President Donald Trump said Friday that a nuclear deal with Iran could be finalized "in the next day or two," declaring that Tehran has "agreed to everything" and that American and Iranian teams will work together to recover Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium and transport it to the United States.
The remarks, spread across interviews with multiple outlets on Friday, mark the most definitive public signal yet that negotiations between Washington and Tehran are approaching a conclusion, and that Trump is willing to travel to Pakistan personally to seal the agreement if necessary.
Trump told Axios in a phone interview that Iranian negotiators "want to meet" and "want to make a deal," as Breitbart News reported. He indicated that additional talks are still needed but projected confidence that an agreement would land soon.
"The Iranians want to meet. They want to make a deal... I think we will get a deal in the next day or two."
Asked by Reuters whether he would travel to Islamabad, where Pakistan has been hosting the negotiations, Trump answered simply: "I may."
In a separate interview with CBS News on Friday, Trump said Iran has now "agreed to everything," including a joint effort with the United States to locate and recover Tehran's enriched uranium. He described the arrangement in concrete terms.
"Our people, together with the Iranians, are going to work together to go get it. We're going to get it together... and we'll bring it back to the United States."
Bloomberg reported that Trump described the proposed arrangement as open-ended. "No years, unlimited," he said, indicating Iran would halt uranium enrichment indefinitely rather than accept a fixed-term restriction, a sharp contrast to the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which included sunset clauses that critics on the right long warned would simply delay Iran's path to a bomb.
Trump also moved to shut down reports that the United States might release frozen Iranian funds as part of the deal. Fox News reported that Trump ruled out exchanging money with Iran "in any way, shape or form." Axios separately reported that one element under discussion involved a potential $20 billion arrangement tied to Iran surrendering its uranium stockpile, though the precise structure of that figure remains unclear.
The path to this point has not been smooth. Last weekend, Pakistan hosted direct talks in Islamabad that ran roughly 21 hours from Saturday into early Sunday. The marathon session ended without a deal.
Vice President JD Vance, who led the U.S. delegation, struck a firm tone as he departed the Pakistani capital.
"We leave here with a very simple proposal... our final and best offer. We'll see if the Iranians accept it."
That language, "final and best offer", left little ambiguity about Washington's posture. The administration was not going to negotiate endlessly. It came after Trump had already set a hard deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, backing the demand with the threat of military strikes.
On Thursday, Trump stood outside the White House and said Iran had "totally agreed" to give up its nuclear ambitions and that a deal was "very close." He added that he "would go to Pakistan" to finalize an agreement if needed.
By Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that another round of talks in Pakistan could take place as early as Monday, with the U.S. negotiating team on standby. The White House said negotiations would not be conducted through media leaks, a pointed remark given the volume of Friday's public commentary from the president himself.
The diplomatic window exists in large part because Trump agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran after Pakistan's leadership asked him to hold off on planned U.S. attacks. Trump conditioned the pause on Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz, as Just The News reported.
"I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks. This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE," Trump posted on Truth Social. Iran confirmed the arrangement. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that "for a period of two weeks, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via coordination with Iran's Armed Forces." Iran's Supreme National Security Council accepted the ceasefire and said negotiations with the United States would begin in Islamabad.
That ceasefire window is now narrowing. The pressure of a ticking clock, combined with the U.S. naval blockade Trump ordered to remain in place until a deal is finalized, appears to be concentrating minds in Tehran. When Trump first ordered the Strait of Hormuz blockade after earlier talks collapsed, markets rallied on the signal that Washington was serious.
Pakistan has served as the primary intermediary throughout the negotiations, hosting the Islamabad talks and facilitating ongoing communications between Washington and Tehran. Newsmax reported that all sides remain engaged and another round is being organized, even though the initial Islamabad session did not produce a breakthrough.
Trump told reporters, "I would go to Pakistan," and added, "If a deal is signed in Islamabad, I might go." The willingness to put a presidential visit on the table signals both the weight Trump places on closing the agreement and the diplomatic credit he is extending to Islamabad for brokering the talks.
The president's public confidence has not gone unchallenged at home. Some voices on the right have questioned the pace and terms of the diplomacy, prompting Trump to push back sharply against critics within his own coalition in recent days.
Trump posted Friday on Truth Social about the Strait of Hormuz, saying it is open to global shipping and that the United States is working with Iran to remove sea mines from the waterway. The naval blockade, however, remains in place as a pressure tool until a final agreement is reached.
That combination, a ceasefire, a blockade, a ticking deadline, and the credible threat of resumed military action, has produced what years of multilateral negotiation and the original Iran nuclear deal failed to deliver: an Iranian government that, by Trump's account, has agreed to give up its enriched uranium, halt enrichment indefinitely, and cooperate with American teams on the ground to make it happen.
Whether Tehran follows through is another matter. The administration has shown it takes Iranian threats seriously and has not hesitated to act when it believes American interests are at stake.
Significant details remain unresolved. The names of the Iranian negotiators have not been disclosed publicly. The specific technical issues still under discussion are unclear. The exact terms of the proposed agreement, including the structure of any financial arrangement tied to the $20 billion figure Axios referenced, have not been laid out. And the White House's own insistence that negotiations not play out through media leaks sits in tension with the president's Friday media blitz.
Trump, for his part, projected no doubt. "I think the deal will go very quickly," he said. "We're getting along very well with Iran."
If that deal materializes in the next few days, it will stand as the most consequential diplomatic achievement of Trump's second term, won not through the endless patience of multilateral summits, but through the plain application of economic and military pressure followed by a clear offer. The formula is not complicated. It just requires a president willing to use it.