Iran war updates: Iran says no decision on peace deal as Trump claims 'great settlement' reached — as it happened

And that's where we'll leave it for today, folks, in the hope that peace is just around the corner.

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Saudi Arabian state media has published details it says are of the draft final agreement between America and Iran.

Al Arabiya says sources have told them the agreement contains:

• A 60-day extension of the truce
• Opening the Strait of Hormuz
• That there will be negotiations regarding enriched uranium in Iran
• The US will lift sanctions on Iran

The Strait of Hormuz — and who controls it — has been one of the sticking points between Iran and the US.

In May, Iran implemented a new transit regime for the strategic waterway, establishing the Persian Gulf Strait Authority and warning ships that they would need Iranian authorisation to pass through.

Iran has claimed a legal ownership of the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian state media says the state has been working with Oman to discuss its future operation.

For more background on the Strait of Hormuz, read the story below by my colleague Audrey Courty.

When the US and Israel attacked Iran a year ago with the stated purpose of dismantling its nuclear arsenal, US President Donald Trump said the mission was a great success.

But the enriched uranium survived and has been stockpiled under a mountain range.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement earlier this week that, while it had been a year since it had been able to access nuclear facilities in Iran affected by the June 2025 attacks, it had conducted a routine inspection of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant.

Egypt has urged the United States and Iran to seize an "available opportunity" for a deal to end the war, after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat to carry out further strikes on Iran.

Cairo's foreign ministry said in a statement that it hoped "the available opportunity will be seized to reach a deal on the various outstanding issues and to prepare the atmosphere for reaching an end to the war and beginning a new phase of regional stability".

As we reported this morning, US President Donald Trump said a peace agreement could be signed in Europe this weekend.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson then said reports regarding a time and place of signing the agreement remained speculative.

What we do know is happening in Europe soon is the G7 summit in France, which begins on Monday, local time.

It will be one of the first major international gatherings since the United States and Israel started a war against Iran in late February.

Leading European nations and their G7 allies will seek to narrow differences with the US president at the summit, while promoting efforts to end the conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. 

Other issues will be on the agenda too, such as bringing Russia to the negotiating table over its war with Ukraine, and Washington's protectionist trade policies.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama is backing a massive coastal development project linked to Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, despite growing resistance from protesters in Albania.

Rama defended his administration's environmental record and insisted the protests were being encouraged by malicious cyber activists overseas.

"There is a lot of manipulation. There are a lot of half-truths that become bigger and bigger lies by the hour," Rama said, accusing Iran of targeting his government.

The allegations, which Rama has made for several years, followed a dispute with Albania after it sheltered members of an Iranian opposition group in 2022.

Iran has denied the claims.

In Albania, thousands of protesters are taking to the streets nightly, blowing whistles and holding up cardboard cut-outs of flamingos — one of the protected migratory bird species that could see their habitats threatened by the proposed luxury resort.

Despite Rama's defence of the development, the protests have gathered pace, with supporters in Albanian communities in neighbouring Greece and other European countries also holding rallies.

Reporting with AP

For more background, please read the story below by my colleague Tessa Flemming.

Here are some more comments Donald Trump made earlier about negotiations with Iran during a telephone rally in support of Senate candidate Barry Moore.

"The big thing is there will be no nuclear weapons in Iran. That means not developed and not purchased," Trump said.

"They had a clause [that] they won’t develop. I said, 'What about purchasing?' They said, 'Well, we didn’t cover that.' So, two days later, they agreed to that.

"We got everything we wanted."

We're still waiting to hear more from Iran on the status of the negotiations and what may have been agreed to.

But, as we reported earlier, Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Iran would not compromise on its "red lines".

What Iran's "red lines" are exactly is unclear.

In the past, however, Iranian officials like Ebrahim Azizi — who heads the Iranian parliament's national security committee — said the red lines included the right to enrich uranium and possess enriched uranium.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) say they have shot down a drone near northern Israel town Metula.

There were reports of air raid sirens in Metula a short time ago.

In a post on X, the IDF said a "hostile aircraft" had flown into Metula airspace.

"The Air Force intercepted an unmanned aircraft identified in the area where IDF forces are operating in southern Lebanon," the post, translated from Hebrew, said.

"Alerts for rocket and missile fire were activated following the interception attempts."

The US has shot down two Iranian one-way attack drones, an unnamed senior US defence official has told Reuters.

The official said it appeared Iran was attempting to strike commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

Earlier, we reported that Iran's military had prevented an oil tanker from passing through the strait, following reports of explosions heard around the coastal area of Sirik and Bandar Abbas.

However, the senior US official told Reuters that "traffic flow through the strait continues".

Yesterday Iran said the strait was closed and it threatened to shoot at ships trying to pass through, but the US military insisted commercial traffic was continuing.

- With reporting from Reuters

On Wednesday, the US struck the Settebello, a commercial oil tanker, as it transited the Gulf of Oman.

At the time, three Indian crew members were reported missing.

Yesterday, India's shipping minister confirmed the three crew members were dead.

Esmaeil Baghaei, Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson, has taken to social media to condemn the US over their deaths.

Baghaei said the US attacks "stand as clear evidence of America’s ongoing policy of armed robbery and State piracy".

"The international community must hold the United States accountable for its lawless conduct, which continues to threaten global peace and security while endangering the freedom of navigation," he said.

The ​US military said one of its aircraft carried out a precision strike on the Settebello's engine room "after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with directions from American forces".

It said the Settebello "violated the ongoing blockade by attempting to transport oil from Iran".

But the ship's manager, IOS Marine FZE, rejected suggestions that it was carrying Iranian oil and ignored warnings.

- With reporting from Reuters 

US President Donald Trump has made some more comments about a purported peace deal in the works with Iran.

They follow a press conference in the Oval Office earlier.

During a telephone rally for Barry Moore, his chosen candidate in Tuesday's Senate run-off in Alabama, Trump said US representatives had "made a great deal".

"Today we settled up with Iran," Trump said.

"People will start coming home very soon ... we got everything we wanted."

Here's a series of photos taken from the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas on Wednesday, local time.

They were snapped by a photographer from the West Asia News Agency and filed to Reuters.

Bandar Abbas is on the coastline of the Strait of Hormuz, with vessels in the shipping route very easy to spot from local beaches.

Explosions have been heard in Bandar Abbas a few times this week, including in the very early hours of Wednesday morning, local time, when the US retaliated after one of its helicopters was downed.

These photos were taken on Thursday, local time:

The Iranian military has blocked an oil tanker from passing through the Strait of Hormuz, local media are reporting.

Iranian media earlier reported sounds of explosions near Bandar Abbas, but state news agency IRNA later said no explosions had been reported within the city itself.

The report said any sounds of explosions could have been related to military activity in the strait.

There were also reports of explosions heard along the Sirik coast, which isn't far from Bandar Abbas.

A military source told state media the sounds heard near Sirik were linked to Iranian forces confronting an oil tanker attempting to pass through the strait.

The tanker later complied with the ban on transit after receiving warnings from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy, the source said.

Yesterday, Iran said it had closed the strait and threatened to shoot at any vessels trying to travel through the shipping route.

The US military, however, refuted this and said commercial ships were still transiting the strait.

- With reporting from Reuters 

The ABC's Americas editor John Lyons has joined us just from Washington DC to provide some insight on Trump's latest suggestions that a peace agreement is near.

"This is certainly a more positive sign than we've seen in the past," he said.

"It looks like it may be happening this time. Lots of the countries in the region seem to want it.

"The key is Iran. Does Iran want to drag this out and try to prolong the political pain [to Trump] or is Iran ready to end this as well?"

Watch what Lyons had to say:

Iranian state media reported an explosion was heard from Sirik, on the Iranian southern coast, adding the source of the sound was unknown.

A short time later, another report came in about two explosions heard in Bandar Abbas.

Iranian media outlet Fars then reported that Iranian forces did not allow a "violating tanker" to enter the Straight of Hormuz without coordination to pass.

It's nearly 2am in Iran right now.

- With reporting from Reuters 

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz had a massive impact on global oil prices.

So how is this news about a potential deal affecting the price per barrel?

Associated Press is reporting that the price for a barrel of benchmark US crude went down by 2.6% to $US87.71.

Brent crude, which is the international standard, fell 2.9% to $US90.38.

However, it's still not back down to what it was before the war, which was roughly $US70.

Here's a snippet of US President Donald Trump's press conference earlier today:

While US President Donald Trump is talking up the prospect of signing the peace deal, the latest update from Iran appears to pour some cold water on that notion.

Esmaeil Baghaei, a spokesperson for the Iranian ministry of foreign affairs, said Iran had not yet made a final decision on the agreement.

Baghaei told Iran's state news agency Iran would not compromise on its "red lines".

He also said reports regarding a time and place of signing the agreement remained speculative and nothing has been finalised.

Baghaei said a large part of the negotiating text had been finalised, but the US kept changing their position during the talks.

Reporting with Reuters

There's a feeling of almost daily deja vu in Washington at the moment, where a "deal" with Iran has apparently been "days away" for weeks.

Today, Donald Trump has once again telegraphed plans for military action in Iran — then announced the plans have been cancelled because a deal is close.

Trump did the same thing in April after threatening to attack Iran's civilian infrastructure and warning "a whole civilisation will die tonight". He subsequently said Iran and the US had resolved "almost all of the various points of past contention" and an agreement would be "finalised and consummated" over a two-week period.

More than two months have since passed. Trump has spent a lot of that time insisting a deal is imminent.

In recent days, Trump's again suggested he could strike civilian infrastructure, accusing Iran of playing the US for suckers.

But now, according to his social media, "final points have been … approved by all parties involved" with a "signing to be announced shortly".

So is anything different this time? Or is this just the same old seesaw?

It's very hard to say, but the current situation is untenable. The double-blockade in the Strait of Hormuz means pressure on both sides is building. Mediators like Pakistan and Qatar have put great effort into getting a deal over the line.

There are reports some of those mediators are feeling optimistic. Axios, citing three sources, reported the Qataris and Iranians believed the US would accept an agreed-upon text. The New York Times reported Pakistani mediators had told Trump: "We have a deal."

But it's also not the first time we’ve heard the mediators are confident.

The other big question is: What's in the deal?

In the Oval Office today, Trump described it as a "very detailed memorandum of understanding that is a little conceptual". That suggests it could contain few specifics beyond an agreement to reopen the strait and restart talks.

A memorandum of understanding that was previously on the table reportedly included a pledge from Iran to negotiate over the removal of its enriched uranium, and a pledge from the US to negotiate over lifting sanctions, but without a concrete commitment on those things from either side.