US President Donald Trump has said he was now making a "final" decision on whether or not to strike a peace deal with Iran.
"I will be meeting now, in the Situation Room, to make a final determination," Mr Trump said in a lengthy social media post, stressing that Iran must agree never to have nuclear weapons and to open the Hormuz shipping lanes.
In the post, Mr Trump said that Iran "will complete the immediate removal" of mines in the strait and that the US naval blockade of Iranian ports "will now be lifted," allowing oil and other tankers to start moving.
However, it was not clear if Iran had agreed to this or whether the US blockade had actually been lifted ahead of Mr Trump making his decision.
President Trump also specified that enriched uranium stockpiles in Iran "will be unearthed by the United States... in close coordination and conjunction with the Islamic Republic of Iran, plus the International Atomic Energy Agency, and DESTROYED."
Following reports that Iran has demanded financial compensation for the war and that the White House has floated the idea of investments, Mr Trump said "no money will be exchanged, until further notice".
The US president added that only "items, of far less importance, have been agreed to".
Meanwhile, Iran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi told his Omani counterpart that reaching a deal with the United States to end the Middle East war depended on Washington dropping its "excessive demands", Tehran's foreign ministry has said.
"The Iranian minister of foreign affairs... indicated that arriving at a final agreement depended on ending the American party's attitude based on excessive demands and shifting and contradictory positions," the ministry said in a summary of a call between the ministers.
'Not there yet'
US Vice President JD Vance has said that Washington was "not there yet" with Iran on an agreement but that the parties were close.
The United States and Iran reached an agreement yesterday to extend their ceasefire and lift restrictions on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, pending US President Donald Trump's approval, sources told Reuters.
"It's hard to say exactly when or if the president is going to sign the MOU. We're going back and forth on a couple of language points," Mr Vance said.
"I can't guarantee that we're going to get there, but right now I feel pretty good about it," he said.
Today, Iran's Tasnim news agency, citing a source, said the text had not yet been finalised and that the wording of the potential memorandum of understanding had "undergone some changes in recent days".
US sources confirmed reporting by Axios that the two sides had agreed on a memorandum of understanding to prolong the ceasefire and launch negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme.
Under the proposed deal, shipping through Hormuz would be unrestricted, with no tolls or harassment; Iran would remove all mines within 30 days; and the United States would lift its naval blockade if commercial traffic resumes, Axios reported.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with his Pakistani counterpart at the State Department in Washington today, as negotiations drag on.
The meeting with Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar - whose country is acting as mediator between the US and Iran - came days after Rubio's visit to India, Pakistan's historic rival.
The two officials did not address the press.
US strikes on the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas prompted Iran to target "the American airbase that served as the source of the attack," state broadcaster IRIB reported, citing the Revolutionary Guards.
The Guards did not specify the location of the base, but Kuwait, which hosts US troops, said its air defences responded to incoming fire.
Kuwait's foreign ministry condemned "the criminal Iranian attacks that targeted the territory of the State of Kuwait with missiles and drones, in a dangerous escalation".
US Central Command called the attack an "egregious ceasefire violation".
Iranian forces had fired at four ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz without authorisation, IRIB reported yesterday. Iran has blockaded the waterway since the war began.
US forces said they had intercepted five attack drones in and around the strait, and prevented the launch of a sixth near Bandar Abbas.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei called the US strikes truce "violations".
A US official told AFP the actions were "measured" and "intended to preserve the ceasefire".
Iran's Guards threatened a "firm response" to any renewed attacks.
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Strait standoff
Before yesterday’s strikes, Amir, a 27-year-old software developer in Tehran, said fears of renewed fighting were constant.
"I feel like nothing is certain yet," he said.
"The daily question is: Will there be missile strikes tonight?"
A key focus of the proposed deal is restoring full traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the closure of which has curbed the vast flows of oil and gas that normally pass through it.
The war's economic toll has become harder to ignore, with analysts warning that prolonged disruption in Hormuz could keep energy prices high and make inflation harder to contain.
Mr Trump threatened US ally Oman when asked about a possible short-term arrangement allowing it and Iran to control the strait.
"No, the strait is going to be open to everybody," Mr Trump said.
"It's international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we'll have to blow them up."
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also threatened to "aggressively target" Oman if it helped impose tolls in the strait.
Mr Bessent added Washington would halt Iranian airlines' access to landing slots, refuelling and ticket sales, while allowing travel for religious pilgrimage and humanitarian reasons.
Oman mediated US-Iran talks in Geneva before the war and has itself come under attack from Tehran.
Mr Baqaei called the threat toward Oman "a worrying sign of the normalisation of anarchy and intimidation in international relations".
Qatar's emir also spoke with Mr Trump by phone about efforts to reduce escalation, after Doha hosted senior Iranian officials this week.
Lebanon escalation
In Lebanon, a separate ceasefire has done little to stop the fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Iran has insisted any agreement to end the war must apply to Lebanon.
Israel's military said yesterday it had conducted a precise strike in the Beirut area, while Lebanon's military said the attack hit an apartment south of the capital.
AFPTV footage showed smoke rising from the area on the edge of Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.
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The escalation comes as Lebanon and Israel prepare for talks between military delegations at the Pentagon, and for US-brokered talks early next week - the fourth round since the latest Israel-Hezbollah conflict erupted.
Lebanon's health ministry said the Beirut-area strike killed three people, including a woman, her baby daughter and a Syrian child, and wounded 15.
It said Israeli attacks had killed 3,324 people, up 55 from the previous day, when Israel declared most of south Lebanon "combat zones" and told residents to leave.
The Israeli military said a soldier was killed Wednesday by a Hezbollah drone near the Lebanon border, bringing its military death toll to 23 troops, along with one civilian contractor.
