Trump says Iran pledged not to develop nuclear weapons
Frozen assets and uranium dispute continue to delay US-Iran deal
Lebanon conflict intensifies despite fragile ceasefire efforts in West Asia
US President Donald Trump said at the weekend that he had secured a commitment from Iran that it would not develop nuclear weapons, according to AFP.
This came after The New York Times and Axios both reported that Trump had returned the draft framework to Iran with tougher terms, prolonging what has already been a weeks-long effort to formally end West Asia war.
Meanwhile, Iran continued to push back on Washington's claims. Tehran reiterated its demand for the release of $12bn in frozen assets before it would engage substantively on issues including its nuclear programme.
Iranian state media described Trump's earlier assertion that enriched uranium would be destroyed as "baseless." On the Strait of Hormuz, after Trump posted on social media that ships would face "no tolls" under any deal, Fars news agency cited sources saying no such clause appeared in the draft text. An Iranian lawmaker separately told ISNA that parliament would soon approve a plan to formalise Iran's "management and sovereignty" over the waterway.
Though daily strikes across Iran and the Gulf have largely stopped since the April ceasefire and subsequent talks hosted by Pakistan, armed incidents have continued. The worst flare-up since the ceasefire broke out earlier in the week when US forces struck the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, drawing retaliatory fire from Iran.
Iran's state broadcaster subsequently reported that its Revolutionary Guards had shot down a US military drone it said was approaching Iranian territorial waters, a claim the US had not confirmed at the time of reporting.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday, reinforced the military backdrop to the negotiations, saying Washington was "more than capable" of resuming the war if necessary.
In Lebanon, Israel's military confirmed it was expanding its ground offensive, with a significant number of forces advancing beyond the Litani river into the Beaufort Ridge and Wadi al-Saluki area — more than 30 kilometres inside Lebanese territory, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam accused Israel of a "scorched-earth policy and collective punishment" and called for an immediate ceasefire.
