Trump Rejects Iran’s Response To Latest US Ceasefire Proposal

Washington: Iran sent its response to the latest US proposal to end the Iran war via Pakistani mediators on Sunday, but President Donald Trump quickly rejected it in a social media post as “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!”, in what is seen as a setback to efforts to resolve the standoff in West Asian region that has throttled shipping and sent energy prices soaring.

Iranian state television reported that Tehran rejected the US proposal as amounting to surrender, insisting instead on “war reparations by the U.S., full Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, an end to sanctions, and the release of seized Iranian assets.”

Washington’s latest proposal addressed a deal to end the war, reopen the strait and roll back Iran’s nuclear program. Trump’s rejection of the Iranian response included no details. In an earlier post, he accused Tehran of “playing games” with the United States for nearly 50 years, adding: “They will be laughing no longer!”

Trump is giving diplomacy “every chance we possibly can before going back to hostilities,” the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told ABC earlier.

Iranian state television said on Sunday that the head of the military central command, Ali Abdollahi, had met with the country’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since his appointment in March.

Khamenei issued “new directives and guidance for the continuation of operations to confront the enemy”, State TV said, without specifying when the meeting took place.

Khamenei, reportedly wounded in strikes on the first day of the West Asia war that claimed the life of his father and predecessor Ali Khamenei, has released only written statements since his appointment.