WASHINGTON, DC – US President Donald Trump has posted a series of rapid-fire messages on the US-Israel-Iran war, claiming his government has secured significant concessions ahead of the possibility of another round of cease-fire negotiations.
President Trump’s statement posted on Truth Social on Friday claimed that Iran had agreed to open the Strait of Hormuz and “never close it.”
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He also claimed that Iran would hand over “nuclear dust” and “forbid” Israel from launching an attack on Lebanon.
Iran has confirmed it will reopen the Strait of Hormuz during a “period” of the current cessation of fighting, which is scheduled to end early next week absent a new deal. But officials have rejected claims about the nuclear stockpile, and sources told Al Jazeera that negotiations were still in the preliminary stages.
Despite the unanswered questions, the US president was in a celebratory mood, calling Friday “a great and glorious day for the world!”
Separately, he told Bloomberg News that he expected negotiations to move forward on Sunday with a view to reaching a permanent ceasefire agreement.
Yazid Sayegh, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center, told Al Jazeera that “we don’t see the whole picture,” pointing to Trump’s tendency to exaggerate and several unresolved issues.
“But this suggests positive momentum towards something that could eventually become a comprehensive agreement.”
Sayegh added that Trump may have an ulterior motive for striking an upbeat tone at a time when congestion in the Strait of Hormuz has driven up prices for everything from fuel to fertilizer.
“It’s very interesting that President Trump is taking such a positive view of things, not just trying to encourage the markets and lower oil prices and raise stock prices,” Sayegh said.
“But I also think he may be preparing for further revelations about the nature of his negotiations with Iran.”
President Trump says Iran will ‘never close’ the Strait of Hormuz
Some of President Trump’s social media claims appeared to be confirmed in a separate statement from Tehran. But details showed a distance between President Trump’s position and Iran’s.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced on Friday that following the 10-day cessation of fighting in Lebanon, “the Strait of Hormuz has been declared completely open to all commercial shipping for the remainder of the ceasefire period.”
President Trump quickly echoed this claim on social media, writing that the strait is “fully open and ready for full transit.”
However, a senior Iranian military official told state media that only non-military vessels would be allowed to pass through the strait, and only with permission from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) navy.
President Trump then furthered his claim for freedom of maritime traffic, saying, “Iran has agreed to never again close the Strait of Hormuz.”
Maritime security expert Alexandre Hudisteanu told Al Jazeera that there was no confirmation from Iran that such a long-term commitment had been made.
“For example, we know that in the last six weeks or so of the war, the Iranian leadership grasped the fact that control of the Strait of Hormuz gave Iran a type of deterrence that its nuclear program, its ballistic missiles, its regional proxies didn’t really provide,” he said.
“Therefore, we do not believe that the Iranian leadership has made this type of commitment explicitly and irrevocably.”
Questions also remain regarding another post by President Trump regarding the US decision to close the strait.
President Trump posted that the ongoing blockade of Iranian ports in the Gulf “will remain in full force and effect as it relates to Iran until the transaction with Iran is 100% completed.”
However, media reports suggest that if such a blockage continues, Iran may close traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Fars news agency, which works closely with the Revolutionary Guards, reported that Tehran considers the continued U.S. blockade a violation of the current ceasefire and intends to close the strait again if it is not lifted.
Then there was the issue of mines in the Strait. President Trump also said on Truth Social, “Iran has removed or is removing all of its mines with the help of the United States!”
But Reuters reported that a US Navy advisory on Friday warned: “The TSS mine threat situation is not fully understood. Consider avoiding the area.” The statement referred to the Strait’s two-way traffic separation plan.
President Trump says the US will take all nuclear “junk”
A major impasse in negotiations between the United States and Iran is the future of Iran’s nuclear program. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons, but the United States and Israel have claimed that the first strike of the war on February 28 was planned to prevent Iran from building one.
On Friday, President Trump again appeared to insist that Iran would hand over its enriched uranium stockpile, writing on Truth Social that “the US will get all the nuclear ‘dust’.”
The term “Dust” appears to refer to the US decision to bomb three major Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22, 2025. President Trump has repeatedly claimed, despite contradictory evidence, that these attacks “annihilated” Iran’s nuclear program.
After Friday’s post, Trump told Reuters that the United States would work with Iran “at a slow pace to begin drilling with large machines to recover the uranium stockpiles that are on the ground.”
“We’re going to bring it back to the United States,” he added. He also told Bloomberg that Iran has agreed to suspend its nuclear program indefinitely.
Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera correspondent Ali Hashem said there was no confirmation of such an agreement.
“This is a big claim, because the Iranians have always said they will not accept such conditions,” Hashem said. “What we have heard from sources is that the issue of enrichment and sinking on any terms will be left until the end of negotiations.”
Later on Friday, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghai dismissing Trump’s claims, saying: “Enriched uranium is as sacred to us as Iranian soil and will not be transferred anywhere under any circumstances.”
President Trump also claimed that there would be “no payment or receipt of money in any way, shape or form,” which Iran has not confirmed.
Hashim added that the release of billions of dollars of frozen Iranian funds, the lifting of U.S. sanctions, and war damage compensation are key priorities for the Iranian government. He believes Iran will use issues such as the free flow of traffic in the Strait of Hormuz to extract concessions.
“What is the price of this?” Hashem said. “And what are the Iranians going to receive in return? These are big questions.”
President Trump says Israeli bombing of Lebanon is ‘prohibited’
Another issue that threatens to disrupt ceasefire talks is Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign in Lebanon. Iranian and Pakistani mediators had insisted that the initial ceasefire included Lebanon, but the United States and Israel denied it was part of the deal.
But on Thursday, a solution was announced. Israel agreed to halt its invasion and shelling of Lebanon for 10 days.
But on Friday, President Trump appeared to indicate that the suspension would be in place for a long time.
“Israel will no longer bomb Lebanon,” he wrote. “They are prohibited from doing so by the United States. Enough is enough!!!”
He added that the United States will work with Lebanon to “address the Hezbollah situation in an appropriate manner.”
Reporting from Washington, D.C., Al Jazeera correspondent Alan Fisher said the statement represents a particularly tough US stance on Israel, but it remains to be seen whether President Trump will actually seek punishment if Israel does not comply.
“That’s not something the United States tends to do,” Fisher said.
“Is Donald Trump actually going to change the norms of American politics in terms of how we treat Israelis, treating them as we have treated other countries in the past, effectively cutting them off?”
President Trump thanks regional countries, attacks NATO
President Trump’s posts on Friday were largely celebratory, though he did hand out darts and honors to various parties to the ceasefire talks.
President Trump thanked Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar for their “great courage and support.” He also expressed his gratitude to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir for their efforts in coordinating communications between the United States and Iran. He called them “two great people.”
But President Trump has criticized NATO for not supporting the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran and subsequent efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“Now that the situation in the Strait of Hormuz is over, I received a call from NATO asking if they needed any assistance. I told them to stay away unless they simply wanted to load oil onto a ship,” President Trump wrote. “It’s a papier-mâché tiger that was useless in an emergency!”
The Trump administration has indicated it is considering withdrawing from NATO, but such a move would require approval from Congress.
But despite President Trump’s recent comments, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said at a summit in Paris on Friday that European allies had agreed to accelerate a multinational military plan to secure the waterway.
