DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s response to the latest U.S. proposal to end the grinding war in the Persian Gulf was delivered through Pakistani intermediaries on Sunday, but within hours President Donald Trump had dismissed it on social media, calling the terms “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” and threatening a return to full-scale hostilities if Tehran did not yield. The exchange, the first known diplomatic contact since the ceasefire began, underscored how far apart the two sides remain on the core issues of the conflict: the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the future of Iran’s nuclear program, and the sanctions regime that has crippled the Iranian economy.
Iran’s state television reported that Tehran rejected the U.S. proposal — which sought an end to the war, the unblocking of the strait, and a rollback of Iran’s nuclear activities — as amounting to surrender. Instead, Iran’s counter-demands included “war reparations by the U.S., full Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, an end to sanctions, and the release of seized Iranian assets.” A senior Iranian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told state media that the American offer “contained no recognition of Iran’s rights and essentially asked for capitulation.”
Trump’s reply on his Truth Social platform offered no specifics. He followed the rejection with a second post accusing Tehran of “playing games with the United States for nearly 50 years” and warning, “They will be laughing no longer!” The president’s U.N. ambassador, Mike Waltz, told ABC earlier that the administration is giving diplomacy “every chance we possibly can before going back to hostilities,” a statement that now seems strained by the immediate breakdown.
The diplomatic impasse unfolded against a backdrop of renewed violence that tested the fragile ceasefire. A drone ignited a small fire on a commercial vessel off the coast of Qatar, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said, though it gave no details about the ship’s owner or origin. Qatar’s Foreign Ministry called the attack a “dangerous and unacceptable escalation that threatens the security and safety of maritime trade routes and vital supplies in the region.” Later the same day, the United Arab Emirates reported that it had shot down two drones that entered its airspace and blamed Iran; Kuwait’s Defense Ministry said its forces responded to drones but did not identify their origin. No casualties were reported, and no group immediately claimed responsibility. Iran and its allied groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah, have used drones to carry out hundreds of strikes since the war began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Feb. 28.
Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since the conflict started, met with the head of the joint military command and “issued new and decisive directives for the continuation of operations and the powerful confrontation with the enemies,” the state broadcaster reported, without elaboration. The veiled reference to ongoing military readiness was matched by an explicit warning from Brig. Gen. Akrami Nia, an Iranian military spokesperson. In an interview posted late Saturday, he said forces were on “full readiness” to protect sites where uranium is stored. “We considered it possible that they might intend to steal it through infiltration operations or heli-borne operations,” Nia told the IRNA news agency, a reference to a threat that Iranian officials have raised repeatedly as justification for the heightened alert at nuclear installations. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says Iran now possesses more than 440 kilograms (970 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60% purity, a short technical step from weapons grade.
The nuclear dimension has drawn increasingly sharp statements from Israel. In an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted that the war cannot end until the enriched uranium is physically removed from Iran. “Trump has said to me, ‘I want to go in there,’ and I think it can be done physically,” Netanyahu said, adding that the problem of the Strait of Hormuz “was understood as the fighting went on.” He denied earlier New York Times reporting that he had pressed Trump to launch the war by promising it would bring about regime change in Iran. “We both agreed, you know, that there was both uncertainty and risk involved,” Netanyahu said. “And I remember that we — I said and he said — that the danger, there’s danger in action, in taking action, but there’s greater danger in not taking action.” Asked whether he had claimed Iran would be so weakened it could not choke off the strait, he replied, “I don’t claim the perfect foresight.” He also expressed a desire to “draw down to zero” the $3.8 billion in annual U.S. military aid to Israel, though he gave an extended timeline of a decade.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that Moscow’s proposal to take Iran’s enriched uranium to help negotiate a settlement remains on the table, an offer that would theoretically remove the most acute proliferation concern. France and Britain, meanwhile, continued to plan a post-hostilities maritime security mission for the Strait of Hormuz, a move Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, warned would be met with a “decisive and immediate response” if it cooperated with “illegal U.S. actions.” French President Emmanuel Macron responded by insisting the mission would not be a military deployment but an international effort to secure shipping once conditions allow.
The strait, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and gas transits, has been largely blocked by Iran since the war’s opening days, sending energy prices soaring. The U.S. military has blockaded Iranian ports since April 13, saying it has turned back 61 commercial vessels and disabled four. On Friday, it struck two Iranian oil tankers it said were trying to breach the blockade. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy has warned that any attack on its tankers or commercial vessels would trigger a “heavy assault” on U.S. bases and enemy ships.
The series of attacks on shipping in recent days underscores the volatility. South Korea announced initial findings from an investigation into the strike against the HMM NAMU, a South Korean-operated vessel anchored in the strait last week, saying two unidentified objects struck the ship about a minute apart, causing an explosion and fire. Officials have yet to determine who was responsible. A U.S. effort to “guide” ships through the strait was quickly paused after those incidents, highlighting the practical difficulties of restoring open navigation even under a ceasefire.
With the diplomatic track now in deeper disarray, the prospects for a negotiated end to the war appear remote. Iran’s demands would require a fundamental reversal of U.S. policy, while Trump’s repeated threats to resume full-scale bombing if Tehran does not accept an agreement to reopen the strait and roll back its nuclear program leave little room for the kind of compromise that mediators have tried to broker. The fragile ceasefire, which has held only tenuously, now faces pressure from both the breakdown in talks and the continued drone attacks that each side blames on the other.