A decision on any deal to end the conflict with Iran rests with the US president, treasury secretary Scott Bessent has said after reports negotiators for both sides had reached an agreement to extend the ceasefire by 60 days and start talks on the Middle East country’s nuclear plans.
The cabinet member refused to be drawn on the draft settlement when he answered questions at a White House briefing on Thursday.
The development came as the fragile truce in the three-month-long conflict was shaken after the US and Iran traded fresh attacks.
Repeatedly pressed by the media over reports of a tentative deal, Mr Bessent claimed not to have spoken with Donald Trump about the issue.
He said: “It’s always a mistake to get out ahead of the president, so it is all going to be the president’s decision.”
However, Mr Bessent again underlined Mr Trump’s demands that there would be no deal without Tehran agreeing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, getting rid of its highly enriched uranium and promising not to develop a nuclear weapon.
A short time earlier, he said: “So he’s not going to take a bad deal, he’s going to make a great deal for the American people.”
Mr Bessent also said he had received reassurances from Oman’s ambassador to Washington, Talal Alrahbi, that the Gulf state had “no plans for tolling the strait”.
The US president had warned Oman it would have to “behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up”, following reports the country had been in talks with Iran over taxing shipping using the strategic waterway.
Referring to his call with Mr Alrahbi, Mr Bessent told reporters: “As he said, our countries have had 200 years of good relations. He wants to have another 200 more.
“I told him that this was a non-starter and he did not want to risk either the Omani individuals or Omani financial institutions getting sanctioned.”
