Iran negotiator says final draft not approved, warns Tehran could exit

Iran’s negotiating team broke publicly on Saturday with the narrative that a US-Iran framework agreement is close to signature, with a member of the team’s media committee saying the final draft has not been approved and that Tehran retains the right to walk away if Washington violates the terms. The statement, delivered hours after Iranian state media circulated a proposed text that would keep the Strait of Hormuz under Iranian authority, complicates a day in which the White House had signaled a final determination was imminent and the Pentagon insisted the US blockade of the strait remains in force.

Saeed Ajorlou, a member of the media committee of Iran’s negotiating team, said Saturday that Tehran “has yet to approve the final draft of a proposed agreement” with the United States, and warned that Iran could exit the deal in the event of American violations. The statement was the first on-record pushback from inside the Iranian delegation against the public impression — fueled by leaks earlier in the day — that the two sides had effectively converged on terms.

What Ajorlou said

In remarks carried by Middle East Monitor, Ajorlou framed the proposed deal as still under negotiation rather than awaiting signature, and emphasized that any Iranian commitment would be conditional on US compliance. The phrasing — that Tehran “can quit” the deal over violations — is conventional treaty language, but in the current cycle it functioned as a public floor: the negotiating team itself is telling domestic audiences that nothing has been agreed and that exit options are preserved.

The intervention matters because the day’s earlier coverage had run in the opposite direction. Iranian state-affiliated outlet Tasnim published what it described as the framework’s operative clauses, including language placing the Strait of Hormuz under Iranian management — the centerpiece of our morning coverage of the Tasnim leak and the trigger for President Trump’s expected final determination. Ajorlou’s Saturday statement does not repudiate that text, but it does deny that the text has cleared Iran’s internal approval process.

The contradiction with the morning framing

The gap between the leaked framework and Ajorlou’s statement is the central diplomatic fact of the day. The Tasnim text suggested a near-final document; the negotiating team is now saying there is no final document. Both can be true — drafts circulate inside negotiations without being adopted — but the public effect is to puncture the impression that a signing ceremony is days away.

That gap also cuts against the White House posture. Trump aides spent the week signaling that a final determination on Hormuz would issue within days. This framing assumed the Iranian side was prepared to lock in terms. Ajorlou’s statement reopens the question of whether Tehran’s delegation has the authority — or the political cover — to close.

Tehran’s domestic posture

The hardline pressure on Iran’s negotiators is not subtle. Earlier Saturday, the Majles advanced a bill formally codifying Iranian management of the Strait of Hormuz, as covered in our report on the parliamentary move and the IRGC vessel warning. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps separately issued a navigational warning to commercial shipping that any vessel transiting the strait without Iranian clearance would be treated as hostile.

Al Jazeera, surveying the day’s developments, described Iran as having “reasserted control” over the strait even as talks with Washington remained stalled. That is the environment in which Ajorlou’s “draft not approved” line lands: a negotiating team boxed in by domestic actors who are already legislating and signaling as if the framework’s Hormuz language were a fait accompli.

US side: blockade in place, enforcement underway

The American posture moved in the opposite direction over the course of the day. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue, told reporters that the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz “remains in place,” language that contradicted the leaked framework’s transfer of authority to Iran. Hegseth’s broader remarks on a $1.5 trillion defense posture and US capability are covered in our Shangri-La report.

Enforcement followed the rhetoric. CENTCOM confirmed Saturday evening that a Hellfire strike had disabled the tanker Lian Star attempting to transit the strait against US Navy instructions, detailed in our Lian Star coverage. The Navy’s standing mine advisory for the strait, issued earlier in the week, remained active — itself a contradiction with any framework that would acknowledge Iranian authority over the waterway.

Analysis: what would have to break

For a deal to actually land in the next 72 hours, three things would have to align. Ajorlou’s committee would have to walk back the “draft not approved” line or be overridden by the Supreme National Security Council. The Majles bill on Hormuz management would have to stall before final passage, since codifying unilateral Iranian authority in domestic statute is incompatible with a bilateral framework that the US is willing to sign. And the Pentagon would have to lift the blockade, ending the operational state in which US warships are firing on tankers that refuse Navy instructions.

None of those three look imminent. Hardliners in Tehran have an institutional veto via parliament and the IRGC; hardliners in Washington have an operational veto via CENTCOM’s rules of engagement and the Pentagon’s stated posture. The window for a clean deal narrows each time either side takes a step that the other cannot accept.

What to watch

• Trump’s final determination on the Hormuz framework, expected within days.
• Movement on the Majles management bill — committee markup, full-floor vote, Guardian Council review.
• Any further CENTCOM enforcement action against commercial vessels in the strait.
• Whether Ajorlou’s statement is reinforced by Foreign Minister Araghchi or contradicted by the Supreme National Security Council.
• Brent crude on Sunday’s open, which will price in the gap between the framework leak and Ajorlou’s denial.