Iran’s response to the latest US peace proposal refuses to address its nuclear program — focusing instead on ending the fighting across the region, Iranian state media said Sunday.
The regime’s counter-offer, which was fired off to Pakistani mediators, seeks to ensure the security of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz before starting talks on more contentious issues — including Iran’s nuclear program, according to the IRNA news agency.
Washington’s latest proposal had addressed a deal to end the war, reopen the strait and roll back the regime’s nuclear program.
The White House hasn’t yet commented on news of Iran’s reply.
President Trump previously said that eliminating Iran’s nuclear program is one of the key objectives of the war.
“We will never bow our heads before the enemy, and if talk of dialogue or negotiation arises, it does not mean surrender or retreat. Rather, the goal is to uphold the rights of the Iranian nation and to defend national interests with resolute strength,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a post on X.
President Trump, for his part, has vowed to flex American military muscle if Tehran didn’t agree to its latest proposal to roll back its nuclear program and reopen the strait.
He threatened Saturday that he may resume Project Freedom, which would have Navy warships guide commercial vessels through the strait, if the talks derail.
US ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told the ABC on Sunday that Trump was giving diplomacy “every chance we possibly can before going back to hostilities.”
Tehran has largely blocked non-Iranian shipping through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, which before the war carried one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
It has since emerged as one of the central pressure points in the war.
Iran has mostly blocked non-Iranian shipping through the strategic waterway, which before the war carried one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
In turn, the US has imposed a blockade of Iranian ports. On Friday, the US struck two Iranian oil tankers for trying to breach the blockade.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy has already warned that any attack on its oil tankers or commercial vessels would be met with a “heavy assault” on one of the US bases in the region and enemy ships.
With Post wires
