US touts 'slight progress' as deal with Iran remains in limbo

Patrick Sykes and Eric Martin, Bloomberg News on May 22, 2026

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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there was “slight progress” in mediated negotiations with Iran, as the prospect of a deal to turn a fragile ceasefire into a lasting peace agreement remains uncertain.

“I don’t want to exaggerate it, but there’s been a little bit of movement, and that’s good,” Rubio said at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Sweden, on Friday.

Tehran is considering the latest proposal submitted by the U.S. through Pakistan, but has given no indication of when it will formally respond. The status of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial conduit for global energy supplies, and Iran’s nuclear program remain major sticking points.

Iran’s ambassador to France, Mohammad Amin-Nejad, told Bloomberg on Wednesday his country is discussing with Oman some form of a permanent toll system in the strait, something the U.S. has said is unacceptable.

Rubio said it would set a precedent for other areas of the world and that no country should accept the imposition of tolls in Hormuz. President Donald Trump said Thursday that he opposed the idea.

“We want it open, we want it free, we don’t want tolls,” he told reporters at the White House. “It’s an international waterway. They are not charging tolls right now.”

Oil prices rose, snapping a three-day decline, as it remains unclear if the U.S. and Iran are any closer to a compromise. Brent crude traded above $105 a barrel, up 2.7%, and remains significantly above pre-war levels.

Outside of Hormuz, the U.S. has repeatedly demanded Tehran hand over its enriched uranium and commit to ending enrichment for at least a decade. Iranian leaders have publicly rejected that, and the country’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday “we will never back down” in talks.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held a new round of talks with Pakistan’s interior minister Mohsin Naqvi on Friday, semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency reported. Pakistan, the main mediator, has been shuttling between the two sides in recent days, in a push to broker a compromise to advance the ceasefire agreed on April 8.

Pakistan Field Marshal Asim Munir, the favored interlocutor between Washington and Tehran, had been expected to visit Tehran on Thursday, but there have been no reports as yet that he has made the trip.

Here’s more related to the Iran war:

•Japan, one of Asia’s largest importers of energy from the Middle East, flagged the impending arrival of its first oil shipment from the Persian Gulf since the war began.

•Iran claimed 35 ships crossed Hormuz in the past day after obtaining permission, ISNA reports citing an IRGC statement.

•Iran has destroyed more than two dozen MQ-9 Reaper drones operated by U.S. forces since the war began, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. That represents 20% of the Pentagon’s prewar inventory for the hard-to-replace unmanned system.

•House Republican leaders in the U.S. abruptly canceled a vote on the Iran war as GOP absences threatened an embarrassing defeat for Trump.

•Iraq formed a high-level committee to investigate drone attacks on the UAE and Saudi Arabia, including one that caused a fire outside the Barakah nuclear power plant, west of Abu Dhabi.

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—With assistance from Jeff Mason.