Courtney Subramanian, Courtney McBride and Jen Judson
The US said it expects Iran to respond to its latest proposal to end their war imminently, as clashes in the Strait of Hormuz threatened to further fracture a month-long ceasefire.
Iran has still given no indication whether it will accept President Donald Trump’s plan, sent on Wednesday, which proposes that the Islamic Republic reopens the strait and the US end a blockade on Iranian ports over the next month.
Tehran’s response is “under review,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told the semi-official Tasnim news agency, without giving a timeline.
Responding to US strikes on two Iranian ships in the strait on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused Washington of opting for “reckless military adventure” just as a peace settlement appeared close.
Trump told reporters at the White House late on Friday (US time) that he was still expecting a response “tonight”. Asked if Iran was intentionally slow-rolling the process, he said: “We’ll find out soon enough.”
“We’ll go a different route if everything doesn’t get signed up, buttoned up,” Trump said.
“We may go back to Project Freedom if things don’t happen,” he added, referring to the brief US effort to break Iran’s maritime stranglehold and escort ships through the strait, “but it’ll be Project Freedom Plus, meaning Project Freedom plus other things.”
The one-page proposal implies Iran’s acceptance would end the 10-week war, which has killed thousands of people across the Middle East and sent energy prices soaring, even though the two sides would still need to negotiate a deal over Iran’s nuclear program.
Oil edged higher, with investors weighing whether renewed clashes would derail the fragile ceasefire. Global benchmark Brent crude settled at about $US101 ($139) a barrel, but still notched a weekly drop of about 6 per cent.
US Vice President JD Vance met the Qatari prime minister on Friday to discuss bilateral relations, the situation in Iran, and regional security and stability, according to a Qatari readout of the meeting. The pair also discussed liquefied natural gas markets, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The White House and the vice president’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Qatar has served as a regional mediator between the US and Iran. Axios reported earlier on the meeting.
President under pressure
Trump faces intense domestic and international pressure to end the war, with Americans increasingly opposed to it and frustrated by soaring petrol prices.
China is among the powers amplifying calls for an immediate reopening of the strait and an end to hostilities, ahead of a scheduled summit between President Xi Jinping and Trump in Beijing next week. Trump is expected to use the meeting to call on Xi to apply pressure on Iran.
Without naming Trump, Xi last month criticised the American president’s flouting of international law as a “return to the law of the jungle”.
While China is prodding Iranian officials to negotiate, it has held back from doing more to help resolve a war that Beijing sees as Washington’s problem. Meeting Araghchi this week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for greater efforts to open the strait, but stressed that China supported Iran’s “legitimate right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy”.
Tensions worsened after a second day of clashes in the strait, with US forces carrying out airstrikes on two empty Iranian oil tankers. The vessels were trying to break the blockade and enter one of the country’s ports, US Central Command said.
In response, Araghchi posted on social media: “Every time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the US opts for a reckless military adventure. Is it a crude pressure tactic? Or the result of a spoiler once again duping POTUS into another quagmire?”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the skirmishes highlighted “the confusion and inability of the ruling authorities in the United States to properly understand the situation and find a reasonable solution to exit their self-created impasse”.
Trump has threatened more intense strikes if Iran refuses his terms. Iran effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically flows, after the war erupted with US and Israeli strikes in late February.
Bloomberg, Reuters
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