Trump not satisfied with Iran’s new peace proposal: Report

Washington: US President Donald Trump is not satisfied with Iran’s latest peace proposal, which seeks to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the US naval blockade of Iran’s ports, while leaving its nuclear program for later negotiations, US media reported, citing several White House officials.

The president discussed Iran’s proposal with his top national security officials at a meeting in the White House Situation Room on Monday afternoon, said the reports.

One of the people attending the meeting said Trump was not likely to accept Iran’s proposal, which was delivered to the United States over the last few days, reports Xinhua news agency, quoting CNN.

A US official told The New York Times that accepting the proposal could appear to deny Trump a victory since the president has repeatedly insisted that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons.

In an interview with Fox News on Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran’s new proposal “is better than what we thought they were going to submit,” but stressed any deal must bar Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Trump insisted last week that any peace deal with Iran would be made on US terms and his timeline, claiming there is “no time frame” for ending the US-Israeli war with Iran and “no time pressure” on either the extended ceasefire or stalled talks.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Monday blamed the slow progress of diplomacy between Iran and the United States on the latter’s continuation of its “destructive habits.”

He made the remarks in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saint Petersburg, which was also attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, among others, read a statement released by the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

Elaborating on the diplomatic process to end the war and establish peace and security in the West Asia region and the Strait of Hormuz, Araghchi said, “The main reasons for the slow progress of diplomacy are the US continuation of its destructive habits, especially its insistence on putting forward unreasonable demands, frequently changing positions, rhetoric of threat and recurrent breaking of promises.”

He said Iran will make an appropriate decision about the current diplomatic process while taking into consideration its previous experiences, “especially the two military aggressions (by the United States and Israel) against the country in the middle of diplomatic negotiations, attacks on its peaceful nuclear facilities, as well as the US addiction to sanctions and economic pressure and continued piracy against Iranian commercial vessels.”

On February 28, Israel and the United States launched joint attacks on Tehran and other Iranian cities, killing Iran’s then Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, senior commanders, and civilians. Iran responded with waves of missile and drone strikes targeting Israel and US interests in the Middle East, and tightened control over the Strait of Hormuz.

A ceasefire was achieved between the warring parties on April 8, followed by lengthy talks between the Iranian and US delegations in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, which failed to yield an agreement. The United States later imposed its own blockade on the waterway.

Iranian and US delegations were reportedly expected to hold another round of peace talks in Pakistan last week, but Iran refrained from attending the negotiations, citing the US continued naval blockade and “excessive” demands as main reasons.

IANS