Barely a few hours after United States President Donald Trump said he was not satisfied with an Iranian negotiating proposal, Iran on Saturday declared that a renewed war with the US was still possible.
The war, launched by the United States and Israel in late February, has been on hold since April 8, with one failed round of peace talks having taken place in Pakistan.
Iran had delivered the new draft to mediator, Pakistan, on Thursday evening, state media reported, without detailing its contents.
But in his reaction, Trump told reporters that “At this moment I’m not satisfied with what they’re offering,” blaming the stalled talks on “tremendous discord” within Iran’s leadership.
He added that the decision he faced was between whether to “just blast the hell out of them” or to “try and make a deal”, saying he would rather not take the first option.
A senior figure in the Iranian military’s central command, Mohammad Jafar Asadi, said “a renewed conflict between Iran and the United States is likely”, according to a report by Iran’s Fars news agency.
“Evidence has shown that the United States is not committed to any promises or agreements,” he added.
Deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi told diplomats in Tehran that “the ball is in the United States’ court to choose the path of diplomacy or the continuation of a confrontational approach”.
Iran, he said, was “prepared for both paths”.
Iran’s judiciary chief, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said on Friday that his country had “never shied away from negotiations”, but would not accept the “imposition” of peace terms.
The White House has declined to provide details on the latest Iranian proposal, but news site Axios reported that US envoy Steve Witkoff had submitted amendments to a previous one putting Tehran’s nuclear programme back on the negotiating table.
Iran’s mission to the UN pointed to the United States’ massive nuclear arsenal, accusing it on Saturday of “hypocritical behaviour” towards Iran’s own atomic programme.
It went on to insist there was no legal “restriction on the level of uranium enrichment, so long as it is conducted under the IAEA’s supervision, as was the case with Iran”.
News of the new Iranian proposal had briefly pushed oil prices down nearly five percent, though they remained about 50 percent above pre-war levels amid the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran has maintained a stranglehold on the strait since the war began, choking off major flows of oil, gas and fertiliser to the world economy, while the United States has imposed a counter-blockade on Iranian ports.
Speaking at a rally on Friday, Trump said “we’re like pirates” as he described an earlier helicopter raid on an oil tanker under the blockade.
The vice speaker of Iran’s parliament, meanwhile, said Iran would not “relinquish our rights in the Strait of Hormuz, and the movement of vessels in the Strait of Hormuz will not be the same as before”.
Ali Nikzad added that under legislation before parliament for managing the waterway, 30 percent of tolls collected would go towards military infrastructure, with the rest earmarked for “economic development”.
“Managing the Strait of Hormuz is more important than acquiring nuclear weapons,” he said.
Despite the ceasefire in the Gulf, fighting has continued in Lebanon, where Israel has carried out deadly strikes despite a separate truce with the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.
Lebanese state media reported a fresh series of strikes in the south on Saturday, while Hezbollah claimed new attacks targeting Israeli troops.
In Washington, lawmakers were wrestling with a legal dispute over whether Trump had breached a deadline to seek congressional approval for the war.
Administration officials argue that the ceasefire pauses a 60-day limit, after which congressional authorisation would be required — a claim disputed by opposition Democrats.
“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”.
In Iran, the war’s economic toll is deepening, with oil exports crimped and inflation surging past 50 percent.
“Everyone is trying to endure it, but… they are falling apart,” 40-year-old Amir, a Tehran resident, told an AFP reporter based outside the country.
“We still have not seen much of the economic effects because everyone had a bit of savings. They had some gold and dollars for a rainy day. When they run out, things will change.”
Sunday Ehigiator
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