Iran still weighing US proposal despite negative initial response – SABC News

Iran is still reviewing a US proposal to end the war in the Gulf, despite an initial negative response, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday, indicating that Tehran had so far stopped short of rejecting it outright.
Publicly, Iranian officials poured withering scorn on the prospect ‌of any negotiations with the administration of US President Donald Trump. But an apparent delay in providing a formal response to Pakistan, which delivered a 15-point proposal on behalf of Washington, appeared to signal that at least some figures in Tehran may be considering it.
The senior Iranian official’s comments that the proposal was still under review – though the initial response was “not positive” – appeared to contradict a report by Iran’s Press TV that cited an unidentified official as saying Iran had rejected it.
A senior Pakistani security official said that Pakistan had followed up with Iran’s foreign minister and was still awaiting a formal reply.
A second Pakistani source said, “The Iranians told us they will get back to us tonight. The media is reporting they’ve said no. But we have not received any ⁠official confirmation from Iran. So we are just waiting. They are all underground, and communication is a big challenge.”
Another senior Iranian official had earlier confirmed that Tehran had received a proposal and said that talks, if they went ahead, could be held in either Pakistan or Turkey.
MARKETS RESPOND POSITIVELY TO PROPOSAL
Global equity markets regained some ground while oil prices dipped on Wednesday after reports that Washington had sent the proposal to Iran, with investors hoping for an end to a war that has disrupted global energy supplies and risks fuelling inflation.
Three Israeli cabinet sources said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet had been briefed on the US proposal. They said its terms included removing Iran’s stocks of highly enriched uranium, halting enrichment, curbing its ballistic missile programme and ending funding for regional allies.
A senior Israeli defence official said Israel was sceptical Iran would agree to the terms, and that Israel was concerned that US negotiators might make concessions. Israel also wants any agreement to preserve its option to conduct pre-emptive strikes, a second source said.
The White House declined to disclose specifics of its proposal and threatened to escalate its strikes.
“If they fail to understand that they have been defeated militarily, and will continue to be, President Trump ‌will ensure they ⁠are hit harder than they have ever been hit before,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
TROOPS ON THE MOVE
The Pentagon is meanwhile planning to send thousands of airborne troops to the Gulf to give Trump more options to order a ground assault, sources have told Reuters, adding to two contingents of Marines already on their way. The first Marine unit, aboard a huge amphibious assault ship, could arrive around the end of the month.
Iran could open a new front at the mouth of the Red Sea if attacks are carried out on its territory, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency cited an unnamed military source as saying on Wednesday. The source said that Iran can pose a “credible threat” in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which lies between Yemen and Djibouti.
Iran’s parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said his country would attack an unnamed neighbouring country if it cooperated with efforts by “the enemies” to occupy one of its islands.
Since the start of what the ​US calls “Operation Epic Fury”, Iran has attacked countries that host U.S. bases and effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for a fifth ​of the world’s oil and ⁠liquefied natural gas.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday warned, “the world is staring down the barrel of a wider war” in the region.
“It is time to stop climbing the escalation ladder – and start climbing the diplomatic ladder,” he said at the UN headquarters in New York.
MORE STRIKES
The war has raged with no let-up in air attacks against Iran, or in Iranian drone and missile strikes against Israel and US allies.
An Israeli ⁠military official, asked whether Israel had adjusted its military plans since Trump said talks were underway, said it was “pretty much business as usual”.
The Israeli military described several new waves of attacks against Iranian naval shipyards and other targets.
The semi-official Iranian SNN News Agency said a residential area was hit in Tehran, with rescuers searching the rubble.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had launched new attacks against Israel and US bases in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain.
 

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