Donald Trump has moved to harden the terms of a potential ceasefire and nuclear framework with Iran, dispatching a revised proposal to Tehran after a Situation Room meeting on Friday. The amendments, disclosed by Axios and The New York Times, tighten language on Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. In a Fox News interview the next day, Trump claimed he had already secured a guarantee that Iran would not pursue nuclear weapons – an assertion Iranian officials promptly questioned, underscoring the gulf that persists between the two sides despite months of back-channel diplomacy.

Viewed from Washington, the intervention is a classic negotiating tactic: impose last-minute demands to extract maximum advantage. The current draft, a memorandum of understanding, commits Iran to forswear nuclear arms and sets a 60-day window for detailed negotiations on the nuclear programme and sanctions relief. But Trump, aides say, was frustrated by the slow pace of Iranian responses and the prospect of releasing frozen assets – a step he has likened to Barack Obama’s nuclear deal. His new directives seek granular detail on how and when the US would take possession of Iran’s enriched uranium, and how the strategic strait at Hormuz, blockaded since US-Israeli strikes on 28 February, would be secured.

From Tehran, the reaction has been wary. Iranian negotiators have long demanded the release of frozen funds before any comprehensive accord, a condition the White House has resisted. The office of the Supreme Leader is reviewing the framework, and while Trump’s narrative of a blanket commitment has been echoed, Iranian officials publicly doubt his account. Regional actors have also been drawn in; Pakistan, according to sources cited by Al-Manar, has joined as a mediator, reflecting a diplomatic effort that now extends far beyond Washington and Tehran.

Capitals in Europe and Asia, heavily dependent on Gulf energy shipments, are watching with rising anxiety. Analysts in London note that each edit to the draft risks stretching negotiations past the point at which the fragile military restraint holds. Moscow has maintained a studied distance, with state media merely passing along Western reports, but the Russian press has highlighted Trump’s frustration and the Obama analogy, framing the episode as a White House determined to avoid a perceived weak agreement.

The path forward now depends on Tehran’s response to the stiffer terms. If Iran accepts, a deal could be signed within weeks; one US official said it might be “a week, it could be less, it could be more.” Rejection or counter-demands would risk a return to open hostilities, a prospect neither side welcomes but that Trump appears willing to countenance to secure a pact he can sell as victory. For now, diplomacy is frozen in a familiar pattern of brinkmanship, with global energy markets and foreign ministries awaiting the next move.