Iran's political leadership on Thursday denied progress in negotiations with the United States, saying no text for a framework agreement has been finalized so far, Iran's Fars news agency reported, citing a source connected to the negotiating team.
Fars is close to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Shortly before the report, US President Donald Trump called off strikes on Iran, planned for Thursday evening, that he had announced only hours earlier.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote since discussions with Iran "have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved," he has cancelled the planned strikes and bombings for Thursday evening.
The US president claimed negotiations aimed at calming the conflict were close to a breakthrough. However, what that means for talks with Iran remained unclear.
For weeks, representatives from Washington and Tehran have been negotiating a lasting end to the war that the US and Israel launched against Iran at the end of February.
A ceasefire has actually been in place for a little over two months but has been broken several times by the warring parties in recent weeks. The situation in the Middle East recently threatened to escalate again.
Most recently, positions on a possible framework agreement were clearly far apart. Points of contention include Iran's nuclear programme, shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the war in Lebanon, sanctions against Iran and frozen Iranian assets abroad.
However Fars reported that a framework agreement had largely been completed around two weeks ago. Military tensions, including Israel's attacks on the Lebanese capital Beirut, had led to the negotiations initially being put on ice. After successful mediation by the Gulf emirate of Qatar, progress was made again on Wednesday, according to the report.
