Iran Weighs US Offer As Trump Says Peace Talks On ‘Borderline’

Tehran: Iran said on Wednesday it was examining a new US proposal to end the Middle East war, as President Donald Trump described the talks as being on the “borderline” between a deal and renewed strikes.

Trump, who said earlier that negotiations were in their “final stages,” later warned that the window for diplomacy could close quickly. “It’s right on the borderline, believe me,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, near Washington. “If we don’t get the right answers, it goes very quickly. We’re all ready to go.”

He said a deal could come “very quickly” or “in a few days,” but warned Tehran would have to provide “100 per cent good answers.” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Tehran had “received the points of view of the American side” and was examining them. He repeated Iran’s demands for the release of frozen assets and an end to the US blockade of Iranian ports.

Earlier, Tehran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused Washington of seeking to restart the war after Trump threatened fresh attacks unless Iran agreed to a deal. Ghalibaf warned of a “forceful response”, while Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said any renewed conflict would spread far beyond the Middle East.

“The enemy’s movements, both overt and clandestine, show that despite economic and political pressure, it has not abandoned its military objectives and is seeking to start a new war,” Ghalibaf said. An April 8 ceasefire halted open fighting between Iran and the United States and Israel, but a war of words has replaced the battlefield exchanges.

Trump has repeatedly threatened renewed military action, while Iranian officials have responded with escalating warnings of their own. The Revolutionary Guards warned Wednesday that if “aggression against Iran is repeated”, a future war would spread beyond the region and “our devastating blows will crush you.”

Despite the threats and sporadic violence, Pakistan-mediated exchanges have continued in an effort to secure a formal end to the war. Iran’s official IRNA news agency, citing diplomatic sources, said Pakistan’s interior minister had arrived in Tehran for his second visit in less than a week.