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Iran has sent its response to the latest US ceasefire proposal through Pakistani mediators and wants the talks to focus on a permanent end to the war, but US President Donald Trump quickly dismissed it as “NOT ACCEPTABLE!” without giving details.
Iran wants to end the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group, and to ensure the safety of ships, state TV said. Washington’s latest proposal talked about an agreement to end the war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and roll back Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump earlier on social media accused Tehran of “playing games” with the United States for nearly 50 years, adding: “They’re not going to laugh anymore!”
He is giving diplomacy “every opportunity we can get before we go back to war,” the US ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told ABC News earlier.
Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei – who has not been seen or heard from in public since the war began on Feb. 28 – “issued new and decisive directives to continue operations and confront the enemy with force” while meeting with the head of the joint military command, state broadcaster reported, without details.
Drone attacks target Gulf Arab countries
A fragile cease-fire that began on April 8 – which was later extended by Trump – was tested on Sunday when an aircraft carrier opened fire on a ship from Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait reported drones entering their airspace. The UAE said it shot down two drones and blamed Iran. No injuries were reported, and no one claimed responsibility.
Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the ship attack “a dangerous and unacceptable escalation that threatens the safety and security of maritime trade routes and important assets in the region.” The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center did not provide details about the vessel’s owner or origin.
The spokesman for the Kuwait Ministry of Defense, Brig.-Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al Otaibi said the army responded to the drones but did not say where they came from.
Iran and allied armed groups such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah have used drones to carry out hundreds of strikes since the war began with US and Israeli attacks on Iran.
‘Full readiness’ to protect nuclear sites
Trump reiterated threats to resume full-scale bombing if Iran does not accept a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and scale back its nuclear program. Iran has largely blocked a waterway that is key to the flow of oil, natural gas and fertilizers since the war began, shaking global markets.
The US military has also blockaded Iranian ports since April 13, claiming to have turned back 61 commercial vessels and disabled four. On Friday, it hit two Iranian oil tankers that it said were attempting to violate the embargo. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy says any attack on Iranian oil tankers or commercial vessels will be met with “severe attacks” on US bases in the region and on enemy ships.
Another sticking point in the talks is Iran’s highly enriched uranium. The United Nations nuclear agency says Iran has more than 440 kilograms that are 60 percent developed, a short, technological step from weapons range.
US President Donald Trump has justified the war with Iran by saying that the country is two weeks away from having a nuclear weapon. Nationally, CBC’s Eli Glasner debunks those claims and how close Iran was to developing a nuke.
In an interview posted late Saturday, an Iranian military spokesman said the military was “fully prepared” to protect uranium storage facilities.
“We saw the possibility that they might intend to steal by using entry operations or operating by helicopter,” Brig.-Gen. Akrami Nia told IRNA news.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, quoted in an interview with CBS News broadcast on Sunday, said the war is not over because the enriched uranium needs to be removed from Iran. “Trump said to me, ‘I want to get in there,’ and I think it can be done physically,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that Moscow’s proposal to take enriched uranium from Iran to facilitate negotiations is still on the table.
Most of Iran’s most enriched uranium is likely at its Isfahan site, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency told The Associated Press last month. The facility was attacked by US-Israeli airstrikes in the 12-day war last year and has suffered much less attacks this year.
Iran warns of French-British involvement
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister warned of a planned French-British effort aimed at supporting maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz after the end of the conflict.
“The presence of French and British ships, or of any other country, with any possible cooperation with illegal American actions in the Strait of Hormuz that violate international law will be met with a clear and immediate response from the military,” said Kazem Gharibabadi on social media.
French President Emmanuel Macron responded that it would not be a military deployment but an international mission to protect shipping if the conditions allow.
Several attacks on ships in the Persian Gulf have occurred in the past week, and the US effort to “direct” the ships in the port was immediately stopped.
South Korea has announced the first findings of an investigation into whether two unidentified objects struck the South Korean naval vessel HMM NAMU about a minute apart while it was stuck in a wreck last week, causing an explosion and fire.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that officials have not yet clarified who did this.
