Iran offers new peace proposal to US but Trump ‘not satisfied’ | US-Israel war on Iran
Iran has presented a new offer to Pakistani mediators as part of its latest effort to end the war with the US, but Donald Trump said he was “not happy” with it.
“We’re in talks right now, they’re not getting there,” he told reporters, adding that his options were “either destroy them or make a deal.”
Trump did not elaborate on what he saw as the shortcomings of the latest proposal, but said: “They want things I can’t accept.”
In Washington, Trump on Friday annulled a deadline set by the war powers act that requires the US president to seek congressional authorization to continue hostilities for more than 60 days. One Letter to congressional leadersTrump claimed that the White House did not need to get approval from the legislature because the ceasefire agreement with Iran actually paused the 60-day period; This interpretation has been disputed by many legal experts. Speaking to reporters, Trump claimed that the Vietnam war-era law was “unconstitutional.”
Meanwhile, Iranian state media reported that Tehran forwarded the offer to Pakistan on Thursday night for forwarding to Washington, but the content of the offer was not immediately clear.
The new proposal was initially seen as the result of energetic back-channel diplomacy by the Pakistani government. Islamabad’s role has shifted to the lower-profile but urgent task of relaying messages between the two sides after momentum behind direct talks stalled in recent days.
Islamabad said it believed an agreement could be reached. However, it is stated that Iranian officials are in danger of overplaying their hand and are facing the US administration, which is looking for complete victory rather than compromise.
Pakistani officials say they are aware that what is at stake is not just regional peace, but also the health of the global economy and the livelihoods of millions of the world’s poorest people, including Pakistan, whose monthly energy import bill has nearly tripled due to war.
The decision to submit an offer to Pakistan followed a debate within Iran over whether Iran should follow the diplomatic route or instead rely on the leverage provided by the temporary blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials hope Trump will seek to end the conflict before his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on May 14 and 15.
Islamabad considers the continuation of the ceasefire for more than three weeks as a great success. Tehran and Washington said Pakistan remains the primary channel for talks.
Both Iran and the United States hardened their positions after meeting in the same room in Islamabad for an all-night negotiating session in April; This was the highest-level contact between the two sides since the 1979 revolution.
According to Tehran, an agreement was reached in these talks, but the USA suddenly withdrew. Washington said Iran was not prepared to go far enough. An attempt to hold a second round in Islamabad last weekend failed after the Iranian side refused to meet with the US team, which was ready to fly.
US officials reported this week that Washington was considering a return to war. Some voices in Iran have expressed disappointment with Pakistan’s failure to fulfill the US’s commitments made in the negotiations.
Masood Khan, former Pakistani ambassador to the US, said Pakistan was not merely conveying messages between the two sides. Islamabad’s intervention initially led to a two-week ceasefire and US-Iran talks with Pakistani officials as arbitrators, he said. He said Islamabad convinced Trump to extend the ceasefire and that the ceasefire no longer has a specific deadline.
The next task, he said, is to persuade both sides to simultaneously lift blockades in the Strait of Hormuz. However, while Trump said this week that the blockade was more effective than bombing, Iran’s religious leader Mojtaba Khamenei hailed the opening of a “new page” in the strait and indicated that neither side would back down.
The US Treasury Department warned on Friday that any shipping company paying tolls to Iran for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, including charitable donations to organizations such as the Iranian Red Crescent, would risk criminal sanctions. Tehran has proposed charging fees to ships passing through the strait as part of the agreement to end the war.
Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, spent three days in Tehran in April and met with different centers of power in Iran; Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Türkiye and worked on regional support for the peace process. Islamabad has enlisted countries as far away as Japan to weigh in on diplomacy, and Pakistan’s foreign minister also spoke to British foreign secretary Yvette Cooper this week.
“The clock of diplomacy has not stopped,” Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi said before news of Iran’s new offer. “We remain hopeful that this issue will be resolved through negotiations.”
In Iran’s previous offer, it was proposed to reopen the strait but postpone the solution of the country’s nuclear program problem. Trump said Iran must commit not to acquire nuclear weapons, so Tehran must address the issue to satisfy Washington and create the possibility of a new round of direct negotiations.
The two issues that stand out on the nuclear front are the suspension of Iran’s uranium enrichment and the regulation of highly enriched uranium stocks.
Regional diplomats with knowledge of the discussions said it should be possible to agree on a moratorium on enrichment for around 10 years; this is roughly half of the two sides’ negotiating positions. The possibility that the highly enriched uranium could be sent to Iran’s ally Russia instead of the US’s request to deliver it was discussed this week between Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Iran remains angered by the United States’ failure to take a consistent public stance after Trump said he opposed allowing Iran to enrich uranium, even for medical purposes; Iran was a concession that the US delegation believed it had already made.
Jauhar Saleem, Pakistan’s former top diplomat who is now president of the Institute of Regional Studies, a think tank in Islamabad, said Iran’s apparent strategy of prolonging negotiations in the expectation of getting a better deal was extremely risky. But he said Washington also needs to acknowledge that pressure tactics have not worked on Iran over the years.
“It is unrealistic for Iran to yield to all demands,” Saleem said. “A deal needs to be a win-win situation for both parties.”
