LEILA FADEL, HOST:
About 1,500 ships are still waiting to travel through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has controlled the waterway since the start of the war three months ago, and it has not given up that control, even through the U.S. military's operation to reopen it. President Trump said over the weekend that an agreement with Iran was, quote, "largely negotiated" but not completely negotiated.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
NPR international correspondent Aya Batrawy is in the United Arab Emirates, joins us once again. Hi there.
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Hi. Good morning.
INSKEEP: OK. The president's statement over the weekend triggered these headlines. It gave me the impression the war is over, but it sounds like the terms are not resolved. So what is in the agreement?
BATRAWY: Right. This would only be a preliminary agreement, not a final deal. It would essentially extend the current ceasefire by another 60 days. And think of it more as a starting point for direct talks between the U.S. and Iran...
INSKEEP: OK.
BATRAWY: ...For that to even happen. And so what we've heard from Washington and Tehran is that this deal would include Iran gradually opening the Strait of Hormuz, which is critical to getting energy flowing again from the Gulf to the rest of the world. And what this deal does not include are details on Iran's nuclear program. Here's Secretary of State Marco Rubio explaining this to reporters yesterday.
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MARCO RUBIO: It will require some future work on negotiating the details. When you're talking about a nuclear program, as an example, these are highly technical matters and ones that would probably need to be addressed over an - over some period of time.
BATRAWY: And later, in response to a question by The New York Times, Rubio said technical talks on nuclear enrichment can't happen in 72 hours, quote, "on the back of a napkin."
INSKEEP: OK. So this is some kind of interim deal or a deal to make a deal, doesn't seem to address Iran's nuclear enrichment. What is Iran giving up if it's not giving up the possibility of nuclear weapons?
BATRAWY: Right. Well, it has to open the Strait of Hormuz. This is its leverage, which it did not have before the war. It will have to start letting ships through again, and without demanding any tolls. The U.S. has made that clear. But Iran now also has demands, Steve. One is that the U.S. unfreezes its billions of dollars in foreign banks, and another is that Israel ends its war in Lebanon against the Iran-backed Hezbollah.
But just like Trump is facing midterms this year, so is Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. He's also facing elections in Israel this year, and he wants both wars to continue. Netanyahu says Trump told him in their last phone call on Saturday that Israel will be able to continue its war in Lebanon, which he described as self-defense. But Iran has been saying that ending that war in Lebanon must come before any nuclear talks, and this is one of the points that are still under negotiation.
INSKEEP: I'm fascinated by all the points you just raised there, one in particular. You say that Iran expects to get some of its many, many billions of dollars of frozen assets unfrozen to them. This is something that enraged Republicans back in 2015 when the U.S. made a nuclear deal with Iran that included some money to Iran. And so now the Iranians seem to expect money again. That's one issue here. Let me ask about another, and that is Iran's neighbors. What are countries in the region saying about all this?
BATRAWY: Right. So there was this call over the weekend between Trump and all the key regional leaders here, from Pakistan to Turkey and beyond. And official statements about that call show that they spoke in rare unison, urging Trump to end the war through talks. Gulf Arab states have also paid a heavy price for this war. We know that they were hit hard by Iran.
Also, Steve, there are 2 million around 2 million Muslim pilgrims right now in Saudi Arabia performing the Hajj. That's another reason why there's a push to hold off on any return to war right now to ensure their safety and protect the sanctity of that pilgrimage. And there's pressure building to reach a deal because this war does not seem to have actually softened Iran's position much. You know, Iran, before this war, had agreed to storing its highly enriched uranium abroad, according to mediator Oman at the time. And today Iran's state media says there are no commitments on that.
INSKEEP: NPR's Aya Batrawy, thanks, as always.
BATRAWY: Thanks, Steve. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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