Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran wants the United States to return to an agreement before the US midterm elections in November — the contests that will determine control of Congress — telling NBC News and other news organizations that he would prefer a deal is reached before Americans vote.

Speaking briefly with reporters on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the annual gathering of world leaders in New York, Pezeshkian said:

“We wish Americans to return to the MOU before the midterms.”

“We don’t want it to get to the midterm elections.”

The MOU he referenced is a memorandum of understanding, a framework document that outlines the terms of an agreement.

Fox News is expected to air an interview with the Iranian president at 6 p.m. It remains unclear whether the remarks were recorded as part of that interview.

According to Investinglive's analysis, the timing of the comments is itself the message: Pezeshkian is signaling that Tehran would prefer progress before the US midterms. On their face, the remarks suggest he wants a deal before the elections, but analysis cautioned that his comments alone do not establish that an agreement is close. Previous rounds of deal talk have given way to stalled negotiations, and the question is whether the stated willingness turns into concrete action. Traders will be looking for concrete steps from both sides.

Crude oil markets moved amid the back-and-forth. Prices fell from a high of $96.78 to $93.30 following reports of a possible reopening of the Strait of Hormuz — a narrow waterway that serves as a critical transit route for global oil shipments — and an end to the US blockade. The decline did not hold: oil rebounded to $95.66 and was trading at $94.96 at the time of the report. That volatility, the analysis noted, suggests traders are weighing the possibility of a deal but are not yet convinced it will happen.