some details that have yet be worked out.
Still, the official painted a picture of negotiations with Iran being in a much better place.
Here’s what else the official said:
- Reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lifting the US blockade on Iranian ports are points in the framework. The agreement would also lead to the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program, including the United States obtaining Iran’s enriched material.
- If the memorandum of understanding is signed, it would trigger a 60-day period for “technical” negotiations to take place. The official sidestepped a question about whether Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has personally signed off on the current agreement.
- Iran is “committing indefinitely to never procure or develop nuclear weapons,” the official said. Technical details of how to remove Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium have yet to be worked out, they said, and discussions about how to proceed would occur in the next round of technical talks.
- Iran would also be relieved of a lot of the economic pressures that they’ve been under for many, many years” if the country complies with the framework’s provisions, the official said.
- Fractures remain within Iranian leadership about how to proceed, but the Trump administration believes the majority of officials are committed to the prospective agreement. Much of the messaging coming out of Tehran is “to sell the deal to their internal population,” the official said.
- The Trump administration feels “confident” that Israel “will get on board” with the agreement between US and Iran, the official said, but did not rule out future military action by Israel in Lebanon.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Alayna Treene, Alejandra Jaramillo, Jennifer Hansler and Kit Maher contributed reporting to this post.
Administration official hails "substantial progress" with Iran over last couple of weeks
A senior administration official on Friday painted a picture of negotiations with Iran that are much closer than they’ve previously been, noting that Tehran has been more willing to agree to terms.
“Now we’re at a stage, I think, where we have gotten the language in a place that we feel good about, where the Iranians have actually said, ‘Okay, we can agree to that,’” the official told reporters, arguing that US leverage has increased.
Asked what had changed since the last time the US said it was close to a deal, the official pointed to more finalized of language.
“A couple of weeks ago was a lot of proposals from the Americans that we sort of had verbal commitments that the Iranians thought that they could work with us on, but they had to work it inside their system,” the official said.
“Now, we’ve seen substantial progress where they’ve actually gotten the buy-in, and where we actually have a text of an MOU that I think both sides feel good about.”
One of the key sticking points that’s evolved, the official said, is around the specifics of Iran committing to destroying and disposing its enriched material — something Trump has been involved in.
“We’ve gotten the language in place that the president is much happier on, that I’m much happier on, and that has happened over the last couple of weeks,” the official said.
Trump admin "confident" that Israel "will get on board" with deal, US official says
The Trump administration feels “confident” that Israel “will get on board” with the deal between US and Iran, a senior US administration official said Friday.
“We feel like when they see the full terms of the deal and when they appreciate that fundamentally that there has to be delivery from the Iranians before we deliver any of the benefits, that they’re comfortable with that,” the official told reporters, suggesting that the full terms of the memorandum of understanding have not yet been shared with the US’ regional allies.
President Donald Trump has spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, the official said.
Netanyahu has long been skeptical that a deal with Iran can be reached and in recent weeks has grown increasingly concerned that the US may accept an agreement that, in Israel’s view, would not be as hardline as they want or meet the objectives of the war, sources said.
The senior administration official acknowledged “some skepticism” by Israel “of the misreported details that we’ve seen out there.”
“We feel confident that the deal that we’re actually going to strike, assuming we get there, is going to be a deal that everybody in the region can be comfortable with,” they said.
The senior administration official did not rule out future military action by Israel in Lebanon, which has threatened to scuttle US-Iran diplomatic efforts, saying they “put it back on Hezbollah and on the Iranians.”
They said the “broad regional peace agreement” does include Lebanon, as well as Israel and the Gulf, but “that doesn’t mean they give up the right to self-defense.”
“If the Iranians don’t honor their end of the obligation, I wouldn’t expect the Israelis to not respond,” the official said.
Agreement says Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon "indefinitely," Trump admin official says
Iran is “committing indefinitely to never procure or develop nuclear weapons,” a senior administration official told reporters Friday, which they described as “a significant concession” from Tehran.
Tehran has made similar public commitments before. To that end, the official stressed the importance of verification and enforcement, and the details of that still need to be worked out.
“We’re happy with the commitment to not build a nuclear weapon, but we have to verify that, and that’s why the deal is structured in the way that it is — to ensure that there’s a verification and inspections regime, and that they don’t receive the benefits of the negotiation until we see that they’re actually taking the affirmative steps in order to dismantle that nuclear program,” the senior official said.
Previous talks had discussed a timeline of 10 or 20 years for Iran to commit to not developing a nuclear weapon, but President Donald Trump had indicated that wouldn’t be enough for him.
The senior official indicated that the United States is willing to allow Iran to use nuclear in a civilian capacity.
“We’re not bothered at all by the idea of civilian power plants in Iran. What we’re bothered by is the type of infrastructure that would allow them to jump from civilian power generation to nuclear weapons development, and that’s what they’ve had for a very long time,” they said.
Unclear if Iran’s supreme leader has formally signed off on agreement with US
A senior administration official declined Friday to say whether Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has personally signed off on the current agreement being negotiated between Tehran and Washington.
Asked directly whether Iran’s supreme leader has approved the memorandum of understanding, the official sidestepped the question.
“All we can take is the people, both on the civilian and military side, both of whom have attested that the supreme leader is comfortable with where we are in the negotiation,” they said.
The official emphasized that under Iran’s system, final approval ultimately rests on the supreme leader’s “sign off.”
“All we can do is strike the deal, enforce the deal, and only provide the benefits to Iran when we get the benefits for the American people, and that’s our plan,” the official said.
US-Iran agreement lays out 60-day period for more "technical" negotiations
The memorandum of understanding being negotiated between the US and Iran states that, if signed, it would trigger a 60-day period for “technical” negotiations to take place, a senior Trump administration official said Friday.
While the memorandum outlines a series of topline commitments that Iran must agree to — including the dismantling of its nuclear program, reopening the Strait of Hormuz and the US destroying Iran’s enriched material — the highly technical talks will focus on how to specifically implement and carry out those points, the official said.
Technical details on destroying Iran's nuclear stockpile have yet to be worked out
Technical details of how to remove Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium have yet to be worked out, a senior US administration official said.
“The Iranians commit to destroying and removing the enriched material, but how do you do that? Is going to take a little bit of time to figure it out,” the official said. “This is very combustible stuff, very volatile stuff. We’re not just going to, like, go down there with a backhoe and a guy with a backpack and start taking it out.”
Iran is believed to have a stockpile of nearly 1,000 pounds of near-bomb-grade uranium buried deep underground at its Isfahan nuclear site.
Various options have been floated for destroying it, including down-blending it with lower-purity uranium.
The official said discussions on how to proceed with the stockpile would occur in the next round of technical talks.
“We’re going to figure out how to do that in the technical negotiations that will follow, but we think that this is the first and most important step to really ensuring that the Iranians do not build a nuclear weapon,” the official said.
What to know as the US and Iran look to reach agreement
An agreement between the US and Iran that could lead to an end to the war appears to be materializing, even as what we know about the framework appears to differ.
Here’s what else we’ve learned over the past few hours:
- What a top Iranian official is saying: A memorandum of understanding between Tehran and Washington “has never been closer,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday, while cautioning against speculation about the agreement.
- Key mediator’s comments: The US and Iran have reached a “final, agreed upon text of the peace deal,” according to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who added: “Peace has never been this close as it is now.” Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs earlier said it welcomed the “progress” made. Multiple sources said the memo is being called the “Islamabad declaration,” in recognition of the mediating role that Pakistan played.
- Where signing could take place: A signing ceremony for the memo of understanding would most likely be held in Geneva, Switzerland, sources told CNN — not far from where Trump and a US delegation will attend a G7 summit next week in France. Trump yesterday said he anticipated a signing ceremony for the document soon, potentially in Europe, to be attended by Vice President JD Vance.
- Plans for peace talks: Sources tell CNN that US military and security personnel are planning for yet another round of peace talks involving senior US officials, possibly as early as this weekend. But any talks still remain at the mercy of unforeseen day-to-day events.
- Israeli reaction: Israel is pressing the US to prevent the unfreezing of Iranian assets as part of a ceasefire agreement, according to an Israeli source. Defense Minister Israel Katz also said today that Israel will not withdraw from the territories it occupies in Lebanon. Additionally, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement today that “as long as I am the Prime Minister of Israel, Iran will not have nuclear weapons.”
- In the strait: Meanwhile, the US military shot down two Iranian drones that were targeting vessels in the Strait of Hormuz last night, according to a US defense official.
This post has reporting from CNN’s Sophia Saifi, Lauren Kent, Mostafa Salem, Nic Robertson, Josh Campbell, Kaanita Iyer, Oren Liebermann, Tal Shalev and Mitchell McCluskey.
Fractures remain in Iranian leadership but “dissent is quite minimal,” US official says
Fractures remain within Iranian leadership about how to proceed, but the Trump administration believes the majority of officials are committed to the prospective agreement, a senior administration official said Friday.
“So we actually feel quite confident that there is consensus within the system. It doesn’t mean there isn’t some dissent, but we think that dissent is quite minimal,” the official told reporters.
Much of the messaging coming out of Tehran, specifically regarding the specifics of what is in the agreement, is due to Iranian hardliners wanting to project a more positive message to their internal audiences, the official argued.
“The Iranian hardliners, some of them want to kill the deal. But I think most of them actually want the deal, but they also want to message it to their internal audiences in a way that maximizes their upside and minimizes our upside,” the official said.
“That’s totally predictable, but just because they’re sort of engaged in domestic propaganda doesn’t mean that we have to follow suit. So, I’d be very skeptical of anything that comes out of IRGC-affiliated media. They’re trying to sell the deal to their internal population,” the official added.
Trump administration outlines agreement with Iran
A senior US administration official spelled out several points in the prospective agreement between the US and Iran, framing the document as accomplishing President Donald Trump’s objectives for the negotiations.
Included in the framework are:
1. The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and lifting the US blockade on Iranian ports.
2. Leads to the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program, including the United States obtaining Iran’s enriched material, which the official said would be destroyed on site and then taken out of the country.
3. Iran would be “relieved of a lot of the economic pressures that they’ve been under for many, many years” if the country complies with the deal’s provisions. “Those benefits only accrue if they actually deliver,” the official said.
The question of Iran’s financial relief has been a major sticking point in the talks between the US and Iran. The official was insistent such relief would only be forthcoming after Iran takes steps toward compliance.
“The Iranians don’t get anything upon the signing of the MOU or upon the negotiation itself,” the official said. “What they get is that they get rewarded economically for complying with their obligations under the deal. So, if they turn over the nuclear material as promised, they’ll get something. If they dismantle their nuclear programs or their nuclear facilities, they’ll get something else. If they really commit to regional peace and stability, they’ll get additional things on top of that.”
