Trump will remain ‘patient’ in pursuit of a deal with Iran, says Hegseth

Donald Trump would remain “patient” in pursuit of a deal with Iran, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said as Washington and Tehran searched for agreement to extend their fragile ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Hegseth said in Singapore on Saturday that he had spoken to the US president “this morning”. “He wanted me to reiterate how patient he is in ensuring that with America undertaking this kind of historic endeavour [the Iran war], any deal will be a good one. A great one,” Hegseth said.

The defence secretary said Trump would remain “patient in the pursuit of that”, to ensure “they don’t get a nuclear weapon”.

Hegseth also said the US would be ready to restart attacks on Iran if a deal could not be reached. “We are more than capable. Our stockpiles are more suited to that, both there and around the globe,” Hegseth said at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue.

Earlier Trump had said he was making a “final determination” on an agreement with Iran, even as Tehran warned the deal was not finalised.

A White House official later said a Situation Room meeting involving the president and advisers had ended after about two hours. “President Trump will only make a deal that is good for America and satisfies his red lines. Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon,” the official said.

The president had laid out his demands for the agreement in a social media post on Friday.

“Iran must agree that they will never have a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb. The Hormuz Strait must be immediately open, no tolls, for unrestricted shipping traffic, in both directions,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Iran would also remove any remaining mines from the waterway — through which one-fifth of global oil supplies normally pass — and the US counter-blockade would “be lifted”, he said.

Oil prices fell this week on growing hopes of a deal between Washington and Tehran. Brent crude, the international benchmark, settled 1.8 per cent lower at $92.05 a barrel on Friday — a six-week low.

The US would excavate Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile from beneath the rubble of a previous US bombing campaign, “in close co-ordination and conjunction with the Islamic republic of Iran, plus the International Atomic Energy Agency”, and then destroy it, Trump said.

“No money will be exchanged, until further notice,” he added, referring to the sanctions relief and access to frozen overseas Iranian assets that have been components of the negotiations.

Hegseth spoke at length in Singapore of US plans to increase munitions production to reassure allies concerned that it had depleted its reserves in Iran.

“America is undergoing a historic national manufacturing mobilisation of our defence industrial base,” he said. “We will produce the best weaponry in the world at scale, at speed, and at a reasonable price. This is my personal commitment to all of you.”

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson on Friday said that while “messages are being exchanged”, no agreement had been finalised.

Abbas Araghchi, Tehran’s foreign minister, also told his Omani counterpart that Washington must drop its excessive demands and refrain from “taking contradictory positions”.

Iran’s Fars news agency, which is close to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, had quoted unnamed officials who said Trump’s comments were “a mix of lies and truths” and “a fake show of victory” through “baseless claims”.

Fars added the US president’s comments on the nuclear dossier were “baseless” and that the unfreezing of $12bn of assets had to happen “immediately” before Iran could enter into any new rounds of talks. It also said Tehran insisted on a “thorough ceasefire” between Israel and Hizbollah, the militant movement in Lebanon.

Iranian analysts have said it was highly unlikely that the Islamic regime would be willing to hand over to the US its 440kg stockpile of uranium enriched close to weapons-grade levels as it would be viewed as akin to surrender.

Trump made his comments after a week of conflicting signals over progress to get the warring parties to agree to a “memorandum of understanding” that would extend the ceasefire agreed on April 8 by 60 days.

Under the proposed terms that both parties have been reviewing, Iran would gradually allow the strait to reopen and remove mines from the waterway during the first 30 days.

It would not charge ships a fee for the duration of the 60-day period, said people briefed on the talks.

Negotiations would also begin after the MoU was agreed over Iran’s nuclear programme, with a commitment to discuss Tehran either diluting or handing over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Iran would also agree not to develop a nuclear weapon.

In return, the US would agree, in phases, to sanctions relief and the unblocking of Iran’s assets held overseas, although that would depend on progress towards a final pact, people briefed on the proposal said.

Washington would also ease its naval blockade on Iranian ports.

Both sides have indicated that they are close to reaching a deal, while cautioning that outstanding issues need to be resolved.