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Iran has poured cold water on Donald Trump’s reassurances that diplomacy is back on track, insisting that the military will “never come to terms with someone like you” and suggesting the US is negotiating with itself.
Battling ailing markets and a tanking approval rating, the US president offered Iran a 15-point plan to end the war via mediators from Pakistan, according to reports in US and Israeli media.
Trump told reporters late on Tuesday that Iran “want to make a deal so badly” and agreed to “never have a nuclear weapon”.
But on Wednesday, Iran’s main military command appeared to rubbish the idea, asking whether “the level of your internal conflict reached the point where you are negotiating with yourselves?”
Spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari said in a message carried by Iranian media that “someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you – not now, not ever”.
Iran meanwhile said that it has opened the Strait of Hormuz for “non-hostile vessels” so long as they coordinate with the Iranian authorities, offering a lifeline to markets disrupted by the war in the Middle East.
At the same time, the Pentagon has ordered about 2,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division to begin moving to the Middle East, the New York Times reported, citing defence officials.
The 15-point peace plan
The US is reported to have sent Iran a 15-point peace plan aimed at ending the war, now approaching its second month.
Trump says Iran has agreed to never have a nuclear weapon.
Israel’s Channel 12 had reported that the plan includes the following demands:
• Iran’s major nuclear facilities at Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow – the targets of last year’s 12-day war – will be taken out of use and destroyed;
• The UN’s nuclear watchdog will be able to oversee activity in Iran again
• Iran will abandon the use of armed proxies in the region and stop funding regional affiliates, like Hezbollah
• Iran will dismantle existing nuclear capabilities and commit to never trying to procure nukes
• No nuclear material will be enriched in Iran and all enriched material will be handed to the IAEA
• The Strait of Hormuz will remain open
• Iranian missiles will be limited in quantity and range, only used for defence
Iran in return would receive the following assurances from the US:
• American help in developing a civilian nuclear project for electricity production
• The removal of all sanctions;
• The removal of the threat of renewing sanctions.
The Independent
