Trump Casts Doubt on Iran Peace Proposal After US Response

Iran said on Sunday night that it had received a US response to its iran peace proposal and would review it. The exchange came as Donald Trump cast doubt on the prospect of a diplomatic breakthrough and said Iran had not yet "paid a big enough price" for past wrongs.

Iran’s foreign ministry said the messages moved through Pakistan, but a ministry spokesperson said that did not yet mean nuclear negotiations had resumed. The response followed four weeks of failed efforts to restart peace talks in Islamabad after an earlier round broke up without agreement.

Trump Raises the Pressure

Trump said renewed hostilities were possible and added, "If they misbehave, if they do something bad, but right now, we’ll see." On Friday, Trump told Congress in a letter that the ceasefire had "terminated," then told supporters in Florida, "You know we’re in a war, because I think you would agree we cannot let lunatics have a nuclear weapon."

Those remarks landed while the US kept a heavy naval presence in the region. On Saturday, Adm Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command, visited sailors and marines aboard the USS Tripoli and USS Milius in the Arabian Sea. The USS George HW Bush arrived on 24 April, giving the US three aircraft carriers in the Middle East for the first time since the Iraq war in 2003.

Iran, Pakistan and Israel

Pakistan’s role remains central because the messages passed through Islamabad, yet the ministry said that channel had not reopened talks. The ceasefire was brokered by Pakistan four weeks before the article was published, but Pakistani efforts to resume peace talks in Islamabad failed after a first round broke up without agreement.

Israeli press reports quoted senior military officials as saying they were preparing for possible US strikes on Iran. A senior Israeli officer said any peace agreement without a cessation of Iran’s uranium enrichment programme and the surrender of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium would be considered a failure.

On Sunday, the UK Maritime Trade Operations centre reported that a bulk carrier ship came under attack by "multiple small craft" off the Iranian coast near the town of Sirik. That report adds another live pressure point around the talks, even as Iran reviews the US reply and Washington signals it is keeping military options open.