Iran-US 60-Day Ceasefire Extension Agreed; Trump Yet to Sign

WASHINGTON — The White House on Thursday confirmed that the United States and Iran have agreed to a 60-day extension of the existing ceasefire through a memorandum of understanding, but the document remains unsigned and awaits President Donald Trump’s approval, according to a statement reported by Middle East Eye.

The confirmation marks the first time the administration has publicly acknowledged the substance of the MOU, which is intended to pave the way for talks on Iran’s nuclear program during the two-month window the extension would create.

A White House spokesperson said the draft Iran agreement remains unsigned pending the president’s review. The administration has not set a deadline for Trump’s decision, and officials did not specify what, if any, conditions Trump has attached to his signature.

What the extension would do

The 60-day extension would lock in the current cessation of major hostilities through late July and create a structured negotiating window focused on Iran’s nuclear program, according to Middle East Eye. The existing ceasefire, now roughly two months old, has been repeatedly tested by exchanges of fire between US and Iranian forces.

The MOU is the procedural step that precedes a broader peace framework Trump has been shopping to allies. On Thursday the White House also confirmed that Trump has circulated the draft Iran peace agreement to Israel and other allies, in what officials described as an effort to prevent further ceasefire breaches from collapsing the deal before it can be signed.

The Guardian independently confirmed that the draft has been shared with Israeli officials and other unspecified partners. Neither Israel nor the other recipient governments have publicly commented on the draft’s contents.

A contradictory day

The diplomatic confirmation came amid a series of events that pulled in the opposite direction.

US and Iranian forces exchanged fire for the second time in a week, Task & Purpose reported, despite the ceasefire that has technically been in effect for roughly two months. The outlet noted that the recurring exchanges have raised questions about whether the truce can survive the negotiation period the MOU is meant to create.

Earlier Thursday, Trump threatened to bomb Oman over alleged tolls being collected on shipping transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The US Treasury separately threatened Oman with sanctions over the Hormuz Strait, citing concerns over the toll system. Oman has served as a back-channel intermediary in past US-Iran negotiations, and the threats have complicated the diplomatic posture Washington is attempting to maintain in the region. Trump’s Oman threats and the GCC response drew condemnation from Gulf states earlier in the day.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also claimed a retaliatory strike on a US air base in Kuwait Thursday. The IRGC framed the strike as a response to US actions inside Iranian territory, escalating the kinetic backdrop against which the MOU sits.

Murphy: war ‘off the rails’

Senator Chris Murphy, the Connecticut Democrat, said Trump’s threats against Oman were a sign that the broader Iran conflict was spiraling beyond the administration’s control. Murphy characterized the Oman remarks as evidence the Iran war is “off the rails,” according to Middle East Eye.

Murphy, who has been among the more vocal Senate critics of the administration’s Iran policy, did not directly address the MOU confirmation. The senator has previously called for congressional authorization for further military action against Iran or its neighbors.

Yesterday’s denial, today’s confirmation

Thursday’s White House confirmation represents a reversal of the public posture in Tehran from one day earlier. On Wednesday, Iranian officials publicly denied that the MOU existed, characterizing US reporting of the draft as a White House fabrication.

The administration did not respond directly to the Iranian denial at the time. Thursday’s acknowledgement that the MOU was agreed by both parties — even if unsigned — undercuts the Iranian denial without explicitly calling it out.

The administration’s confirmation also follows Trump’s own public expressions of dissatisfaction with elements of the draft framework earlier in the week. Trump told the BBC he was “not satisfied” with parts of the deal, though he did not say which provisions he objected to. Whether his hesitation on signing the MOU reflects those same concerns is not yet clear.

The wider question

The BBC, in an analytical piece published Thursday, framed the underlying calculus as one in which neither Washington nor Tehran wants all-out conflict, but both are struggling to contain the tit-for-tat incidents that keep undermining the ceasefire. The outlet noted that the question is no longer whether a deal is theoretically possible but whether the operational environment will hold long enough for one to be signed.

The 60-day extension, if Trump signs, would be the longest formal pause in US-Iran hostilities since the conflict began. It would also be the first window in which structured nuclear negotiations have been scheduled under the current administration.

Where the ceasefire stands

As of Thursday evening, the existing ceasefire remained nominally in effect despite the day’s exchanges of fire, the IRGC claim of a strike in Kuwait, and the Treasury and presidential threats against Oman. The MOU remained unsigned. The peace draft circulated to Israel and other allies had not been made public.

Administration officials did not say when Trump would make a decision on the MOU. The president’s public schedule for Friday did not list any Iran-related events.

Whether the extension survives the gap between agreement and signature — and whether Iran continues to acknowledge the document privately even after denying it publicly — will determine whether the 60-day window opens at all.