Trump Rejects New Iran Peace Offer as ‘Totally Unacceptable’
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump and Iran rejected each other’s latest peace proposals to end the 10-week conflict as the two sides struggle to maintain a fragile ceasefire.
“I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called ‘Representatives,’” Trump said in a social media post. “I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!”
Iran offered to transfer some of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to a third country, but rejected the idea of dismantling its nuclear facilities, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier. Iran disputed the report, according to the country’s semi-official news agency Tasnim.
It was unclear whether the exchange of proposals would offer a path to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Under its latest proposal, Iran would dilute some of its highly enriched uranium and have the rest sent to a third country, the WSJ said, citing people familiar with the response, but it also called for guarantees the transferred uranium would be returned if talks fail and ruled out dismantling its facilities.
Iran’s semi-official news agency Tasnim said the WSJ’s reporting on proposals for handling nuclear material was “not true.” The statement emphasized Iran’s desire for an immediate end to the war, the release of its frozen assets, a lifting of US sanctions on oil sales, an end to the US blockade of the Gulf of Oman, and ultimately Iranian management of the strait. State-run IRIB News added that Tehran rejected Trump’s plan as tantamount to surrender and insisted the US must also pay war damages.
Trump had proposed that Iran permit passage through the Strait of Hormuz and Washington end its blockade on Iranian ports in the next month, with nuclear talks to follow.
Oil rose with the dollar after Trump rejected Iran’s latest proposal. Brent was up about 3.5% to above $104 a barrel, recovering some of last week’s losses. US equity-index futures edged lower as the standoff weighed on risk sentiment.
Iran has been “playing games” with the US and other countries, Trump said in a social media post earlier Sunday. “They will be laughing no longer!”
Trump and his advisers have repeatedly suggested the war is over, even while threatening to escalate attacks if Tehran does not agree to a peace deal. Trump is scheduled to travel to China this week despite the ongoing conflict.
The president has said repeatedly that Iran must not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and claimed as recently as last week that the country had already agreed to give up its nuclear ambitions.
The president did not say in his social media post what the consequences, if any, of his dissatisfaction with Iran’s response would be. In recent weeks, Trump has appeared eager to draw a line under the conflict as he faces rising political pressure to bring down gasoline prices across the US ahead of the November midterm elections, when his fellow Republicans hope to hold on to control of Congress.
The conflict has killed thousands of people across the Middle East and upended oil and gas markets, with soaring fuel prices piling pressure on governments and consumers worldwide.
Here’s more related to the war:
Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, warned it would take several months for the market to return to normal even if the Strait of Hormuz reopened immediately.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes that he would like to end US financial support for Israel’s military over the next decade. The US currently provides Israel with $3.8 billion a year in military assistance under a 10-year agreement originally negotiated by the Obama administration that lasts through 2028.
Despite the ceasefire in place since April 8, a drone strike briefly set a cargo vessel ablaze off Qatar in the Persian Gulf, marking the latest shipping attack in the region. The United Arab Emirates and Kuwait both said they had intercepted hostile drones.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trum...r-as-totally-unacceptable-013346837.html
