US President Donald Trump said he has had “very good talks” with Iran over the past 24 hours and it is “very possible that we will make a deal”, as Tehran reviews a US peace proposal that sources said would formally end the war.
Signaling progress in the ongoing talks, Trump on Wednesday also said Iran should suspend its nuclear programme and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to resume bombardment if negotiations fall apart. “Look, this is very simple. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon because as tough as they are, we want to keep them alive. We want to keep all of you alive,” he told reporters at the White House.
In an interview with PBS, Trump also said he was optimistic about reaching an agreement with Iran before his scheduled trip to China next week. “I think it’s got a very good chance of ending, and if it doesn’t end, we have to go back to bombing the hell out of them,” he said.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei played down reports suggesting an agreement with the US was close, calling them exaggerated. He said Tehran had not yet issued a formal response to the latest US proposal, but is continuing to exchange diplomatic messages via mediator Pakistan.
A Pakistani source and another source briefed on the mediation told Reuters that an agreement was close on a one-page memorandum that would formally end the conflict. That would kick off discussions to unblock shipping through the strait, lift US sanctions on Iran, and set curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme.
Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency, citing an unnamed source, said the US proposal contained some unacceptable provisions, without specifying which ones. Lawmaker Ebrahim Rezaei described the text as “more of an American wish list than a reality”.
US State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott told Al Jazeera that Trump remained “clear-eyed” about the temporary disruptions caused by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, but that Washington can’t “normalise a country being able to determine who is allowed to use an international waterway”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would speak with Trump about the negotiations, adding that both agreed all enriched uranium must be removed from Iran to prevent it from developing a nuclear bomb. Iran has steadfastly refused to give up its enriched uranium.
US military forces operating in the Gulf of Oman said they had disabled an Iranian-flagged oil tanker after it allegedly failed to comply with warnings, CENTCOM announced. The US blockade against ships attempting to enter or depart Iranian ports remains “in full effect”.
Source: www.aljazeera.com