Iran says it is reviewing US proposal but has no interest in holding talks
Iran is reviewing a US proposal to end the war but has no intention of holding talks to end the widening Middle East conflict, the country’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Still, the exchange of messages through mediators “does not mean negotiations with the US,” Abbas Araghchi said on state television.
“They put forward ideas in their messages that were conveyed to top authorities, and if necessary, a position will be announced by them,” Araghchi said.
US President Donald Trump’s 15-point proposal, sent through Pakistan, calls for removing Iran’s stocks of highly enriched uranium, halting enrichment, curbing its ballistic missile program and cutting off funding for regional allies, according to three Israeli cabinet sources familiar with the plan.
The White House declined to disclose specifics of its proposal and threatened to escalate its strikes.
“If they fail to understand that they have been defeated militarily, and will continue to be, President Trump will ensure they are hit harder than they have ever been hit before,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
A senior Israeli defence official said Israel was sceptical Iran would agree to the terms, and that Israel was concerned US negotiators might make concessions. Israel also wants any agreement to preserve its option to conduct pre-emptive strikes, a second source said.
Markets respond positively to proposal
Global equity markets regained some ground while oil prices fell on Wednesday after reports that Washington had sent the proposal to Iran, with investors hoping for an end to a war that has disrupted global energy supplies and risks fuelling inflation.
The Pentagon is meanwhile planning to send thousands of airborne troops to the Gulf to give Trump more options to order a ground assault, sources have told Reuters, adding to two contingents of Marines already on their way. The first Marine unit, aboard a huge amphibious assault ship, could arrive around the end of the month.
Iran could open a new front at the mouth of the Red Sea if attacks are carried out on its territory, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency cited an unnamed military source as saying on Wednesday. The source said that Iran has the capability to pose a “credible threat” in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which lies between Yemen and Djibouti.
Since the start of what the US calls “Operation Epic Fury,” Iran has attacked countries that host US bases and effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, conduit for a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday warned: The “world is staring down the barrel of a wider war” in the region.
“It is time to stop climbing the escalation ladder – and start climbing the diplomatic ladder,” he said at the UN headquarters in New York.
