Middle East crisis live: US proposal to end war a ‘wishlist, not a reality’, warns Iranian official
“Iranian officials dismissed a US proposal to end the war, calling it an “American wishlist” and stating that Iran is prepared to respond if the US does not meet its demands. The US proposal, which includes a moratorium on nuclear enrichment, is being reviewed by Tehran, but Iranian officials have rejected its “excessive and unrealistic demands.” Meanwhile, the US military reported that over 50 cargo ships have been turned back due to the ongoing US naval blockade of Iran.
'American wishlist, not a reality': Iranian officials cast doubt on US proposal to end war
Ebrahim Rezaei, the spokesperson of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission, has poured cold water on the Axios report claiming the US and Iran were nearing a one-page memorandum to end the war, saying it was an “American wishlist [and] not a reality”.
In a fiery statement on X, he said: “Americans will not gain in a lost war what they failed to achieve in face-to-face negotiations. Iran has its finger on the trigger and is ready; if they do not surrender and grant the necessary concessions, or if they or their lapdogs attempt any mischief, we will respond with a harsh and regrettable response.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, also responded to the Axios report, telling the Iranian Isna news agency that the US proposal is still being reviewed by Tehran.
“Once Iran concludes its assessment, it will convey its views to the Pakistani side,” Isna reported, adding that the US demands detailed in the Axios report “included excessive and unrealistic demands that have been strongly rejected by Iranian officials in recent days”.
Isna reported that the Iranian negotiating team is solely reviewing the “termination of the war” and the nuclear issue is not currently being discussed.
Axios, citing US officials, said Washington was expecting Tehran to respond to its proposal within 48 hours. Among the provisions was Iran committing to a moratorium on nuclear enrichment. Donald Trump has also threatened to resume the conflict unless Iran “agrees to give what has been agreed”, without saying what those concessions were.
More than 50 cargo ships have been turned back or returned to port as a result of the ongoing US naval blockade of Iran, the US military has said.
The sanction remains in place despite Donald Trump pausing a naval mission to reopen the strait of Hormuz and free stranded vessels, given what he described as “great progress” towards an agreement to end the war with Tehran.
An update from US central command (Centcom), which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, said: “So far, 52 commercial vessels have been directed to turn around or return to port in order to comply.”
The US Department of Homeland Security has identified the US-Israeli war with Iran as a potential motive for the man accused of attempting to assassinate president Donald Trump and senior members of his administration at a White House reporters’ gala last month, according to an intelligence report sent to state and local law enforcement nationwide and other federal agencies.
The report, a preliminary assessment by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis dated 27 April, assessed that the suspect Cole Allen had “multiple social and political grievances.”
It concluded that the Iran conflict “may have contributed to his decision to conduct the attack,” citing social media posts from Allen that criticized US actions in the war, Reuters reported.
The assessment sheds new light on the US government’s search for a motive in the foiled attack on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on 25 April.
Its conclusions, while preliminary, offer the most definitive evidence to date that the Iran conflict, which has killed thousands in the Middle East and rattled the global economy, could have been a trigger.
Analysis: Trump's policy whiplash shows he is flailing inside a crisis of his own making
Another day, another hairpin turn in the world of Donald Trump’s foreign policy.
The weekend was all about war and Trump insisting Iran had not yet “paid a big enough price”.
Tuesday was Project Freedom, styled as a grand “humanitarian gesture” to allow trapped ships and their crews to escape the Gulf, but which was also aimed at weakening Iran’s chokehold on the strait of Hormuz.
By the early hours of Wednesday we were back to peace. The president announced “Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement” so Project Freedom would be paused to give negotiations a chance.
All three approaches on three consecutive days do at least have something in common. They are all attempts to wrestle with the same set of hard facts: the regime in Iran is unlikely to collapse or surrender the right to enrich uranium no matter how many bombs are dropped on it. Tehran has shown its capacity to close the strait of Hormuz, and a total blockade hurts the US economy at the same time it is clearly crippling Iran.
Together, these hard facts make up the sides of a steel box in which the Trump administration, largely through its own actions, finds itself trapped. The repeated policy changes in recent days represent him flailing around inside this trap, pinging off the walls and looking for an exit other than humiliation or a forever war.
It remains too early to say whether Trump has now found the way out he has been looking for. His accompanying threat of bombardment “at a much higher level and intensity”, if Iran does not accept the initial terms, betrays his nervousness it will not work.
Before the war, Iran was offering a moratorium on uranium enrichment of five years, and the US was demanding 20. The reported new proposal suggests a compromise of 12 or 15 years. Any agreement should ultimately be assessed against the benchmark of the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal that Trump torpedoed in 2018. Under its terms, Iran had no highly enriched uranium but would have held on to a closely-monitored and strictly limited nuclear programme.
If he wants to declare victory, Trump could point to the fact that even the 2015 deal lacked the lengthy moratorium on enrichment that his diplomacy will provide.
But any such gains will have come at an awful price. There are over 5,000 dead, including the 120 primary school children killed on the first day in Minab, and counting the casualties in Lebanon.
Then there are all the indirect global costs - economic and environmental - that will take years to play out. Harder to calculate is whether the relentless bombing has shortened or lengthened the life of Iran’s regime. For now, it appears to have entrenched the military and the hardliners.
As things stand, there are more unknowns than knowns surrounding this possible breakthrough, and any progress will remain extremely fragile. But even if the war is brought to an end and Trump gets the peace plan which has been sketched out in today’s reports, this war seems certain to rank right up there on the list of history’s most pointless conflicts.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of the general staff, Eyal Zamir, said the military was prepared to launch a new offensive against Iran if needed.
Speaking to troops today in the town of Khiam in southern Lebanon, where Israeli strikes have continued despite a ceasefire, Zamir said they have “no restrictions as to using force” and claimed the IDF has killed more than 2,000 Hezbollah operatives since the Iran war began, the Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported.
The military chief also said the IDF maintains a list of targets ready for an attack in Iran, in coordination with the US.
Reuters has reported a source in Israel saying the country was not aware of Donald Trump being potentially close to a deal with Iran that would end the war and reopen the strait of Hormuz.
Rather, Israel was preparing for an escalation in fighting, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
'American wishlist, not a reality': Iranian officials cast doubt on US proposal to end war
Ebrahim Rezaei, the spokesperson of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission, has poured cold water on the Axios report claiming the US and Iran were nearing a one-page memorandum to end the war, saying it was an “American wishlist [and] not a reality”.
In a fiery statement on X, he said: “Americans will not gain in a lost war what they failed to achieve in face-to-face negotiations. Iran has its finger on the trigger and is ready; if they do not surrender and grant the necessary concessions, or if they or their lapdogs attempt any mischief, we will respond with a harsh and regrettable response.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, also responded to the Axios report, telling the Iranian Isna news agency that the US proposal is still being reviewed by Tehran.
“Once Iran concludes its assessment, it will convey its views to the Pakistani side,” Isna reported, adding that the US demands detailed in the Axios report “included excessive and unrealistic demands that have been strongly rejected by Iranian officials in recent days”.
Isna reported that the Iranian negotiating team is solely reviewing the “termination of the war” and the nuclear issue is not currently being discussed.
Axios, citing US officials, said Washington was expecting Tehran to respond to its proposal within 48 hours. Among the provisions was Iran committing to a moratorium on nuclear enrichment. Donald Trump has also threatened to resume the conflict unless Iran “agrees to give what has been agreed”, without saying what those concessions were.
France’s Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier group is moving into the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden as part of efforts by France and Britain to prepare for a future mission to help freedom of navigation on the strait of Hormuz, France’s military said on Wednesday.
The French Armed Forces ministry said in a statement that the aircraft carrier group had crossed the Suez canal on Wednesday, en route to the south of the Red Sea.
This French aircraft carrier strike group was deployed to the eastern Mediterranean shortly after the US and Israel launched air strikes on Iran, and it can stay at sea between four to five months.
US president Donald Trump said that it was “too soon” to consider face-to-face talks with Tehran, according to an interview with the New York Post as the US waited for a response to its proposal to end the war.
Trump posted earlier on social media that the war with Iran could soon end and oil and natural gas shipments could restart.
But that all depends on Iran accepting a reported agreement that the US president did not detail.
“If they don’t agree, the bombing starts,” Trump wrote.
An Israeli strike in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa valley on Wednesday killed four people, Lebanon’s health ministry said, with local media reporting the attack took place before the Israeli army issued a warning to evacuate the area along with 11 other towns.
“An Israeli enemy raid on the town of Zellaya in West Bekaa resulted in four martyrs, including two women and an elderly man,” the ministry said.
Lebanese state media said the attack struck the house of the town’s mayor, killing him and three members of his family.
'If Iran agrees, war will be at an end,' says Trump
Donald Trump has expressed optimism that the Iran war “will be at an end” and the strait of Hormuz “open to all” if Iran agrees to the US’s truce proposal.
But he also vowed that the US would resume its bombing campaign “at a much higher level and intensity” than before if Iran doesn’t accept terms that have apparently already been agreed to.
In a post on Truth Social, the US president said:
Assuming Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to, which is, perhaps, a big assumption, the already legendary Epic Fury will be at an end, and the highly effective Blockade will allow the Hormuz Strait to be OPEN TO ALL, including Iran. If they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
More on the IRGC navy’s announcement on the strait of Hormuz – in a series of posts on social media in Persian and English, it thanked captains and shipowners in the Gulf for “complying with Iran’s strait of Hormuz regulations and contributing to regional maritime security”.
It added: “With the aggressor’s threats neutralised and new protocols in place, safe [and] stable passage through [the strait] will be ensured.”
It didn’t detail what the new protocols were, but it is the first reaction from Iran after Donald Trump paused his military operation to help stranded ships pass through the strait.
Oil prices have continued to slide with the Brent crude global benchmark falling 9.2% to $99.79 a barrel - the first time it has been below $100 since 22 April.
It follows reports that the US and Iran were closing in on an agreement to bring an end to the war. Iran has also reportedly announced that the strait of Hormuz could reopen after Donald Trump paused his so-called “Project Freedom” to guide commercial ships out of the economically vital waterway.
Follow our business live blog for more:
IRGC: safe transit through strait of Hormuz will be possible
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy has announced the strait of Hormuz could reopen following the end of “threats from aggressors”, Reuters reports, citing state media.
The IRGC navy said the safe and stable transit through the key waterway could be possible. It follows Donald Trump’s remarks yesterday that he has paused his “Project Freedom” to open the strait of Hormuz due to “great progress” being made towards a “complete and final agreement” with Iran.
The statement did not specify what the new procedures entailed and thanked owners and captains of ships for respecting Iranian regulations when moving through the waterway.
The Israeli military said it has begun striking what it described as Hezbollah infrastructure in several areas of southern Lebanon, despite a ceasefire intended to halt fighting with the Iran-backed militant group.
Earlier the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported “several incidents” during which drones exploded near soldiers operating in Lebanon’s south. The strikes also follow a new IDF order affecting a dozen town and villages in southern Lebanon forcing more families to flee their homes.
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