Donald Trump Pauses Attack on Iran After Tehran Sends Peace Proposal Through Pakistan

U.S. President Donald Trump said he decided to pause an attack on Iran at the behest of Gulf leaders after Tehran sent a new peace proposal to Washington through Pakistan, and he said there is now a “very good chance” the US could reach an agreement to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Trump wrote on Truth Social, “For Iran, the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!” before later posting that he had been asked to hold off on a planned attack scheduled for Tuesday because “serious negotiations are now taking place”.

@globaltimesnews

The initial, temporary ceasefire began on April 8, six weeks into the war, and since then armed hostilities have largely subsided while a durable peace agreement remains elusive.

Iran submitted a revised 14-point peace plan to end the war, according to Tasnim news agency, and Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran’s response to the previous US proposal had been “conveyed to the American side through mediator Pakistan”.

The latest talks are still centered on the nuclear dispute, with Abbas Araghchi telling reporters that Iran and the US have reached a “deadlock” on Iran’s “enriched material” and that the topic is being “postponed” until later stages.

Saudi Arabia said on Monday it had intercepted three drones, a day after a drone attack hit the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant in the United Arab Emirates, raising concerns about renewed military escalation in the Gulf as peace negotiations drag on.

Reuters reported that Pakistan delivered a revised peace proposal from Iran to the US, and a source in Islamabad warned that both sides “don't have much time” to narrow their differences before the situation escalates again.

@globaltimesnews

The same Reuters account said Washington and Tehran “keep changing their goal posts,” while it described the ceasefire as fragile and said Trump has said the current truce is “on life support.”

In Tehran’s first comments on the proposal, Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said the terms sought ending hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon, the exit of US forces from areas close to Iran, and reparations for destruction caused by the US-Israeli war, according to IRNA.

Iran’s army warned that it would “open new fronts” if the war resumed, with army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia saying, “If the enemy is foolish enough to fall into the Zionist trap again, and launches new aggression against our beloved Iran, we will open new fronts against it, with new equipment and new methods,” according to Iran’s ISNA news agency.

The core sticking point remains Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, with the Al Jazeera report saying Iran is believed to have about 440kg (970lb) of uranium enriched to 60 percent and that a 90 percent threshold of enriched uranium is needed to produce a nuclear weapon.

Al Jazeera also reported that Iran has never officially declared an intention to build nuclear weapons, while Washington has urged Tehran to give away its enriched uranium and Iran has reportedly been willing to consider handing it only to a third party.

In parallel, the Iranian demands described by Al Jazeera include the release of its assets frozen abroad and the lifting of sanctions, and it also said Iran previously demanded compensation for damage inflicted by US-Israeli attacks and an end to the ongoing US naval blockade of Iranian ports.

The BBC reported that Trump postponed an attack planned for Tuesday to allow negotiations to proceed toward a deal to end the American-Israeli war, and it quoted Trump’s instruction that “we will not carry out the attack planned on Iran tomorrow, but I issued other instructions for them to prepare to proceed with a broad, large-scale attack on Iran at any moment if no acceptable agreement is reached.”

The BBC added that the Iranian proposal would focus first on ensuring an end to the war, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and lifting maritime sanctions, while the most controversial issues around Iran’s nuclear program and uranium enrichment would be postponed to later rounds of talks.