US President Donald Trump, while speaking to the New York Post, today said it was “too soon” right now to start thinking about face-to-face peace talks between the US and Iran, despite some earlier optimistic reports by officials, that the two nations had managed to make good progress in breaking the diplomatic deadlock, and were closing in on a potential framework to end their 67-day war.
Moments earlier, Trump had posted on Truth Social that “[a]ssuming Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to, which is, perhaps, a big assumption, the already legendary Epic Fury will be at an end, and the highly effective Blockade will allow the Hormuz Strait to be OPEN TO ALL, including Iran. If they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before.”
Trump previously signalled that he was open to the idea of travelling to Islamabad to sign a formal agreement out of respect for all the efforts made by Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, and Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir to bring Washington and Tehran together.
Earlier, White House officials announced that they were getting close to reaching an agreement with Iran on a one-page proposal of principles that could eventually transform into a full-fledged peace deal.
Under the draft agreement of the one-page MOU, both sides would agree to lift restrictions from the Strait of Hormuz, with Iran agreeing to pause uranium enrichment for a long time, while the US would agree to lift the plethora of economic sanctions imposed on the country.
According to the Post, however, multiple versions of the proposal are under discussion, and final points to be included had not yet been decided.
“Which one is going to be approved, no one knows,” said a Pakistani source familiar with mediation efforts.
Trump had previously told the outlet that he would rather not offer Iranians a moratorium on uranium enrichment, but instead demand that they never have the opportunity to do so again.
The progress came, however, after the US leader announced an abrupt end to the country’s newly launched military operation ‘Project Freedom’ – which would see US ships guiding commercial vessels traverse the Strait, bypassing the Iranian blockade – to facilitate a peace agreement with Iran.
