Hours after Iranian state media said on Sunday that Tehran had formally responded to the latest U.S. proposal to end the war, President Trump called it “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” His reaction cast doubt on whether the stalemate between the two countries would be broken anytime soon.
The Iranian announcement, which came after a tense week of attacks and counterattacks in the Persian Gulf rattled the fragile truce, had provided few details.
Mr. Trump, in a post on his social media platform, wrote: “I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called ‘Representatives.’ I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!”
His comments came after CBS’s “60 Minutes” released clips from an interview with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in which he said that the conflict with Iran was “not over.” He said that was in part because Iran had yet to give up the material that Israel feared could one day be made into a nuclear weapon.
Negotiators for Iran had passed their response to Pakistan mediators, who have been brokering the talks, according to Iran’s state broadcaster.
Iranian officials have said the two countries are working on a short-term agreement that would pause fighting for another 30 days and end Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil and gas shipping route in the Persian Gulf. The officials said the United States and Iran would try to reach a comprehensive deal during the monthlong lull.
Mr. Trump announced a temporary cease-fire last month, suspending the U.S.-Israeli military campaign that began in late February against Iran. But more than a month later, the two countries have failed to reach a deal to end the war, leaving the region in an uneasy limbo.
Intermittent clashes across the region over the last week have underscored the frailty of the cease-fire — what analysts have labeled a state of “no war, no peace.”
On Sunday, the United Arab Emirates said it had again been attacked by Iranian drones, after several Iranian strikes this past week. Two days earlier, American warships fired on military facilities along Iran’s coast after coming under attack, the U.S. military said.
Iran continued to blockade the Strait of Hormuz. Mr. Trump has retaliated by imposing a U.S. military blockade of Iranian ports.
One of the core disputes involves Iran’s nuclear program, which Israel and the United States view as a national security threat. Mr. Trump has repeatedly said the war was intended to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, and he has hailed the joint strikes with Israel last year on three Iranian nuclear sites.
A persistent issue in the talks is the 970 pounds of near-bomb-grade enriched uranium that international inspectors say is most likely buried at two of those sites. Iran has ruled out giving up the uranium as part of a deal.
Mr. Trump has sent mixed messages about the uranium, including saying last month that he didn’t really care about it because it is “so far underground.” But in an interview released by the syndicated news show “Full Measure” on Sunday, Mr. Trump said the U.S. would “get that at some point.”
In the “60 Minutes” interview, which was to be broadcast in full later on Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu said, “There is still nuclear material, enriched uranium, that has to be taken out of Iran.” He added: “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.”
