US President Donald Trump said a long-awaited deal to end the war in the Middle East is scheduled to be signed on Sunday, paving the way for the opening of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
"The Deal is scheduled to get signed tomorrow, and immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.
Trump's statement, however, ran counter to Iran's foreign ministry, which indicated earlier in the day that the deal would not be signed Sunday, according to state media reports.
In his post, Trump also indicated the United States would take possession of and destroy Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium.
"At the appropriate time, when all is calm, we will go in and get the Nuclear Dust, buried deep under the powerful sunken granite mountains, thanks to our beautiful B-2 Bombers and their brilliant pilots, and downblend and destroy it, whether in Iran, or the United States," Trump said. "We look forward to working with Iran, and the entire Middle East, long into the future."
But Trump's post also contained a warning to the Islamic Republic to fully implement the plan or face serious consequences.
"Hopefully, this process will all work out quickly, easily, and smoothly," the US president wrote. "If it doesn't, we have the ultimate alternative, hopefully never to be used again!" Throughout the negotiations Iran has insisted on its right to enrich uranium
Earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has declared that the peace deal between Iran and the United States is expected to be finalised in the next 24 hours, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
In a post uploaded on X platform on Saturday, PM Shehbaz said, “We are closer to a peace deal than ever before.”
He said Pakistan is preparing for the electronic signing of the peace deal and technical-level talks would follow afterwards. “We would like to thank United States of America and Islamic Republic of Iran for their ongoing commitment during the negotiations, and we extend our sincere appreciation to our brothers in the region for their support,” he added.
The prime minister further said “We are confident that this historic peace deal will form a strong foundation for lasting peace.”
We are closer to a peace deal than ever before. With finalisation likely expected in the next 24 hours, Pakistan is preparing for the electronic signing of the peace deal immediately after, followed by technical level talks next week.
— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) June 13, 2026
We would like to thank United States of…
Reports suggest the US and Iran are going to sign the peace deal electronically.
Trump retweets Shehbaz's tweet
In a related development, US President Donald Trump reposted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's tweet on his social media platform, Truth Social. However, he did not add any personal comment to Shehbaz's tweet.
Iran says signing of memorandum with US will not take place on Sunday
The exact timing of the signing of the Islamabad memorandum will not be on Sunday, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei says, AFP reports citing state media.
Baghaei adds that the possibility of signing the memorandum in the coming days cannot be ruled out, but added that caution is needed regarding any comment on the signing date due to the hesitation of the other side.
US-Iran deal will be presented as the 'Islamabad Pact': Kh Asif
Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif says that the expected peace deal between the US and Iran will be presented as the “Islamabad Pact”.
“Pakistan was able to convince both parties to stay at the table, so that talks continue and reach a positive conclusion,” he tells media.
“On several instances, Israel adopted a negative role,” he adds, referring to military campaigns in Lebanon and Gaza.
“It was in their interest to keep this conflict going and keep America engaged in this region,” Asif says. “The US administration demonstrated that it was judicious and behaved and led the way a world leader should do.”
The minister adds that Iran has marked a new chapter in its 5,000-year history “with bravery … and love for their homeland”. He further says that both parties have shown sound judgment.
“The Gulf countries applied a great deal of restraint,” he adds.
US downs multiple Iran drones as both insist peace deal closer
The United States said it downed multiple Iranian drones targeting commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz early Saturday, hours after both sides said a deal to end the Middle East war was closer than ever.
The interception came after weeks of halting talks between Tehran and Washington, mediated by Pakistan, that have been marked by threats and exchanges of fire despite a fragile truce agreed in April.
US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees operations in the region, posted on X that Iran had "launched multiple one-way attack drones in an attempt to strike commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz".
"US forces have downed all of them in recent hours as traffic flow through the strait continues unimpeded," it said.
CENTCOM added that the Strait of Hormuz -- a key maritime trade route for oil and gas from the Gulf -- "remains open for transit", despite an Iranian enforced blockade since the start of the war.
Disagreements between the two sides have persisted, with Iranian state media publishing a breakdown of what was purportedly on the table that was at odds with Washington's account.
"The Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding has never been closer," Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, wrote in a social media post, referring to the Pakistani capital that hosted previous US-Iran talks.
Trump -- who on Friday morning accused the Iranians of negotiating in bad faith and misrepresenting the terms that had been agreed -- posted a screenshot of Araghchi's message on his own feed just hours later.
Araghchi provided some details on the agreement in an interview with state television, saying it calls for the lifting of the US naval blockade of Iran's ports and unspecified changes to the administration of the Strait of Hormuz.
He also said the only way to deal with the country's enriched uranium -- which Washington alleges is part of a nuclear weapons programme -- "is to dilute it inside Iran".
- 'Not 100 percent' -
Disputing Trump's "bad faith" accusation, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said an agreement had now been reached with Washington "on most points".
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country has been a key mediator since the initial talks, confirmed that "a final, agreed-upon text of the peace deal has been reached".
"Peace has never been as close as it is now," Sharif said, while acknowledging "incessant misinformation" surrounding the deal.
A senior US official also voiced optimism that the parties would be "signing this agreement over the next few days".
"If I were to give you a confidence that we were going to be signing this agreement, I maybe would have said 75 percent this morning, it's probably more like 80-85 percent now, but it's not 100 percent," the official told reporters in a call.
The Swiss foreign ministry on Friday said it had been in contact with both the United States and Iran, and had "proposed Switzerland as the venue for a possible signing, should the parties agree to it".
But Araghchi said that upon finalisation, a draft deal with the United States would be signed "remotely", adding that this could happen "in the coming days".
US ally Israel has said that Trump had promised it that any agreement would see Iran stripped of its enriched nuclear material, but Tehran's official IRNA news agency said this was not even on the table.
- 'Benefits will flow' -
According to IRNA's account, after an initial agreement is signed, Iran and the United States would hold 60 more days of talks and "Iran's right to enrich uranium and the retention of enriched material... will be emphasised with a view to their inclusion in the final agreement".
Beyond this, according to IRNA, Iran would insist on managing traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has blockaded since the outbreak of the war, causing major disruptions to the global economy.
On Friday, Iran's Mehr news agency, quoting a source close to the country's negotiating team, said the deal would also see the release of $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets.
But those details clashed with a summary offered by a senior White House official, who told AFP Iran had agreed to dismantle its nuclear programme, destroy its enriched uranium stockpile and reopen the strait -- and that Tehran would not see any of its frozen funds returned until it had honoured these commitments.
US Vice President JD Vance likewise said Iran was "not receiving any cash, and no funds are being released for simply signing a deal or attending a meeting".
But, he added, if "Iran meets its obligations, then economic benefits will flow to them and to the entire region".
–Agencies