Trump raises expectations that deal to wind down Iran war may be close

Aamer Madhani, Farnoush Amiri and Lisa Mascaro, Associated Press

US president Donald Trump is looking ahead to a big weekend for his presidency, which will also see him turn 80.

It also marks the return of the World Cup to the US on Friday for the first time in 32 years, after Mr Trump threw himself into winning the bid to co-host the international football tournament during his first term.

He will also be feted on Sunday, his birthday, during a UFC fight night that is expected to draw thousands to the White House grounds.

Hours after the final bout, he is scheduled to jet off to the G7 summit in the French Alps for talks with several world leaders he has been in dispute with over war and tariffs.

But Mr Trump set expectations even higher for the coming days when he announced on Thursday that the US and Iran could come to terms this weekend on an agreement that would set the pathway to end the three-month-old war that has been broadly unpopular with Americans and has rattled global oil markets.

He said he plans to dispatch vice president JD Vance to the signing of the agreement.

Mr Trump has said on several occasions in recent weeks that he is on the cusp of a deal without anything coming to fruition. A spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry told state television following Mr Trump’s comments that mediators were active but nothing had been finalised to end the conflict.

However, Mr Trump is claiming this time might be different.

The breakthrough comes after he threatened to escalate the conflict with more intense bombardment of Iran and by seizing control of Iran’s oil industry, including capturing Iran’s vital Kharg Island oil facility.

The US president’s threats followed back-and-forth strikes this week that had rendered a temporary ceasefire agreed to in early April all but meaningless.

“They’ve taken a pounding like very few people could take,” Mr Trump said in an Oval Office exchange with reporters as he explained why he was confident that, this time, a deal would come through. “And they want to make the deal a lot more than I do.”

Mr Trump offered scant details about the settlement he says is taking shape, but told reporters that he believed the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who is believed to have been wounded on the first day of the war and has not been seen in public since, is ready to sign off on the deal.

The US leader is billing the deal as “very strong”, though he says it remains “a little conceptual”, and says it would ensure Iran is blocked from ever developing a nuclear weapon.