Iran said on Thursday it was reviewing Washington’s latest position on ending the Gulf war, as President Donald Trump warned of renewed military strikes within days if Tehran failed to agree to a deal.
“We have received US views and are reviewing them,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said, according to Iranian state-run agency Nour News. Pakistan, which hosted peace talks last month and is acting as a conduit between the two sides, continues to mediate, with several rounds of communication having taken place. Pakistan’s interior minister was in Tehran on Wednesday.
Trump issued a blunt ultimatum to reporters at Joint Base Andrews. “Believe me, if we don’t get the right answers, it goes very quickly. We’re all ready to go,” he said. Asked how long he would wait, he replied: “It could be a few days, but it could go very quickly.”
Earlier in the day Trump said: “We’re in the final stages of Iran. We’ll see what happens. Either have a deal or we’re going to do some things that are a little bit nasty, but hopefully that won’t happen. Ideally, I’d like to see few people killed, as opposed to a lot. We can do it either way.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards responded with their own warning. “If aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will extend beyond the region this time,” the Guards said in a statement.
Iran submitted its latest offer to Washington this week. Tehran’s own descriptions suggest it largely repeats terms Trump has previously rejected, including demands for control of the Strait of Hormuz, compensation for war damage, the lifting of sanctions, the release of frozen assets and the withdrawal of US troops.
HORMUZ SHIPPING TICKS UP
Six weeks since a fragile ceasefire came into force, talks have shown little progress. Soaring oil prices have stoked inflation fears and weighed on the global economy, while Trump faces domestic pressure ahead of November’s midterm elections, with his approval rating approaching its lowest level since he returned to the White House.
The Strait of Hormuz, which carried a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments before the war, remains a fraction of its former throughput. On Wednesday, Iran released a map outlining a “controlled maritime zone” at the strait, saying transit would require authorisation from a newly established body — potentially including access fees, which Washington has said would be unacceptable.
Two Chinese supertankers carrying around four million barrels of oil exited the strait on Wednesday, while a South Korean tanker with two million barrels of Kuwaiti crude was also crossing in cooperation with Iran. Shipping monitor Lloyd’s List said at least 54 vessels had transited the strait last week, roughly double the previous week. Iran said 26 ships had crossed in the preceding 24 hours — still only a fraction of the 125 to 140 daily passages recorded before the war.
WAR AIMS UNMET
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated their war aims as curtailing Iran’s support for regional militias, dismantling its nuclear programme, destroying its missile capabilities and creating conditions for Iranians to topple their rulers.
Iran has so far retained its stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium and its capacity to threaten neighbours with missiles, drones and proxy forces. Its clerical leadership, which suppressed a mass uprising at the start of the year, has faced no sign of organised opposition since the war began. US-Israeli bombing killed thousands of people in Iran before the ceasefire. Israel has also killed thousands in Lebanon, which it invaded in pursuit of the Iran-backed Hezbollah armed group, displacing hundreds of thousands. Iranian strikes on Israel and neighbouring Gulf states have killed dozens.
(Reuters)
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