Welcome to the News Hour. Tonight, Vice President J.D. Vance said the U.S. and Iran have made what he calls a lot of progress in their talks to end the war, but that it wasn't clear when or if President Trump was going to sign off. Those comments come after a White House official told the News Hour and other outlets that U.S. and Iranian negotiators had agreed to a framework.

Iran today said no agreement had been made while Iran fired a ballistic missile at Kuwait

and as the U.S. and Iranian militaries again traded fire.

Nick Schifrin is tracking all of this force. So Nick, let's start with this talk about a deal.

What at this point is President Trump demanding?

Well, before we get to what he's demanding exactly, because it's going back and forth, I think

let's examine these conflicting statements that we've got. The White House told me earlier today that, yes,

there was a deal between the U.S. and Iran. They agreed on a 60-day ceasefire in order to basically open the

straight-of-form moves and kickstart nuclear negotiations. But as you said, the vice president

tonight not saying that, he not only said what you mentioned, that it's not clear when or

if the president was going to sign, but he added, that requires us to make a little bit more

progress, and I can't guarantee that we're going to get there. So that is not the same at all as what the White House was saying earlier today that there wasn't a deal. But regardless of all the posturing, perhaps, the core of your question is, what are we looking at? What kind of deal are we looking at? What is the president holding out for? European, U.S. and Arab officials all confirmed that this is the deal on the table. It's a two-phase deal. The first phase would open up the Strait of Hormuz, including no tolls, and the U.S. would end its blockade. The war would end, including in Lebanon, and then there are in-principle agreements that Iran would limit its nuclear program,

and the U.S. would lift sanctions. And that brings us to the second phase. Iran would freeze

uranium enrichment, uranium enrichment, for TBD years. U.S. and Iranian officials tell me

the U.S. is pushing for 20 years. Iran has offered five to ten years. Number two, Iran would

export or destroy. It's 1,000 pounds of

highly enriched uranium. The president recently softened his position on that. And thirdly,

the core of the U.S. offer lifting sanctions and unfreezing assets. Earlier this week,

a senior administration official put it this way, no dust, no dollars, as in if there's no

highly enriched uranium export, Iran gets nothing.

So what the officials around the president are really emphasizing is that until Iran agrees on highly enriched uranium and really limiting its nuclear program, there is no deal.

And so that's where we think the rub is tonight.

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