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and the US naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, in exchange for Iran taking steps to ensure safe transit through the strategic waterway, he said.

At present, the talks are not on the nuclear issue, which will be negotiated over a 60-day period if the framework accord is agreed, Baghaei said.

Oil prices fell ​nearly 6 percent to two-week lows yesterday as optimism grew that the United States and Iran ‌were moving closer to a peace deal.

Baghaei said the potential accord contained no specific details on management of the strait, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied gas flows.

Iran will not charge tolls for ships to pass through the strait, Baghaei said. However, he added that there would be a cost for services to be offered, such as navigation and steps to protect the environment, under a protocol to be agreed with Oman, which shares the opposite shore of the waterway.

However, a senior Trump administration official told CBS Sunday morning that Iran had agreed in principle to dispose of highly-enriched uranium.

The official said the US believes Iran’s supreme leader has approved the template for a deal, but a final agreement still needs to be made before anything is signed. They said it is still an open question as to whether that will come to fruition.

The official added that any final agreement that is reached would take several days to work its way through the system.

The deal agreed to in principle will be a two-step process, with the immediate opening of the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for lifting the US blockade, followed by negotiations on a mechanism for Iran to give up various parts of its nuclear program, the official said.

Officials were still working through details of the mechanism for how the uranium would be disposed of with the people who have been empowered by the supreme leader to negotiate.

No decisions have been made yet on unfreezing Iranian assets, according to the senior official, but any sanctions relief would be commensurate with the actual delivery of what the US asks for in terms of meeting the president’s national security objectives.

Meanwhile, Trump said yesterday negotiations with Iran were “proceeding nicely” and said he asked countries including the UAE, Qatar, Pakistan, Egypt and Jordan to sign the Abraham Accords as part of US efforts to reach a deal with Iran.

Trump said those countries would be honoured to have Iran as part of the accords, a set of agreements to normalise relations with Israel.

Separately, two sources said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told his confidants that Israel now has little ability to influence Trump’s decision-making over the Iran conflict.