60 Days to Defuse a Powder Keg: US and Iran Clinch Tentative Ceasefire Extension — But Trump’s Pen Holds the Final Word
In a high-stakes diplomatic breakthrough, U.S. and Iranian negotiators have hammered out a 60-day memorandum of understanding that would extend the current ceasefire and open formal talks on Iran’s nuclear program — but the deal remains in limbo until President Donald Trump gives his final approval, U.S. sources confirmed to Fox News. The tentative pact comes on the heels of some of the most dangerous military exchanges in years: just days ago, the U.S. launched “self-defense strikes” in southern Iran, destroying Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps boats caught laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz and a surface-to-air missile site in Bandar Abbas. Hours before the deal was struck, U.S. forces shot down a swarm of Iranian drones over the strait, followed by an Iranian ballistic missile strike on U.S. ally Kuwait — which CENTCOM called an “egregious ceasefire violation.” Against this backdrop of near-all-out conflict, the proposed truce offers a fragile off-ramp, but one that could still collapse if Trump balks.
The core obstacle remains unchanged: Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Trump has repeatedly vowed that “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” a promise he reiterated Wednesday alongside the warning that if no deal materializes, “we’ll have to just finish the job.” Iranian officials, however, have drawn their own red lines in the sand. Ebrahim Azizi, head of Iran’s parliamentary national security committee, posted on X that Tehran will not negotiate away its right to enrich uranium, maintain stockpiles, control the Strait of Hormuz, or accept continued sanctions. “It is obvious Trump, seeking a way out of this strategic deadlock, alternates between issuing threats and appealing for an agreement,” Azizi wrote. With the clock ticking and both militaries still on a hair trigger, the next 48 hours will determine whether this 60-day extension becomes a bridge to lasting diplomacy — or just the calm before an even deadlier storm.
