Trump ‘not satisfied’ with new Iran proposal
US President Donald Trump said Friday he was “not satisfied” with a new proposal by Iran, as peace talks remained frozen despite a weeks-long ceasefire.
Iran delivered the draft to mediator Pakistan on Thursday evening, news agency IRNA reported, without detailing its contents.
The White House also declined to provide details on the proposal. But according to news site Axios, US envoy Steve Witkoff had submitted amendments that put Tehran’s nuclear program back on the negotiating table.
“At this moment I’m not satisfied with what they’re offering,” Trump told reporters, blaming stalled talks on “tremendous discord” within Iran’s leadership.
“Do we want to go and just blast the hell out of them and finish them forever—or do we want to try and make a deal?” he added, saying he would “prefer not” to take the first option “on a human basis.”
Stalemate
The war, launched by the United States and Israel with surprise strikes on Feb. 28, has been on hold since April 8, after one failed round of direct talks.
Trump, under pressure to seek congressional authorization for the war, wrote to lawmakers on Friday declaring hostilities “terminated”—despite no change in the US military posture.
Iran has maintained its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, choking off major flows of oil, gas and fertilizer, while the United States has imposed a counter-blockade on Iranian ports.
The ceasefire has held despite the stalemate, but fighting has continued elsewhere in the region.
On the Lebanese front, Israel has continued deadly strikes despite a ceasefire in April with Iran-backed group Hezbollah that sought to halt more than six weeks of fighting.
Washington announced late Friday it had approved major arms sales to its Middle East allies, including a $4 billion Patriot missile deal with Qatar and nearly $1 billion in precision weapons systems to Israel.
‘Waste time’
Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said Friday his country had “never shied away from negotiations,” but added it would not accept any “imposition” of peace terms.
Amendments from the US side reportedly include demands that Iran not move enriched uranium from bombed sites or resume activity there.
News of the peace proposal briefly pushed oil prices down nearly five percent, though they remained about 50 percent above prewar levels as the Strait of Hormuz continued to remain closed.
Tehran resident Amir told AFP journalists the stalemate “feels like we are stuck in purgatory” and expressed little hope for the proposal.
“This is all to waste time,” he said, expecting the United States and Israel “will attack again.”
Domestic pressure
Washington, meanwhile, is grappling with a legal dispute over whether Trump has passed a deadline to seek congressional approval for the war.
Officials argue that a ceasefire pauses the 60-day clock, at which point congressional authorization would be required—a claim disputed by opposition Democrats.
Trump faces growing domestic pressure, with inflation rising, no clear victory in sight and midterm elections approaching.
“There has been no exchange of fire between United States Forces and Iran since April 7, 2026,” Trump said in letters to congressional leaders, adding that the hostilities “have terminated.”
But Iran has accused the United States and Israel of using cluster munitions, which scatter bomblets that can remain dangerous for years.
Fourteen members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were reportedly killed defusing what the Fars news agency called unexploded cluster bombs and aerial mines in northwestern Zanjan province.
Economic toll
On top of military strikes, the war’s economic toll on Iran is deepening.
Washington imposed new sanctions on three Iranian currency firms and warned others against paying a “toll” for safe passage through Hormuz.
The US military says its blockade has stopped $6 billion in Iranian oil exports, while inflation has surged past 50 percent.
“For many people, paying rent and even buying food has become difficult, and some have nothing left at all,” 28-year-old Mahyar told an AFP reporter based outside Iran.
