President Donald Trump said on Friday that he’s “not satisfied” with Iran’s latest proposal in negotiations to end war between the countries.
“They want to make a deal, I’m not satisfied with it, so we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters Friday at the White House.
Trump did not elaborate on what he sees as the proposal’s shortcomings.
The president said negotiations have continued by phone after he called off his envoys’ trip to Pakistan last week. He expressed frustration with Iran’s leadership, which he described as fractured.
“It’s a very disjointed leadership,” he said. “They all want to make a deal, but they’re all messed up.”
Iran had handed over its latest proposal for negotiations with the United States to mediators in Pakistan, Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported Friday.
There was no word on what details are included in the plan submitted late Thursday, according to the report.
A shaky three-week ceasefire between the US and Iran appears to be still holding though both countries have traded accusations of violations.
While the ceasefire has largely halted fighting in Iran, the US and Iran are locked in a standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas passes in peacetime. A US Navy blockade stopping Iran's tankers from getting out to sea has Iran’s economy reeling. The world economy is also under pressure as Iran maintains its chokehold on the strait.
Trump this week floated a new plan to reopen the critical passageway used by the Gulf countries to export their oil and gas.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held a flurry of calls on Friday with many of his regional counterparts, including from Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Egypt, Qatar, Iraq and Azerbaijan, to brief them on his country’s latest initiatives to end the war, according to his social media.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also spoke over phone Friday with Araghchi. They discussed ongoing diplomatic efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and long-term security arrangements, Kallas’ office said in a statement. Kallas also has been in contact with the EU's Gulf partners.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement: “President Trump has been clear that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon, and negotiations continue to ensure the short- and long-term national security of the United States.”
Earlier this week, Trump told Axios that he had rejected Iran’s proposal to reopen the strait in exchange for the US Navy lifting its blockade of Iranian ports.
The Iranian proposal would have pushed negotiations on the country’s nuclear program to a later date, two regional officials said earlier this week. The officials with knowledge of the proposal spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door negotiations between Iranian and Pakistani officials.
One of the major reasons Trump has said he went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons.
Since the war began on Feb. 28, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, and more than 2,600 people in Lebanon, where new fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah broke out two days after the war started, according to authorities.
Additionally, 24 people have died in Israel and more than 20 in Gulf Arab states. Seventeen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 US service members throughout the region have been killed.
