The United States has handed Iran a new draft peace agreement through a Pakistani mediator, Iran’s Tasnim news agency quoted a source as saying. Iran is studying the text and has not yet given a response, the agency adds.
President Donald Trump reiterated that the US is ready to continue strikes on Tehran if Iran does not agree to the peace deal, but suggested that Washington may wait a few days to get the right answers.
“Believe me, if we don’t get the right answers, it’s going to happen very quickly,” Trump said. Asked how long he was prepared to wait, the US president added: “It could be a few days or it could happen very quickly.”
According to Axios, Trump also discussed the new attempt to reach an agreement with Iran with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a telephone conversation. According to Axios’ sources, Trump said mediators were working on a “letter of intent” for the US and Iran to sign to formally end the war and begin a 30-day period of negotiations.
That said, Netanyahu, as Axios notes, is highly sceptical of the talks and wants a resumption of the war to weaken Iran’s military capabilities. One of the publication’s sources says that Netanyahu’s “hair was almost standing on end” after his conversation with Trump. For his part, Trump said Netanyahu “will do whatever the American president wants on the issue of Iran,” adding that they have good relations.
In early May, Iran handed over its 14-point cessation of hostilities plan, which included non-aggression guarantees, lifting the blockade on Iranian ports and unfreezing assets, among other things. Trump called the plan “unacceptable” because Iran “has not yet paid a high enough price for what it has done to humanity and the world over the past 47 years.” The US later handed Iran its list of five demands to be met in order to restart peace talks.