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Trump Announces Agreement With Iran Complete; Trump Hosts UFC Fights On White House Lawn. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired June 14, 2026 - 18:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[18:00:46]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM, everyone. I'm Omar Jimenez in New York.

We've got some breaking news for you. President Donald Trump says the United States and Iran have reached an agreement, saying the Strait of Hormuz will reopen for oil shipping. Now, this is just moments before Trump's announcement or just moments before it, I should say, Pakistan's prime minister also shared the news, saying the official signing is set for Friday in Switzerland and that both sides agreed to stop all military operations, including in Lebanon.

All of this comes on Trump's 80th birthday and in the coming hours, the White House is set to host a UFC fight night on the South Lawn. Got a lot going on and we're covering it from all angles.

Joining me now is CNN correspondent Julia Benbrook and CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson.

Nic, what is the latest here?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, this is very significant that we've heard from Pakistan's prime minister, the sort of key mediator in all of this, saying that there is an agreement, an agreement has been reached. Reached is his words. Not signed yet, reached. Importantly, it says ceasing a declaration for immediate and permanent termination of all military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon.

Lebanon had really flared up today, and there was a real potential, though, there had been this expectation that there might have been some kind of electronic signing of this agreement today. There was a real concern that it could have got derailed by a spike in violence. Iran had threatened in just the past week or so to respond if Israel had struck deep inside Lebanon at Hezbollah targets in and around Beirut then Iran would respond, which is what they did a week ago.

So this is significant. It is significant because he's saying that an agreement has been reached. He's also saying there will be a ceremonial signing on Friday, the 19th of June. That's next Friday in Switzerland. I think that's widely expected to be Geneva. But he's saying Switzerland. And in the meantime, he says there will be some preparation talks underway because the next phase of talks is going to be very, very technical. So this is paving the way for potentially this conflict to end.

President Trump, of course, has commented now, very clearly saying Strait of Hormuz to open. He's going along with, you know, this this idea that the agreement has been reached. But significantly, we haven't heard from the Iranians yet. And I think until that happens, a lot of people will still be holding their breath that this could be another almost moment, rather than actually having it properly nailed down. As sources close to this process have said to me all along, it's not signed until it's signed.

JIMENEZ: A lot -- while it is a significant announcement, a lot still to monitor in the hours and days to come to actually see this come into fruition.

Julia, what are we hearing from the White House at this point?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I wanted to touch on one thing that Nic said there. It's not signed until it's signed. And we had heard, leading up to this, the plans were to sign this virtually. And part of the argument there was that some of the mediators were concerned that the longer that this went on, the more there was a chance that this could be upended, that things could change.

We've now got several days between this announcement and the actual signing, where things could shift. You never know. But as of right now, Vice President J.D. Vance, he's actually speaking right now and he has told FOX News, he has said that he does plan to be there for the signing. He said exactly, "I think we're still figuring out the logistics on who is going to attend the signing ceremony. I certainly plan to be there, but it's possible the president himself could be there. We'll figure it out."

Now, typically we know this is in Geneva, Switzerland. Typically, the vice president and the president are not traveling out of the country at the same time. Will be interesting to see how all of that plays out. But it's clear that some of those details are still being worked through. And then there are questions on exactly what is in this memorandum of understanding, essentially, this deal to make a deal, this first step in the agreement.

[18:05:06]

But according to a Trump administration official, it would then trigger a 60-day period. That's then going to lead to those more technical talks, but that it would outline some of the top line commitments, including Iran's nuclear program, which would then, of course, address the highly enriched uranium, or, as Trump likes to refer to it as the nuclear dust. And when Trump posted yesterday, when he said that this would be signed today, on Sunday, he posted outlining a few of the things that he expects to see.

He expects to see the Strait of Hormuz open immediately. We do know that that would likely be a bit more complicated, as the blockade is in place and things would have to move in that process. In fact, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in an interview with CBS earlier today that they would start the process of opening the Strait of Hormuz. But he said that that would open immediately. He also said that no money would exchange hands here. And then he said, when it comes to that highly enriched uranium, that the way they destroy that would be decided later.

So in this 60-day period, he said that whether they do that there in Iran or whether they do it in the United States, that that would happen at some point. So still a lot of questions here. We have not seen the actual text, just little pieces coming out here and there. And until we see that actual text and until we hear from Iran, we don't know exactly what will happen next. But Pakistan says this will be signed soon.

JIMENEZ: A lot still to learn on this process.

Nic, as you pointed out, as you and Julia have pointed out, that without having heard from Iran, there is a bit of an asterisk on some of these announcements. And I know you've been poring over and reaching out to folks and trying to see what you can get.

Nic, have you heard anything from that and from the Iranian side? And if not, what is the likelihood in which we would hear from someone there?

ROBERTSON: Yes, we're hearing from the deputy foreign minister in Tehran. Oftentimes, we'd would expect to hear from the foreign minister's spokesman or possibly the foreign minister tweeting himself. But this is what we're seeing from the Iranian deputy foreign minister just now. He's told state media that the memorandum with the U.S. is finalized, and it is set for signing in Switzerland on Friday.

So we now have the U.S. and Iran, it seems, from the deputy foreign minister level, saying that this is going to happen. And Pakistan as well saying, the mediators saying, that this is going to happen. The signing will be in Switzerland later this coming week. So it does all seem to be on track. These are commitments now to say that this has been achieved. Iran's deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs said in a text, a memorandum of understanding has been reached with the United States has been finalized and will formally be signed in Switzerland on Friday.

I was just reading the copy there as this just come into us translation from Iran. So, the stage does seem to be set. This does seem to be the moment everyone was hoping for. I think we'd all looked for initially there had been this thought that there could have been a signing, a physical signing even in Switzerland over this weekend, that hasn't happened. Then it went to the rumors, turned to a virtual signing, an electronic signing.

I was hearing from sources that it would be signed in Tehran and Washington virtually. That has not transpired. This -- what this tells us as we look at this is a process that has been evolving. It's a process that's been done under pressure. It's a process that the -- both parties, the United States and Iran and the mediators, have tried to keep the details of it out of the spotlight to that point. We still don't know the details on this, what's expected to be a 14-page memorandum of understanding.

So they've successfully kept a lot of this out of the spotlight. But as we got closer and closer and closer to this moment, where the sides have been coming together, the speculation about how it would be signed, where it would be signed, who would be signing it, all of that has really built. And then today you have a situation where Israel decides to strike Hezbollah targets on the outskirts of Beirut because Hezbollah had struck inside of Israel.

That had brought the Iranians to the point of potentially following through on verbal commitments that they'd given that they would support Hezbollah. They considered the same front in the war. And there was a real potential for Iran to launch missiles at Israel. Now, we have this agreement that Iran says it's agreed to as well, that there is an end to the military operations on all fronts immediately. This does seem to draw a line under where we're at.

But of course, now, again, as we said just a few minutes ago in this program, it's not signed until it's signed. But now everyone at least is saying they're going to and they're saying they're going to do it on the same day, and they're going to do it in the same place.

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So it does seem, you know, baby steps. We're on track, it seems. Things have not fallen apart. Not there yet. We don't have the details, but the president has made it clear the Strait of Hormuz is going to open. And that's, of course, what the global markets were waiting to hear.

JIMENEZ: Yes, a lot more work to be done, but still a big moment nonetheless to have all sides at least saying something similar and pointing to a similar date for a further action.

Julia Benbrook, Nic Robertson, appreciate the reporting.

I want to bring in now CNN global affairs analyst and Iran expert Karim Sadjadpour. He's also a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Karim, I just want to start with what is your reaction to what we're hearing from Iran and really from all sides tonight.

KARIM SADJADPOUR, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think, Omar, this is essentially a temporary pause in what has been a hot war between America and Iran. And we're going to go back to being in a Cold War state with Iran. What's been decided here is to lift the mutual blockade, America's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's blockade of it as well. So that will bring oil prices down. It will bring some economic relief to the people of Iran.

It will bring some relief to America's partners in the Persian Gulf that haven't been able to import or export as a result of this blockade. But it does not resolve the conflict. The thorniest issues have been deferred for future negotiations, and I'm not terribly optimistic that they're going to be resolved in a 60-day timeframe. JIMENEZ: You know, one of the interesting things in President Trump's

statement saying that this means that the Strait of Hormuz will be reopened toll free. You know, a lot of the talk beforehand was about whether Iran would be willing to do that, whether it would be a toll or a service fee. I just wonder, generally speaking, what would the -- what is the Iranian perspective on reopening the Strait of Hormuz in the same way it was open before this actual war, again, without any sort of tolls or what might be described as service fees?

SADJADPOUR: Well, Iran's representatives have said that it's not going to go back to status quo ante, to be an international waterway, that they are going to charge some type of administrative fees, whether that's tolling individual ships or administrative fees, it remains to be seen. But they've been, open in saying that that is their priority.

The Straits of Hormuz now for Iran is both a potential source of revenue and it's a deterrent for them. In the future, if the United States or Israel attacks Iran, we may see them close it again. So unfortunately, this has opened up a Pandora's box, which didn't exist before the war.

JIMENEZ: Do you read anything into the timeline of this signing? For example, you know, not too long ago we had Pakistan and Trump saying this would happen virtually this weekend. Now it's pushed to Friday in person. Are you reading anything into that, or is that just sort of the nature of how diplomacy works? It takes time.

SADJADPOUR: It'll be curious to see if Iranian officials attend that ceremony in Geneva. You know, this is a regime which its entire identity is premised on hostility towards the United States. And they're deeply aggrieved by the fact that the United States has assassinated so many senior Iranian officials. So I would be skeptical if we're going to see any handshake between J.D. Vance or President Trump and senior Iranian officials. You know, if we did see that, that would be somewhat unprecedented.

JIMENEZ: And that was going to be my question. I mean, if President Trump goes, typically, you know, you have the leaders of countries meeting and signing these agreements together. As you point out, I mean, we have rarely seen publicly the current leader of Iran, very, very private, as we understand from reporting, just keeping a very close circle of people that he has contact with. But if President Trump is going, who attends for Iran?

SADJADPOUR: So the most senior official that -- from Tehran who has attended these talks is the current speaker of parliament, Ghalibaf. He did spend 20 hours with J.D. Vance in negotiations in Islamabad a couple of months ago. So I would expect it's either Ghalibaf or the Foreign Minister Araghchi. But I'm skeptical that the Iranian regime wants a photo op and, you know, hugs and smiles to say that this -- that bygones will be bygones. This is a regime still deeply aggrieved.

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And that's why I said from the outset, Omar, in my view, this is not an end to the U.S.-Iran conflict. It's taken what is now a hot conflict potentially turned it into a cold conflict.

JIMENEZ: And one of the extraneous factors, but related, has been what we've seen between Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah. And I just wonder how central is what's happening in Lebanon and these attacks on Hezbollah and Hezbollah attacks on Israel, how central is that aspect of fighting to the Iranian-U.S. negotiations?

SADJADPOUR: Well, Iran has insisted that their client and Lebanon, Lebanese Hezbollah, be part of any ceasefire. And here is the source of tension between the United States and Israel, because Israel says, listen, if we are receiving incoming missiles or rockets from our northern border, from Hezbollah, we're going to respond. And you saw President Trump react angrily today when Prime Minister Netanyahu launched strikes in Lebanon. So I expect that this is going to be a source of tension that's going to be with us for a while.

JIMENEZ: Karim Sadjadpour, appreciate the time and perspective. Even with this announcement, still a lot we do not know and a lot we will see play out this week. Thank you for being here.

SADJADPOUR: Thank you, Omar.

JIMENEZ: All right. All of this coming as President Trump celebrates his 80th birthday and there's a big UFC fight set to take place very soon on the South Lawn of the White House. We'll have more on our major breaking news and more on that coming up soon. And as we follow the breaking news, both President Trump and Iran's top diplomats announce a peace agreement or an agreement of some kind. We will follow the details.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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JIMENEZ: We're following breaking news. President Donald Trump says the United States has reached an agreement with Iran. Trump saying, quote, "The deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all." He says, "The deal allows for the Strait of Hormuz to reopen," and said, quote, "Ships of the world, start your engines, let the oil flow." But it may be more complicated than that.

CNN chief national security analyst Jim Ssciutto joins us now.

So, Jim, let's just start on that last point because opening the Strait of Hormuz has obviously been a goal of many countries, not just the United States. And part of that would be removing the U.S. naval blockade, but it's not quite as simple as announcing something on social media and then having everything go back to normal.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST (via phone): No question. Well, let's begin with, we don't know the details, right? We only know the president's announcement of this, the Pakistani prime minister has, some reactions now that we're seeing in Iranian state media. The most details we know about are of two issues here. One is the closing of the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. response, which is its blockade of Iran shipping. And based on the president's announcement, those two issues have been solved for now, pending this longer period of negotiation that's going to get at the much harder issues, particularly the future of Iran's nuclear program.

We should note that prior to the war, right, the Strait of Hormuz was open and there was no U.S. blockade. So on those two issues, it's a return to the previous status quo. The question in terms of how the president has claimed victory in this war is, what forward progress, concrete forward progress that sides are able to make during this negotiating period of the next 60 days, assuming that's the time period that they follow?

And I'll just tell you, having covered many, many iterations of the negotiations for the JCPOA with numerous trips to Vienna and Geneva as the two sides over many months worked out the details of that agreement, it's hard to work out a binding agreement on such an intractable issue in such a short period of time. Right? So the next question will be, can they come to an agreement on those more intractable issues, and can they do so during that time period?

And there's a possibility, right, that they don't come to an agreement on those issues in 60 days or, well, we don't know when. I mean, if you look at the model of the Gaza peace deal, right, that was meant to be a multi-phase process. It began with a ceasefire. Ceasefire has largely held, but they have not gotten to agreement on the more intractable issues in that war, for instance, disarming Hamas. Right? Hamas still exists in Gaza, still has weapons.

So if you look at previous models, you've seen along these lines, right, of declare a ceasefire and leave the more intractable issues until later. That leaves a lot of questions, right, as to whether you can get to a lasting agreement on those other issues, particularly in the time frame that they're talking about.

Now, as you say, and I'm sorry, it's a long answer to your question, in terms of ending the -- opening the Strait of Hormuz in a reliable way that shipping companies trust it, you know, Iran still maintains capabilities there, drones, sea drones, air drones, et cetera., which it could turn back on again. Right? If it feels that the deal is violated elsewhere. For instance, Israeli strikes in Lebanon. Right?

And presumably the U.S. could do the same. The U.S. could begin blockading Iranian traffic if it does not believe that Iran is abiding by the deal.

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So it's, you know, we've said this phrase a million times. The devil is in the details. But one thing we know is that the biggest issues for now have been punted. And that's going to be particularly the nuclear issue. And that's going to be the real test, is whether the two sides can come to a lasting agreement.

JIMENEZ: And you point out a few factors that I think bring in some great perspective. I mean, the JCPOA, for one, took years to negotiate and get to a suitable spot for both parties. That lasted for some years. But then also in terms of what we've seen between Hezbollah and Israel and strikes in Lebanon and northern Israel as well, we've seen to at times complicate the negotiations as Iran has often pointed to Lebanon's involvement in this ceasefire as being a hard red line here.

I wonder, what are the risk factors that you are looking for between now and Friday? Because that's when the signing ceremony is set for. But a lot can happen over the course of those days.

SCIUTTO: No question. And we should note that the two parties stopping full scale war is progress, right? And we've already been in something of a, I mean, a ceasefire, yes. But there was still an exchange of fire. So kind of a slow burn conflict. But to end that shooting, that's something, risk factors beyond the U.S. and Iran calculating at some point that perhaps the other side isn't living up to its part of the deal.

Israel is a major player here, right? And I know from spending many weeks in Israel during this war, but also speaking to Israeli officials, and you've seen this in some of their public comments. They don't believe that the major goals of this war have been met, because when they went into this war, the nuclear issue was prime. And many in Israel would not consider this problem settled until you figure out what to do with the 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, and perhaps other steps to make sure that Iran can't process uranium again.

Now that's, you know, President Trump wants to deal with that issue as well. But that's the one, the tough one that's been left to this next negotiating period. And at any point, Omar, you know, Israel is an American ally and Israel has been under enormous U.S. pressure, as it was earlier today, for instance, to lay back on its strikes on Lebanon. Israel has a vote.

And if it calculates at some point in the next several days or several weeks, that its own national security is at risk, it might very well strike. And we don't know how Iran would react to that. We don't know how the U.S. president would react to that. It's -- those are risk factors.

JIMENEZ: Yes. And all of this happening as we expect the president to be at the G7 Summit this week where he'll be meeting with a number of power players in Europe who also have stakes in this, including on the economic side of things, especially as that fallout has played out.

Jim Sciutto, really appreciate the perspective. Thank you for stopping in.

Stay with CNN. A lot more of our breaking news ahead, including how oil prices are reacting tonight.

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[18:32:31]

JIMENEZ: We're staying on top of the breaking news tonight. President Trump says the United States and Iran have reached an agreement. We're still waiting to hear a lot of details about the deal itself. But the president said the United States will lift its naval blockade on Iranian ports and that Iran will reopen the Strait of Hormuz, letting cargo ships filled with oil pass through. And oil prices moved lower in futures trading, on betting this could help normalize the world's oil supply. But again, a lot left to be learned here.

I want to bring in Tom Kloza. He's been covering the oil industry and oil markets for years and is the chief energy adviser for Gulf Oil.

Tom, I just want to start with even if the strait reopens quickly, there's still some lag time for these ships and shipping companies to feel confident enough to pass through and get to their destinations. I just wonder how you assess that speed of sort of re-operationalizing and whether it would be enough to avoid price spikes.

TOM KLOZA, CHIEF ENERGY ADVISER, GULF OIL: That's the $64,000 question really. I mean, you can say that Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz or that the U.S. blockade did, but it was really the insurance companies. And until they're very confident that things are going to transit and exit that strait, you know, they may not choose to insure some of these incredibly huge vessels.

So that's what we're going to watch very, very closely, not just this week, but for the next 30 or 60 days. You know, the range of how much oil has been leaving the strait was on display last Friday. We had estimates that it was about three million barrels. And then the secretary of energy, Chris Wright, said it was about seven million barrels a day. It was 18 before the war. And that's the thing to remember.

JIMENEZ: Yes. And we have seen barrels pass through at different points. It's just sort of the amount of the threshold and obviously well below what it was before this war. I wonder, just from your perspective, why have we not quite seen the return back to the peaks of well past $100 a barrel, which obviously have affected oil or gas prices here in the United States and the way that many analysts were forecasting. But, you know, it's remained high. But just why have we not seen sort of a return to those peaks and beyond?

KLOZA: Well, there's a couple of -- there's really about four or five really good reasons. Number one, we probably would have had a surplus in the world of about three million barrels a day in the second quarter had we not had the Iran war.

[18:35:08]

Secondly, we've seen demand destruction somewhere between three and four million barrels a day, mostly in Asia, Africa, Australia. Only a little bit in the U.S., but some substantial demand destruction in Europe. We've seen some oil sneaking out. And the big wild card and the one that I think we have to worry about as we go into the summer is we've been selling off the Strategic Reserves, not just in the U.S. and elsewhere.

And as they run down to certain levels, you know, you run the risk of getting to the point where the system seizes up. So that's the big thing we have to control or we have to deal with in the next few months or so. And a memorandum of understanding is a good start. But you need to see those ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. And, you know, we'll see if demand comes back and we'll see if the strategic sales may end on schedule in August or September.

JIMENEZ: And I know timeline is obviously the million-dollar question here, but for Americans who are watching this and are just noticing they're not in the intricacies of these negotiations, but they are seeing how much gas has risen and how high gas prices are right now.

What would sort of be the process of prices eventually lowering at the pump? Sort of what would be the domino process for that to actually happen?

KLOZA: Sure. Yes. You're going -- it's pretty easy to predict that. We're going to see lower numbers in the next couple of weeks. We're already down about $0.10 overnight. And the retail profits have been much higher than normal. The refiner profits have been much higher than normal. And they'll probably come down to more normal levels. So I wouldn't be surprised if the average price in the country is, you know, $3.75 later this month, or even before July 4th.

You know, the wild cards that can really disrupt that are a lack of exits from the strait or, you know, something happening with the Houthis, let's say in the Red Sea, because there was a lot of oil that was rerouted from Saudi Arabia to Yanbu on the Red Sea, and that was three or four million barrels that made a big difference. The other thing to really watch closely is China. China has been importing about four million barrels a day less crude than they were in February.

Now they have a command economy so they can get away with it. But we'll have to see if that continues through the summer. That's a real wild card.

JIMENEZ: Tom Kloza, appreciate the perspective and we will watch to see -- the prices have been falling for weeks to this point. We'll see if that continues as you as you laid out.

Tom Kloza, thanks for being here.

KLOZA: Thanks for having me.

JIMENEZ: All right, everyone, we'll be right back.

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[18:41:08]

JIMENEZ: We've been following the breaking news that the United States and Iran have reached an agreement, but the details of which we are still waiting to find out. As we understand, though, a signing ceremony set for Friday in Switzerland.

I want to talk about this more with our political panel, CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona, and Republican strategist and former White House spokesperson during the George W. Bush administration, Pete Seat.

Good to see you both. I just want to start by getting your thoughts on this breaking news. And, Pete, I want to start with you just to get your initial reaction to the announcement of a process moving forward.

PETE SEAT, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I'm cautiously optimistic that we're moving in the right direction, but withholding judgment until we know precisely what is in this agreement and that we know that the agreement is signed. And as you mentioned, there will be several days between today and when that hypothetically happens on Friday in Geneva. But I do want to say there is no deal worth calling a deal until we address the nuclear issue with the Iranians.

I wish that was part of this agreement that has been reached, according to President Trump, according to Pakistan, and according to the Iranian foreign or deputy foreign minister. We need to handle the nuclear issue. They cannot obtain, develop or possess a nuclear weapon in perpetuity. Until that is addressed and until we address their funding of terrorist proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah, there is no deal to speak of. This is just a step, I hope, in that direction.

JIMENEZ: And, Maria, I mean, look, Democrats have not been shy about saying this is Trump's war. Trump got into this situation. And you know, now he's working his way out. But here it seems to be a step of progress, again, still trying to figure out the details here. But what are your initial thoughts on what we know so far?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I actually generally agree with Pete that, you know, it is always a good thing to stop a hot war. And that's what I think is -- should be the biggest news today. But then what comes next, Omar? I think that is the big question. And let's remember that right now, Iran seems to be in a much better and stronger position now than we were before Donald Trump stepped in it.

What we are seeing now is an empowered Iran. There was no regime change. In fact, it seems that the regime right now is more extreme than it was before. They now understand one really important thing, Omar, and that is that they can control and they can manipulate the world's oil markets by shutting down the Straits of Hormuz.

[18:45:07]

It's great that they have, in essence, presumably agreed to now open it up. It doesn't mean that things are going to flow easily right now. You've had some really good analysts on saying that there are so many other things to consider, insurance companies, whether these ships are actually going to start going through, and Iran actually said recently that they're not going to let this happen for free, that they're going to start charging.

So that is very different from what it was before this war started. So I think at the end of the day, Omar, the question is going to be, we need to see the details of this, the nuclear issue has not been resolved whatsoever. The global economy is going to take a long time to recover, and Americans have lost $7.8 trillion on a war that no one wanted and no one needed. And I think politically that's going to be the issue going into the midterm elections that voters are going to remember.

JIMENEZ: Well, it's an interesting dynamic because -- in terms of power because on one hand, militarily the United States decimated Iranians leadership, decimated Hezbollah's leadership. And yet here we are at this point. And, you know, people can debate sort of if they're stronger or weaker than before, but at the very least, the Iranians have leverage now over the global economy as they've perpetrated through the Strait of Hormuz.

And, Pete, I bring that up to say, look, midterm elections are coming up. A lot of people's dissatisfaction with the president right now has been tied to rising gas prices and how expensive things are. How important is it for the president to walk away with the kind of agreement that he's been touting that could potentially provide relief to Americans?

SEAT: The only agreement that matters is an agreement in which the Iranians never possess a nuclear weapon. And I think that's what the president meant in those comments he made on the South Lawn before he went to Beijing, China, when he said, I don't think about Americans' financial fortunes or whatever the exact phrase was. He was signaling to the Iranians that he will stand firm until we do what is right for our national security interests and the security interests of our allies in Europe and the Middle East.

The biggest leverage that Iran has had over America is our impatience. We are an impatient society, and that's what they were banking on. They were watching those poll numbers go south. They were watching those gas prices going north and said to themselves, we just have to stick this out and we will prevail. President Trump, in that comment, which was isolated and taken out of context by Democrats. I'm sure we'll see it in midterm election campaign ads.

But he signaled to Tehran that he will stay in this until the negotiated settlement ensures that they don't get a nuclear weapon. So the polling is not going to be great. Americans are upset about this, but we're doing the right thing. The Iranian regime has nearly 1,000 pounds of enriched uranium, up to 60 percent. There is no civilian purpose for that. Not a single civilian purpose to use that type of uranium for.

So why do they have it? They have it because they want a nuclear weapon. And we need to stop that from happening. When that kind of agreement is reached, I think you'll see a lot of Americans happy and understanding why the administration did what they did when they did it.

JIMENEZ: And a lot of that comes down to how much Americans trust the president to get that job done. The longer time goes on that that trust becomes tested.

Maria, we do have to go. But I just want to give you a quick last word.

CARDONA: Yes. Let's remember that before Trump retreated from the JCPOA that we had before Iran was not enriching past 3 percent. So that is a big thing to compare what Donald Trump is going to end up with and what we had before he retreated from what we had. I think it's going to be really difficult to get anything better than that. If he doesn't, it's going to be seen as a complete failure.

JIMENEZ: And again, the beginning of a process here, that is the news that we have. An agreement, an agreement of what kind? Pakistan has described it as a peace agreement. We understand it as just a process moving forward. A lot can happen between now and the signing ceremony on Friday, but progress nonetheless.

Maria Cardona, Pete Seat, appreciate you both. Thanks for being here.

CARDONA: Thanks, Omar.

SEAT: Thanks, Omar.

JIMENEZ: All right. All of this breaking news is in the backdrop of a UFC fight on the White House South Lawn. Stay with CNN. Much more after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:54:38]

JIMENEZ: We're staying on top of the breaking news tonight. President Trump says the United States and Iran have reached an agreement. We are still waiting to hear many of the details about the deal. But the president now says that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen when the agreement is scheduled to be signed on Friday. So we'll monitor the developments leading up to that day.

But also this landmark agreement comes as President Trump gets ready to attend a UFC fight night at the White House.

[18:55:02]

At the top of the hour the pre-fight program is scheduled to begin for the UFC Freedom 250 event. That's when we expect to see President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump make their way to the octagon or toward the octagon. There's even going to be a military flyover as well as we understand. We'll see seven mixed martial arts, MMA fights and all. The matches are meant to honor America's 250th birthday. It also just happens to fall on President Trump's 80th birthday.

The event is the first of its kind in U.S. history. The White House South Lawn has been completely transformed into an arena essentially where a majority of the seats will be filled with American military. But there are thousands of UFC fans who are attending a watch party at the nearby Ellipse. And that's where we find CNN's Sara Sidner.

Sara, the show is about to start. How are people there getting ready?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, some of them are getting ready right here in the cage, as they call it. And it literally is a cage, although this is not the one that the fighters will be in, but it will be in something that looks just like this, with that huge apparatus that people are talking about that goes over it, called the claw. You can see the crowds. They've really started to fill in. There are tens of thousands of people here. You've got Logan Paul on the stage right now, but very shortly here you're going to start seeing the fights. They start at 8:00 p.m..

I had a chance to speak with both Dana White, who says, look, this all happened because of his relationship with President Trump, who wanted to do something and decided like between the two of them, they've been friends for more than 20 years, that this would be the something that was done. And I asked about that birthday because a lot of people are saying like, this isn't July 4th, this is June 14th, and just happens to be the president's birthday?

And they were telling me it's all coincidence. This is the only date they could come up with. I told them that no one would believe that, but that is what the UFC says. I do want you to hear, though, from one of the fighters that's going to be on the card tonight, Michael Chandler. He has been fighting since he was 14 years old. And I have to say, no matter what you think about this event, because there is a lot of controversy surrounding it, these fighters train like nothing I've ever seen before. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: I've seen what some of your workouts look like.

MICHAEL CHANDLER, UFC FIGHTER: Empty the tank?

SIDNER: I would say brutal.

CHANDLER: Yes, brutal.

ANNOUNCER: Iron Michael Chandler.

SIDNER (voice-over): Dubbed "Iron" by fans, 40-year-old Michael Chandler is ranked 13th in the UFC Lightweight Division and has spent nearly half of his life as a professional fighter.

CHANDLER: I think moderation is for cowards, you know? I throw myself into the fire just as hard as I can in order to increase my potential, increased my ceiling. You hit that point where you can't go any longer, and then you go a little bit further.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: He is an incredible fighter, hoping to get another notch on his belt. But I also have an incredible colleague who is here with me. Donnie has been here for the day alongside me. We've been all over this place looking at all the things that are going on there, having a conversation with one of the fighters right now.

Donnie, let's start the way that the UFC would start. Today would start like this.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: OK, you're the pro here.

SIDNER: OK. And now we're going to back up off each other. And the next day I learned some things. You want to? Let's --

O'SULLIVAN: I tap out, I tap out, I tap out, I tap out, I tap out. I'm not --

SIDNER: What have you seen?

O'SULLIVAN: I'm not, I'm not messing around in the cage with Sara Sider.

SIDNER: All right. Because I have learned some moves. You know what I mean?

O'SULLIVAN: Conor McGregor may be Irish, but I don't, I don't have that fighting spirit.

SIDNER: Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee?

O'SULLIVAN: But the atmosphere here is, it's, I mean, it is, for UFC fans, this is the place to be. Everybody is very happy. I will notice very apolitical crowd. Nobody really wants to talk about politics. There's not a lot of MAGA hats here or anything like that.

SIDNER: Yes.

O'SULLIVAN: Just people trying to have a good time and hoping that the weather stays -- that the lightning stays away.

SIDNER: That is the one big thing that nobody gets to control. And that is the weather. And we are seeing the clouds come in, although it doesn't look so extreme yet, but they're saying around 8:00 when this thing is supposed to start, that we may be seeing thunderstorms, which could definitely be a problem for this because there's no cover except for right over the cage.

But, Donie, you mentioned something I thought was really interesting. When you look around and you look at the crowd, I think I've seen maybe four or five Make America Great Again hats. There are fewer of those hats here than you see kind of in the general public.

O'SULLIVAN: Absolutely. Yes. I mean, very few MAGA hats and also very few women. I would say it's about 95 percent male here today. I mean, there are some women, but very much a young male audience here, which, you know, when you talk --

SIDNER: That's the audience.

O'SULLIVAN: Exactly. When you talk about the role of UFC in Trump's election and everything else, this is what he tapped into in 2024.

I will say, Omar, please keep the camera rolling even when we go off air because I want to get out of the cage alive. Sara has got -- there's a different side to Sara.

JIMENEZ: Oh, man.

O'SULLIVAN: That you now will see. JIMENEZ: Tap out. Tap out. That hand speed.

SIDNER: Omar, I'm a lover, not a fighter.