US President Donald Trump has said he told US negotiators "not to rush into a deal" with Iran amid anticipation that an agreement to end the war in the Middle East was close.
"The negotiations are proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner, and I have informed my representatives not to rush into a deal in that time is on our side," Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.
"The blockade will remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified and signed," she added.
His remarks followed comments from Washington's top diplomat who said the US and Iran could strike a deal to end the Middle East war as early as today.
Tehran meanwhile insisted the agreement would do nothing to limit its nuclear programme.
Washington and Tehran have observed a ceasefire since 8 April while mediators push for a negotiated settlement, but Iran has imposed controls on Gulf shipping and the US has blockaded Iran's ports.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he and President Trump had agreed that "any final agreement with Iran must eliminate the nuclear threat entirely".
"President Trump made clear that he will remain steadfast in the negotiations regarding his longstanding demand for the dismantlement of Iran's nuclear programme and the removal of all enriched uranium from Iranian territory, and that he will not sign a final agreement absent these conditions," an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
'Seize this moment'
European leaders, keen to see the Hormuz waterway open and energy prices fall, welcomed the optimism around the deal.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed "progress towards an agreement", while Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed to work with "international partners to seize this moment".
Iranian officials confirmed the existence of a draft agreement, but stressed that - despite the long-standing US demand for an end to its uranium enrichment - talks on the issue of Iran's contested nuclear programme have been deferred for 60 days after any deal.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told state television Iran was "still prepared to assure the world that we are not seeking nuclear weapons", but it was unclear if this promise would be enshrined in the text of the deal.
During a visit to India, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters: "I do think perhaps there is the possibility that in the next few hours the world will get some good news."
Last night, Mr Trump posted on social media that the deal "has been largely negotiated, subject to finalisation between the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the various other countries".
Mr Rubio said the agreement would start a "process that can ultimately leave us where the president wants us to be, and that is a world that no longer has to fear or worry about an Iranian nuclear weapon".
Mr Trump's post stressed that the Strait of Hormuz would be re-opened, a development that would bring relief to energy markets after a long Iranian blockade of a crucial waterway that in peacetime carries a fifth of world oil exports.
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'Lasting peace'
According to Iran's Fars news agency, Washington has agreed to release part of Tehran's funds frozen abroad under international sanctions and to end its naval blockade of ships travelling to and from Iranian ports.
In exchange, "according to this draft, passage through the Strait of Hormuz would return to pre-war levels under Iranian management".
And, Fars said, "sanctions on oil, gas, petrochemicals and their derivatives would be temporarily lifted during the negotiation period so that Iran can freely sell its products".
Other Iranian media signalled that the negotiations were on a knife edge, with the hardline Javan newspaper saying the two sides were "just one step away from ending hostilities, and one step away from war".
Leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain, as well as representatives from Turkey and Pakistan, joined a call with Mr Trump yesterday.
Pakistan, which mediated face-to-face negotiations between US and Iranian delegations in April, hopes to host another round of talks "very soon", Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said.
Mr Trump said a separate call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "went very well". US strikes on Iran have been carried out in tandem with Israel since the war began on 28 February.
Iran's chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned earlier that Washington would face a tough response if it resumed hostilities, as Mr Trump has often threatened.
"Our armed forces have rebuilt themselves during the ceasefire period in such a way that if Trump commits another act of folly and restarts the war, it will certainly be more crushing and bitter for the United States than on the first day of the war," Mr Ghalibaf said.
Israel continuing to strike Lebanon
On the war's other main front in Lebanon, fighting has continued despite a ceasefire being in place since 17 April.
Lebanon's military said a strike targeted an army barracks and wounded a soldier yesterday, while Israel said one of its soldiers was killed on Friday near the border.
Lebanon's civil defence agency said its regional facility in the city of Nabatieh had been destroyed by an Israeli strike.
Lebanon's health ministry also said that an Israeli strike in the country's south yesterday had killed 11 people, including six women and a child.
"The Israeli enemy strike on the town of Sir al-Gharbiyeh in the Nabatieh district resulted in a massacre whose final toll is 11 dead including a child and six women, and nine wounded including four children and a woman," the ministry said in a statement.
Gaza hospital says three killed by Israeli strike
A Gaza hospital said a pre-dawn Israeli airstrike killed three members of a Palestinian family, including a one-year-old child, in the centre of the enclave.
Gaza remains gripped with daily violence despite a formal ceasefire in place since October, with both the Israeli military and Hamas accusing one another of violating the truce.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir el-Balah said it had received the bodies of a couple and their infant after an Israeli strike hit a residential apartment in the Al-Nuseirat camp before dawn.
"He was asleep in his house with his wife and son when the missile landed on their bed," Maram Abu Malouh, the mother of the man killed in the strike, told AFP.
AFP footage showed relatives grieving at the hospital, where the three bodies lay wrapped in white body bags.
The Gaza civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue service under Hamas, confirmed the toll.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said around 10 people were also wounded.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military about the three deaths, but it said it had struck three Hamas weapons storage facilities in central Gaza over the preceding 24 hours.
