President Donald Trump announced that a deal was close and that strikes had been called off. The semi-official Iranian agencies Mehr, Kayhan and Fars have since rejected the two claims underneath that announcement: that Tehran asked the United States to hold off, and that it agreed to any arrangement over the Strait of Hormuz. Both were described as new lies.
The reported compromise, carried by Israel's Channel 12, had ships entering through the Iranian side of the strait and leaving through the Omani side. Iran's account of the strait is the opposite of a compromise. It says the waterway remains closed to vessels that do not coordinate, that passage requires Revolutionary Guard permission, and that transit fees apply.
Iranian armed forces were described as on high alert. Brigadier General Majid Ebn Al-Reza, the acting defence minister, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi are the officials attached to the denials. Trump spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Saturday.
The disagreement is not over terms but over whether anything was agreed at all. That distinction matters more than it looks: a denied concession cannot be built on, and a president who has already announced strikes were called off has spent the leverage that produced the announcement.