After a months-long conflict, the United States and Iran are nearing an agreement officials say would open the Strait of Hormuz and deny Iran a nuclear weapon, but officials say they are not at the finish line yet.President Trum p said final points had been in both concept and great detail approved. He canceled a third night of bombings against Iran Thursday.We're not quite at the finish line yet, but we are very close, said a senior administration official, who noted they feel good about where we are.While the administration expects to sign an agreement over the next few days, a senior administration official said the confidence level is around 80-85 percent. They acknowledged some Iranian hardliners want to kill the deal but that they believe dissent is quite minimal.Their system is very complicated. Most of the people that we've been speaking to, and most of the people who have authority within their system, want to sign this deal, but not everybody, and those internal fractures are sort of working themselves out as they continue to try to get to the point where they can say yes to the deal, the official said.But it appears there is more confidence that Irans supreme leader approves.All we can take is the people, both on the civilian and military side, both of whom have attested that the leader is comfortable with where we are in the negotiations, the official said.RELATED NEWS | Trump cancels planned Iran strikes, claims 'settlement of the war'Other Iranian leaders also indicated progress towards finalizing a deal.The Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding has never been closer. Pending its finalization, the media should refrain from entering speculation about its content, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X."The agreement would ultimately dismantle Irans nuclear program, end Iranian funding of proxy groups, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and provide economic benefits based on Iranian performance, according to a senior administration official.What we've accomplished through some combination of leverage and diplomacy is a commitment to get rid of their highly enriched material and a commitment to not build or buy a nuclear weapon indefinitely, they said.A memorandum of understanding specifies the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, lifting of the blockade, and destruction and removal of enriched material, according to the official. A technical negotiation is envisioned for 60 days, where details on the nuclear issue are ironed out.The technical details need to be figured out, but I think there's a commitment to do that. There's also a commitment to dismantling the nuclear weapons program. There's a commitment to decommissioning the nuclear sites, and of course 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 senior administration official said.The terms laid out largely reflect the redlines in negotiations that officials held earlier on.Thats both promising but also a reminder that this thing could fall apart at any time, according to Michael OHanlon, the Philip H. Knight Chair in Defense and Strategy at the Brookings Institution.I don't know that Iran's really going to be capitulating. They haven't wanted to so far. If they have just wanted to capitulate, they could have done that four months ago, before this war began, and they haven't shown any signs of being more inclined to capitulate, just because a lot of their friends and family have been killed off by the air campaign. If anything, it seems to have made them harder and, and more dug in, OHanlon said.But OHanlon highlighted the 60 day period, the kind of number you would come up with if you were serious, and all sorts of creative middle grounds you could find on most of these issues as points of hope.They're not going to go into negotiations with the idea of just fooling us and having no interest in a deal whatsoever, and just sort of playing along, but they could go into the deal with very high expectations of what terms they'll be able to negotiate and a willingness to go back to hostilities if they, if they fail in the first instance, especially while we're still in the prelude to the midterms of 2026 where they think that Trump is particularly vulnerable politically, and therefore you know where they may have in fact the upper hand, he said of Irans potential positioning.The White House has teased being close to a deal before, only for it to not come to fruition.Over the past several weeks, Iranians have launched strikes against US forces in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain; Israel and Iran have traded fired over Israels operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon; and the US carried out strikes against military targets in response to the Iranian downing of a US Apache helicopter. Trump had warned of a third straight night of strikes, and potentially eyeing Irans oil hub, Kharg Island, just hours before the sudden reversal.The preceding 24 hours were an all hands on deck operation, according to the senior administration official.The entire team has been involved in passing messages and using back channels in order to get messages across, and you know, it's kind of how the administration operates, the official said.The administration received an answer through intermediaries Thursday in which Iran indicated they were ready to sign, according to another senior administration official. The President spoke to Gulf leaders as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.They want it every bit as much as everybody else wants and I think a lot of good relationships can ensue from this, President Trump said Thursday of Iran.RELATED STORY | Iran is accused of downing a US Apache. A robot boat pulled the crew to safetyOver the past couple of weeks, a senior administration official points to weakened control of the Iranian straight, and specificity on the destruction and removal of enriched material.Where it was 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. 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, the official said.An official said little changes here and there were hashed out the past days, pointing to details on financial relief and enrichment pursuits.It is a performance based deal, that does not provide financial relief on the signing of the memorandum of understanding or negotiation, according to a senior administration official, they get rewarded economically for complying with their obligations under the deal. Benefits could include unfreezing of assets and sanctions relief.The administration's approach of military pressure and economic pressure has worked, and it is because of that, that Iran has realized it has to get to the table, said Jacob Olidort, Dr. Jacob Olidort, Chief Research Officer Director for American Security at the America First Policy Institute, also pointing to Lebanon. The Iranian regime is now faced with a fork on the road, it has, on the one hand, its nuclear ambitions, and on the other, its survival.Washington had worked to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, that still saw strikes between Israel and Hezbollah, before Trump demanded a stop to the shooting amidst efforts to reach a deal with Iran, but before the downing of the US helicopter.We don't expect any country, whether the Gulf Coast or Israel, to give up their right of self-defense. What we do expect is that if we're able to have everyone participate in the peace process, that everyone else will do the same, said a senior administration official.There appears to still be mistrust, though.President Trump accused Iran of leaking terms that have NOTHING to do with the terms that were agreed to, in writing, Trump wrote on Truth Social, warning Iran to get their act together, and FAST!Friday afternoon, the US, Iran and Pakistan warned of false information amid speculation about the deal specifics and Iranian response.I'm seeing a lot of fake information about a potential deal to reopen the Strait and end Iran's nuclear weapons program. First, the Iranians are not receiving any cash, and no funds are being released for simply signing a deal or attending a meeting. The deal is structured to ensure that the US and its allies concerns are prioritized, and that if the Islamic Republic of Iran meets its obligations, then economic benefits will flow to them and to the entire region, Vice President JD Vance wrote on X.Amid ongoing intense mediation efforts by Pakistan, we are fully aware of incessant misinformation campaign being waged by those who want to sabotage the peace deal. Setting aside the noise, we can confirm that a final, agreed upon text of the peace deal has been reached and Pakistan is now working closely with both sides to finalize the next steps. Peace has never been this close as it is now, Pakistans Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wrote on X.A signing location is not yet known, but the official said we want to make sure that it's a place for both the Qataris, the Pakistanis, and of course the Iranians can get to, and are happy with, the countries having helped mediate. ...read more read less