Tasnim leak: Hormuz transit stays under Iran's authority in proposed US deal

The Iranian semi-official outlet Tasnim reported Saturday that under the framework being negotiated between Tehran and Washington, governance of the Strait of Hormuz would remain under Iran’s authority, the first concrete leak of deal contours and one that lands hours before President Donald Trump is expected to issue what his aides have called a “final determination” on the talks. The claim, carried by Middle East Eye in its Saturday morning wrap, surfaced as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian publicly pressed for what he called a “dignified framework” and as Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei rejected US “should and must” language in the latest round.

Tasnim, which is widely understood to operate in the orbit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, did not publish the underlying text and did not name a source inside the negotiating team. The outlet framed the Hormuz provision as a Tehran win and tied it to broader sovereignty language Iranian negotiators have been pushing into the draft. Middle East Eye, summarizing the Tasnim item, noted that the leak is unverified and that no US official has confirmed the specific Hormuz language, but that the report aligns with comments from Iranian officials over the past 48 hours signaling that maritime authority is a red line Tehran will not trade for sanctions relief.

The diplomatic state around the leak is unsettled. Pezeshkian, speaking publicly Friday and again Saturday, said any deal must come within what he termed a dignified framework and warned that domestic political space for concessions is narrow, per Middle East Eye’s running coverage. On the US side, a White House statement reiterated red lines around uranium enrichment and ballistic missile range, language the administration has repeated in nearly every public comment since the 60-day ceasefire extension was acknowledged on May 28. Baghaei, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, pushed back specifically on the framing of US demands, saying — per Middle East Eye’s account — that Washington is not in a position to use prescriptive language like “should” and “must” toward Tehran.

The internal Iranian split is visible. The Pezeshkian camp is signaling flexibility on inspections and timetables; the security establishment is pulling the other way. An adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, quoted in the same Middle East Eye sweep, characterized the current US posture as betraying diplomacy, language consistent with the harder line coming out of IRGC-affiliated media — of which Tasnim is the most prominent. Al Jazeera’s day-92 live coverage tracked the same divide through Saturday morning, leading with Trump’s expected determination and citing both Iranian and Gulf diplomatic sources who described the next 24 hours as the narrowest window the talks have had.

If the Tasnim claim survives contact with the actual text, it would mark a significant US retreat from the track laid down earlier in the week by Treasury. On May 28, OFAC moved on what it labeled a Persian Gulf Strait Authority designation, a sanctions architecture predicated on the position that Iranian unilateral control of Hormuz transit is itself sanctionable conduct. A framework that explicitly preserves Iranian authority over the strait would cut against that designation’s logic and would force Treasury to either narrow the order or quietly shelve it.

The Hormuz concession would also undercut conditions Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent laid out earlier in the week. In a Tuesday statement covered here, Bessent tied sanctions relief to specific Iranian behavior on Hormuz transit and on uranium stockpile disposition, pairing the two as non-severable. If the leaked framework drops the Hormuz condition while keeping the uranium one, it would represent the kind of decoupling Bessent’s statement was explicitly designed to prevent. Neither Treasury nor the White House had responded to the Tasnim report by the time of publication.

Maritime conditions in the Gulf have not eased. The UK Maritime Trade Operations Gulf advisory remains in force following the IRGC warning-shot incident earlier in the week. War-risk insurance premiums for Hormuz transits remain elevated against pre-cycle baselines, and major operators are still routing on caution. The IRGC’s live-fire incident on May 29 — which Vice President JD Vance addressed the same day by saying the US is “very close” to a deal — has not been formally closed out by either side, and Friday’s record US crude export and SPR release data suggests Washington is hedging physically against a tape-bomb on Monday’s open.

What to watch

Trump’s expected final determination today is the proximate trigger. If the determination tracks the Tasnim-leaked contours — Iranian authority over Hormuz preserved, sanctions relief sequenced against nuclear concessions — markets will read it as a deal-positive surprise and Brent should open soft Sunday night. If Trump rejects the framework or attaches new conditions Tehran has not pre-cleared, the Foreign Ministry follow-up will come within hours and the UKMTO posture will be the tell. Either way, the Brent and WTI Monday opens will price the first verdict.