Iran state media claim U.S. has offered to suspend oil sanctions during negotiations on full peace deal

Iranian state media claimed Monday that U.S. officials had agreed to suspend sanctions against the country’s crude oil exports while talks on ending the war continue, seemingly easing concerns over a possible return to hostilities among investors.

The unconfirmed report by the semi-official Tasnim news agency cited an unnamed source, but analysts said traders seized on the news after President Trump warned Tehran Sunday that time was running out to make a deal to end the war.

Fawad Razaqzada, an analyst at Forex.com, called the notion a “good first step, if confirmed.”

The Trump administration has not confirmed the offer.

Stock markets fell earlier in Asia and European indexes had also opened mostly lower before the Tasnim report, but oil prices eased later in the day, and Wall Street also opened higher in the wake of the claim.

Tasnim quoted a source close to the Iranian negotiating team as saying that, unlike previous drafts, the latest proposal from the U.S. included an offer to waive sanctions that currently bar any purchase of Iranian energy products, at least during negotiations toward a final peace deal.

Tasnim later quoted a source close to the negotiating team — it was not clear if it was the same source — as saying that, despite some “adjustments” in the U.S. draft, “fundamental differences remain, stemming from American excessive demands and lack of realism.”

The source called U.S. demands for Iran to hand over its enriched uranium and severely restrict its nuclear program “purely political excuses and contrary to the rights of the Iranian people.”

“The Americans must understand that Iran will never accept ending the war in exchange for nuclear commitments,” Tasnim quoted the source as saying, while reiterating Iran’s longtime stance that the regime has no intention of building a nuclear weapon.