Gulf leaders encourage Trump to accept Iran’s latest proposal to end the war

(CNN) — US President Donald Trump met with Gulf and other regional leaders Saturday afternoon to review Iran’s latest proposal to end the war, a source familiar with the matter said, as mediators emerged from sessions in Tehran suggesting they had drawn closer to reaching a framework for a possible deal.

The regional leaders encouraged Trump to accept a framework agreement with Iran during their call earlier, according to a person briefed on the discussion. The person described the conversation as encouraging.

Another source from the region called the talks positive.

“The call was very positive. Good progress is being made. Regional leaders were supportive of the progress and of the breakthrough President Trump achieved with the talks,” a regional diplomat on the call told CNN.

Trump, speaking to Axios in a phone interview, described the chances of reaching an agreement with Iran as a “solid 50/50” before the call with Gulf and other regional leaders, adding that he could decide by Sunday whether to resume military action against Iran.

The president said the talks could either lead to a “good” deal or result in the US choosing to “blow them to kingdom come.”

Earlier Saturday, US and Iranian officials suggested that they may be closer to reaching a framework agreement to end the war after mediators from Qatar and Pakistan held talks in Tehran. One regional source said the US and Iran were moving closer to an agreement to work toward a more detailed deal in the future.

“There may be news later today. I don’t have news for you at this very moment, but there might be some news a little later today. There may not be. I hope there will be, but I’m not sure yet,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in New Delhi on Saturday.

Trump’s call Saturday was expected to include Gulf leaders and officials from Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, a source from the region told CNN. Trump told Axios he also planned to speak with envoy Steve Witkoff and adviser Jared Kushner, his son-in-law. Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, was spotted arriving at the White House Saturday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been in contact with US officials throughout Saturday evening and expects to speak with Trump later tonight, according to an Israeli source.

Israel’s main concern is that there will be a narrow interim agreement that will extend the ceasefire, open the Strait of Hormuz and gradually ease sanctions on Iran, while not addressing the most critical points for Israel – the nuclear program and enriched uranium, the source said. The US continued to reassure Israel on the uranium issue.

Netanyahu will convene a limited security consultation on Saturday evening with selected ministers and security officials to discuss the developments in Iran negotiations, an Israeli source told CNN.

The mediation efforts come after Trump met with top US national security officials Friday to discuss his next steps in the war, including the possibility of resuming fighting.

Rubio said diplomatic efforts remain underway behind the scenes, and Washington remains focused on making sure Iran cannot possess a nuclear weapon and addressing its stockpiles of enriched uranium.

“Even as I speak to you now, there’s some work being done,” Rubio said. “There is a chance that, whether it’s later today, tomorrow, in a couple days, we may have something to say.”

Trump also expressed optimism on Saturday, saying in an interview with CBS News he had seen a draft of Iran’s proposal, and that both sides are “getting a lot closer” to a deal, according to Nancy Cordes, a correspondent for the network.

Trump did not say whether he will agree to the draft, saying “I can’t tell you before I tell them, right?”

Meanwhile, Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, two GOP Iran hawks, expressed caution at Trump making a potential peace deal with Iran.

Graham raised concerns about Iran being perceived as a dominant “force requiring a diplomatic solution,” which he says could have broad implications for the region.

“This combination of Iran being perceived as having the ability to terrorize the Strait in perpetuity and the ability the inflict massive damage to Gulf oil infrastructure is a major shift of the balance of power in the region and over time will be a nightmare for Israel,” Graham posted on X Saturday.

Wicker, who serves as chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee, believes the negotiations will “define” Trump’s legacy and urged the president to “finish what we started.”

“His instincts have been to finish the job he started in Iran, but he is being ill advised to pursue a deal that would not be worth the paper it is written on,” Wicker wrote Friday, adding, “Further pursuit of an agreement with Iran’s Islamist regime risks a perception of weakness.”

‘A positive trajectory’

Iran’s foreign ministry said Tehran has been focused on ⁠finalizing a ‌memorandum ⁠of understanding through the Pakistani-mediated talks.

That memorandum would focus on ending the war, ending the US naval blockade of Iran and the release of Tehran’s blocked assets overseas, but not its nuclear program, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Saturday.

“Sanctions are definitely part of the negotiation topics, but since we are not discussing the nuclear issue at this stage, there will be no negotiation on the details of lifting sanctions either,” Baghaei was cited as saying by semi-official FARS news agency.

Several regional sources told CNN that there was cautious optimism about negotiations.

“Things are moving in a positive trajectory,” said one regional source.

Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam, similarly framed the talks with “conservative optimism” as a successful step forward.

Another source with knowledge of the talks said, “the deadlock is over,” although it was not immediately clear if this was a reference to a deadlock over key sticking points or more simply on the text of a memorandum.

Chief among the disagreements is what happens to Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, its domestic enrichment program and navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has effectively shut.

Earlier this week, the source said there was also work underway regarding a potential unfreezing of Iranian assets.

After meetings in Tehran on Friday and Saturday, Pakistan’s military chief Field Marshal Asim Munir left for Islamabad late in the afternoon local time. The Pakistan Military said the visit was “highly productive,” adding that the talks “contributed meaningfully towards the mediation process.”

“The intensive negotiations over the last twenty four hours have resulted in encouraging progress towards a final understanding,” the military said in a statement.

Baghaei said that 30- and 60-day timeframes had been included in a text of the memorandum, but it had not yet been finalized.

“Over the past week, the viewpoints have been getting closer,” he said. “We must wait and see what will happen in the next three to four days.”

Baghaei said ⁠any mechanism concerning ⁠the Strait of Hormuz should be agreed between ⁠Iran, Oman and the countries bordering the ⁠waterway, and that the United States “has nothing to do” ⁠with it.

Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, struck a defiant note after his talks with Munir, warning that Iran “will not back down from the rights of our nation and country – especially when dealing with a party that has never shown sincerity and in which no trust exists.”

“Our armed forces have rebuilt themselves during the ceasefire in such a way that if Trump makes the mistake of restarting the war, it will definitely be more crushing and bitter for America than the first day of the war,” Ghalibaf added, according to a report from Iran’s state broadcaster.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Nic Robertson, Matthew Chance, Becky Anderson, Emily Condon, Billy Stockwell, Aleena Fayaz, Jeremy Diamond and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.