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President Donald Trump has shot down an Iranian counteroffer to end the conflict, calling it “totally unacceptable.”
Getting into it: In a statement on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called ‘Representatives.’ I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE! Thank you for your attention to this matter.” Trump’s statement was in response to Iran formally submitting its counter-proposal to the US 14-point peace plan through Pakistani mediators Sunday, according to Iran’s state news agency IRNA. The details of Iran’s offer, per multiple Iranian outlets and a Wall Street Journal report, include a formal end to the war, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, pulling all US naval vessels currently enforcing the blockade, removing US sanctions, putting a working ceasefire in place in Lebanon, and tacking on another 30 days of negotiations to hammer out everything else.
Iran also wants the bulk of any talks over its nuclear program kicked down the road to a later round of negotiations. On the nuclear terms it did include, the Wall Street Journal reported that Iran’s offer pitches a much shorter enrichment freeze, shipping out part of its 440kg (970lb) stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% while watering down whatever stays inside the country, and a flat refusal on tearing down its nuclear sites. Two hours before his “totally unacceptable” post, Trump had already fired off another lengthy attack on Iran. “Iran has been playing games with the United States, and the rest of the World, for 47 years. They will be laughing no longer!”
The US 14-point proposal that prompted Iran’s response was significantly more demanding. Under the US terms, Iran would have to agree not to develop a nuclear weapon, stop all uranium enrichment for at least 12 years (some reports say up to 20 years), hand over its entire 440kg stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and dismantle its nuclear facilities. In return, the US would gradually lift sanctions, release billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets, and halt its naval blockade of Iranian ports. Tehran framed its response as constructive.
This all comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu separately said the war was “not over” in a CBS 60 Minutes interview Sunday, citing Iran’s remaining uranium stockpile. “There is still nuclear material, enriched uranium, that has to be taken out of Iran. There’s still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled. There are still proxies that Iran supports. There are ballistic missiles that they still want to produce.” Netanyahu added that Trump personally told him he wants “to go in there” and grab the uranium.
Trump struck a calmer note on that same uranium stockpile during a separate sit-down with the show Full Measure, arguing US satellite monitoring is enough on its own right now. “We’ll get that at some point, whenever we want. We have it surveilled. I did a thing called Space Force, and they are watching. If somebody walked in, they can tell you his name, his address, the number of his badge. If anybody got near the place, we will know about it, and we’ll blow them up.”
He also raised the possibility of resuming attacks on Iran. “We could go in for two more weeks and do every single target. We have certain targets that we wanted, and we’ve done probably 70 percent of them, but we have other targets that we could conceivably hit.”
