Iran…Trump…Conflict/War…Evening…5/28/2026…Agreement?

White House officials provided only a vague outline of what the negotiating teams had agreed to, at least preliminarily.

Should the discussed agreement come to fruition, it could provide Iran with phases of economic relief and give Mr. Trump an off-ramp to a war that has proved deeply unpopular in the United States. It could reopen the Strait of Hormuz and ease the global energy crisis caused by the war, though experts say it could take a month or longer to get ships moving through the critical waterway.

The agreement would leave key issues, though, like the fate of Iran’s nuclear program, to future negotiations. Mr. Trump has vowed to prevent Iran from possessing a nuclear weapon, and demanded that it agree to dispose of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

Mr. Trump also insisted this week that Iran would not control the Strait of Hormuz and that the United States would “watch over it.” Iranian officials, having brought commercial traffic in the strait to a near halt, have discussed ways to keep control over it and charge transiting vessels.

It is not clear that all the parties are working from the same draft agreement, one diplomat involved in the process said. Communications between the sides have been frustratingly slow, U.S. officials said, because senior Iranian officials are communicating via couriers and the country’s supreme leader is in hiding.

The officials were not authorized to speak publicly, and all were granted anonymity to discuss the American view of the current negotiations.

Overnight Wednesday into Thursday, the U.S. and Iranian militaries exchanged strikes, underscoring the fragility of the negotiations. Iran fired a ballistic missile toward a U.S. base in Kuwait, according to the U.S. military and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which said it was retaliation for U.S. strikes in southern Iran. Kuwaiti forces intercepted the Iranian missile, the U.S. Central Command said.

In a statement, the Guards did not specify which base it had targeted but said it was aimed at an American installation from which the U.S. strikes originated. Further U.S. strikes would be met by an even “more decisive” response, the Guards added.

Here’s what else we’re covering:

• The framework: A new draft memorandum to end the war that is under discussion is closer to gaining approval from both sides, though they have differing accounts of some of the terms, according to officials involved in the talks. Learn more about details under discussion here.

• Strikes in Lebanon: The Israeli military widened its offensive against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia, in Lebanon on Thursday, striking Beirut for the first time in almost a month and pushing deeper into the country’s south. The strike has stoked fears that the city, which had largely been spared since the cease-fire in Lebanon took effect last month, could be drawn back into the fighting. Read more ›

• Israel’s campaign in Gaza: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Thursday that he had directed the Israeli military to expand its control of the Gaza Strip to 70 percent. The announcement came as negotiations on Gaza’s future have stalled over Hamas’s refusal to disarm and Israel’s nearly daily strikes in Gaza, both in apparent defiance of the cease-fire agreement struck in October, after two years of war. Read more ›

• Iran’s leadership: In a written statement on Thursday, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, projected resilience and called for national unity. He made no mention of negotiations but warned broadly against internal division….

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The Guardian…

• Benjamin Netanyahu said he has given orders to the Israeli army to seize control of 70% of the Gaza Strip in a move that threatens to torpedo an already fragile ceasefire and create catastrophic humanitarian conditions in the already devastated territory. Speaking at a conference in an occupied West Bank settlement, Netanyahu, who is struggling for his political survival before elections in the next few months, spelled out the extent of Israel’s territorial goals. The Israeli prime minister said: “We are currently squeezing Hamas. We now control 60% of the territory in the strip. You know, we were at 50, we moved to 60. My directive is to move to … 70%.” Here’s our report.

• Lebanon’s prime minister said “nothing can justify” Israel’s ongoing assault on the south of his country, and reissued his calls for an immediate ceasefire. “Nothing can justify the ongoing assaults on my regions of Tyre and Nabatieh and the destruction of their historical landmarks, nor the continuous threats targeting our peaceful people there, nor the repeated calls for them to leave their homes and abandon their livelihoods,” Nawaf Salam wrote on X. He said Israel’s continued bombardment amounts to collective punishment condemned by all international norms and laws”, and strengthen “our resolve for the necessity of an immediate ceasefire, working toward a complete Israeli withdrawal from our land”.

• Iran’s Tasnim news agency, citing a source close to the negotiating team, said on Thursday that the text of a potential memorandum of understanding between Iran and the US had not yet been finalised or confirmed. It followed several media reports that the two sides had reached the agreement to, among other things, extend the ceasefire and launch negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme – but were still waiting for Donald Trump to give final approval.

• It came after Trump circulated a draft peace agreement among allies including Israel. In an attempt to speed up the negotiations, Pakistan’s foreign minister, Mohammad Ishaq Dar, will fly to Washington on Friday to meet his US counterpart, Marco Rubio.

• Meanwhile, Iranian state tv reported that Iranian forces intercepted and destroyed a US aircraft near Iran’s southern Bushehr province. Iran’s Mehr news agency is also reporting that Iranian armed forces had fired warning shots at four vessels near the strait of Hormuz that were “attempting to pass through the strait without coordination”.

• US treasury secretary Bessent said he had spoken with the Omani ambassador, who “assured” him that there are no plans to toll the strait of Hormuz. Bessent told reporters at the White House briefing that Donald Trump “wanted to punctuate freedom of navigation in the strait” when he threatened to “blow up” US ally Oman on Wednesday.

• Asked whether the US and Iran have struck a deal, Bessent was vague.“The teams have been going back and forth,” he said, adding that Trumphas “made it very clear that he has several red lines” and is “not going to take a bad deal”. “Everything depends on what the president wants to do and president Trump is not going to make a bad deal for the American people,” he added…..

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ISW.…Iran Update Special Report, May 28, 2026

1. Western media reported on May 28 that US and Iranian negotiators have reached a 60-day memorandum of understanding (MoU), but the US and Iranian leaders who must approve the agreement—US President Donald Trump and Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, respectively—have not approved the “agreement” at this time. The details of the reported “agreement” are also unclear based on the wording and sourcing of the leaks of the agreement.
2. Even if Iranian negotiators did offer some concessions, it is far from clear that senior decision-makers in Tehran, including Mojtaba Khamenei and IRGC Commander Major General Ahmad Vahidi, are willing to make such concessions. Mojtaba Khamenei’s recent public statements indicate that he is not willing to give up Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz.
3. The IRGC is using force to try to create the reality that Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz. US Central Command’s (CENTCOM) recent military strikes against Iran are part of an effort to deny Iran the ability to create that reality.
4. The United States is taking steps to prevent Iranian efforts to establish a protection racket in the Strait of Hormuz. The US Treasury Department sanctioned the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) on May 27 and warned that any actor that cooperates with the PGSA could face sanctions.