Iran says ‘no negotiations’ as US pushes 15-point deal
US President Donald Trump is ready to “unleash hell” if Iran does not accept a deal to end the nearly four-week Middle East war, the White House warned Wednesday, but a defiant Tehran said it did not intend to negotiate.
The ramped-up rhetoric dashed hopes of any imminent de-escalation as violence on the ground showed no sign of abating, with Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia all coming under fire.
Trump insisted later Wednesday that Iran was taking part in peace talks, but Tehran is denying it because their negotiators fear being killed by their own side.
“They are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly,” Trump told a dinner for Republican members of Congress.
“But they’re afraid to say it, because they figure they’ll be killed by their own people,” he said. “They’re also afraid they’ll be killed by us.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi denied that Iran was negotiating with the United States, saying an exchange of messages through “friendly countries” did not equate to talks with Washington.
“We do not intend to negotiate,” Araghchi told state TV. “We seek an end to the war on our own terms.”
New front
In Pakistan, officials said Islamabad had conveyed to Tehran a 15-point American plan to stop the fighting that began on Feb. 28.
Iran’ state-controlled Press TV cited an unidentified official as saying Tehran had “responded negatively” to the plan and the war would end only on Tehran’s terms, which include guarantees against future attacks.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said talks had been “productive” but declined to say whom the United States was dealing with in Tehran following the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
His son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public.
With thousands more US troops reportedly headed to the Middle East, Iran also threatened to open a new front by targeting Red Sea shipping should the United States launch a ground invasion.
Adm. Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command, said the United States had hit two-thirds of Iran’s production facilities for missiles and drones, and drone and missile launch rates were down by 90 percent.
Iranian conditions
In a video on X, Cooper also estimated that 92 percent of the Iranian navy’s largest vessels had been damaged or destroyed.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the war was “out of control” and had “gone too far.”
According to The New York Times, the 15-point US plan touches on Iran’s contested nuclear and missile programs as well as “maritime routes.”
Tehran has largely blocked the vital Strait of Hormuz oil route in retaliation for the US-Israeli attacks, pushing up global energy prices.
The Iranian official quoted by Press TV said Tehran had put forward its own five conditions for hostilities to end.
They include a robust mechanism guaranteeing that neither Israel nor the United States will resume the war, and compensation for war damages.
Iran’s conditions also include a cessation of hostilities on all regional fronts and against all “resistance groups,” a reference to the Tehran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah that has been under attack from Israel.
Tehran also wants international recognition and guarantees of Iran’s rights to exercise its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.
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