Iran has publicly rejected US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire proposal, with a military spokesman telling the New York Times that the Americans were “negotiating among themselves”. At the same time, Iranian state English-language broadcaster IRNA cited an anonymous official who rejected the US plan and presented a counterproposal.
Al Jazeera cited a high-ranking diplomatic source in Tehran who said the government welcomed the 15-point plan from the United States but described it as “extremely maximalist and irrational.”
Representatives of Pakistan, which would have delivered the American plan to Iran, told the Associated Press that it was a 15-point proposal that would include easing sanctions against Iran, dismantling Iran’s nuclear program, restricting the use of missiles and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Axios reported that it is not entirely clear how much of the Iranian position is just a show of force and how much represents a definitive closure of the negotiations. An American official told the outlet that the Trump administration had not yet received any official message from Iran rejecting the offer.
The “gift” Trump said on Tuesday that Iran gave Washington was allowing several fuel tankers to safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz in recent days, a senior Arab diplomat and a U.S. official told The Times of Israel. In trying to explain his decision to pursue negotiations with Iran, Trump told reporters that Tehran “did something incredible yesterday – gave us a gift worth a huge amount of money that arrived today.”
Meanwhile, Israel’s Channel 12, citing a Western source, published that Motjaba Khamenei, son of the Ayatollah killed at the beginning of the conflict Ali Khamenei and appointed to the leadership of the Persian country, is alive and involved in decision-making in Iran.
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At the same time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered an intensification of attacks against Tehran in the next 48 hours, out of fear that the US could announce a ceasefire at any time, according to the New York Times. Iran has already threatened to act in the Bab El-mandeb Strait if the US tries to take over the Hormuz region.
