WASHINGTON\/ISLAMABAD\/DUBAI \u2013 President Donald Trump today discussed a new Iranian proposal aimed at resolving the ongoing conflict with Tehran with his top national security aides. The conflict currently remains in a stalemate, leading to reduced energy supplies from the region.<\/p>\n
Iranian sources revealed Tehran\u2019s latest proposal earlier today, which suggests postponing discussions on Iran\u2019s nuclear program until the war concludes and disputes over shipping from the Gulf are resolved. This approach is unlikely to satisfy Washington, which insists that nuclear issues must be addressed from the outset.<\/p>\n
Despite the absence of face-to-face diplomacy\u2014following Trump\u2019s cancellation of a trip by his envoys over the weekend\u2014efforts to bridge gaps between the U.S. and Iran have not ceased, according to sources from mediator Pakistan.<\/p>\n
Hopes for reviving peace efforts have diminished since Trump scrapped a Saturday visit by his envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi had shuttled in and out of Islamabad twice over the weekend.<\/p>\n
Araqchi also visited Oman over the weekend and traveled to Russia today, where he met President Vladimir Putin and received expressions of support from a long-standing ally.<\/p>\n
With the warring sides seemingly far apart on critical issues, including Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions and access through the crucial Strait of Hormuz, oil prices resumed their upward trend today, reaching a two-week high.<\/p>\n
Trump met with his national security team this morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to get ahead of the president or his national security team,\u201d stated White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. \u201cWhat I will reiterate is that the president\u2019s red lines with respect to Iran have been made very, very clear, not just to the American public, but also to them as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Araqchi informed reporters in Russia that Trump had requested negotiations because the U.S. had not achieved any of its objectives.<\/p>\n
Senior Iranian sources, speaking anonymously, told Reuters that the proposal Araqchi carried to Islamabad over the weekend envisioned staged talks, with the nuclear issue initially set aside. The first step would involve ending the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and providing guarantees that Washington cannot restart it. Subsequently, negotiators would resolve the U.S. blockade and the fate of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran aims to reopen under its control.<\/p>\n
Only then would talks address other issues, including the long-standing dispute over Iran\u2019s nuclear program, with Iran still seeking some form of U.S. acknowledgment of its right to enrich uranium for what it claims are peaceful purposes.<\/p>\n
In a clear sign that no immediate face-to-face meetings are planned, streets reopened in Pakistan\u2019s capital, Islamabad, which had been locked down for a week in anticipation of talks that ultimately did not occur.<\/p>\n
Pakistani officials indicated that negotiations were still proceeding remotely, but there were no plans to convene an in-person meeting until both sides were close enough to sign a memorandum.<\/p>\n
Although a ceasefire has paused the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, which commenced on February 28, no agreement has been reached on terms to end a war that has claimed thousands of lives, driven up oil prices, fueled inflation, and clouded the outlook for global growth.<\/p>\n
Iran has largely blocked all shipping, apart from its own, from the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz since the war began. This month, the United States initiated a blockade of Iranian ships.<\/p>\n
Ship-tracking data shows that six tankers loaded with Iranian oil have been forced back to Iran by the U.S. blockade in recent days, highlighting the war\u2019s impact on maritime traffic. Before the war, between 125 and 140 ships typically transited the strait daily. However, only seven have done so in the past day, according to Kpler ship-tracking data and satellite analysis from SynMax, with none carrying oil destined for the global market.<\/p>\n
With falling approval ratings, Trump faces domestic pressure to conclude the unpopular war. Iran\u2019s leaders, despite military weakening, have gained leverage through their ability to halt shipping in the strait, which normally carries a fifth of global oil shipments.<\/p>\n
Fighting has intensified in Lebanon, where Israeli strikes killed 14 people and wounded 37 in the south on Sunday, according to the health ministry, marking the deadliest day since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire was agreed in mid-April.<\/p>\n
Iran asserts it will not engage in talks on the broader conflict unless a ceasefire also holds in Lebanon. Israel invaded Lebanon in March in pursuit of the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, which had fired across the border in support of Tehran. Both Israel and Hezbollah blame each other for violating the truce agreed between Israel and the Lebanese government in Washington and extended last week.<\/p>\n
#USIranTensions #MiddleEastConflict #NuclearDeal #StraitOfHormuz #OilPrices #DiplomacyEfforts #TrumpAdministration #IranianProposal #RegionalSecurity #GlobalEconomy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON\/ISLAMABAD\/DUBAI \u2013 President Donald Trump today discussed a new Iranian proposal aimed at resolving the ongoing conflict with Tehran with his top national security aides. The conflict currently remains in a stalemate, leading to reduced energy supplies from the region. Iranian sources revealed Tehran\u2019s latest proposal earlier today, which suggests postponing discussions on Iran\u2019s nuclear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}