While there is a ceasefire in the Iran war, direct talks between Tehran and Washington remain frozen – Copyright AFP Yu Chen CHENG
AFP teams in Tehran, Washington, Beirut and Jerusalem
A senior Iranian military officer said on Saturday that renewed fighting with the US was “possible”, hours after President Donald Trump said he was not satisfied with an Iranian negotiating proposal.
Iran submitted the new draft to the Pakistani mediator on Thursday evening, state media reported, without detailing its content.
The war, launched by the United States and Israel in late February, has been suspended since April 8, with a failed round of peace talks taking place in Pakistan since then.
“At this point I’m not satisfied with what they’re offering,” Trump told reporters, blaming the stalled talks on “tremendous divisions” within Iran’s leadership.
“Do we want to go and destroy them and finish them off for good – or do we want to try to make a deal?” he added, saying he would “prefer not” to take the first option “on human grounds”.
On Saturday morning, Mohammad Jafar Asadi, a senior figure in Iran’s military’s central command, said “a renewed conflict between Iran and the United States is likely,” in quotes published by Iran’s Fars news agency.
“Evidence has shown that the United States is not committed to any promises or agreements,” he added.
– ‘Like Pirates’ –
Iran’s Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said Friday that his country has “never shied away from negotiations” but will not accept an “imposition” of peace terms.
The White House has declined to provide details on the latest Iranian proposal, but the Axios news site reported that US envoy Steve Witkoff had tabled amendments to an earlier one that would put Tehran’s nuclear program back on the negotiating table.
The changes reportedly include demands that Iran not move enriched uranium from the bombed sites or resume activity there during the talks.
News of the Iranian proposal briefly sent oil prices down nearly five percent, although they remain 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 start of the war, suffocating major flows of oil, gas and waste to the world economy, while the United States has imposed a blockade on Iranian ports.
Speaking at a rally on Friday, Trump said “we’re like pirates” as he described an earlier helicopter attack on an oil tanker under blockade.
Despite the ceasefire in the Persian Gulf, fighting has continued in Lebanon, where Israel has carried out deadly attacks despite a separate ceasefire with the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.
Lebanon’s health ministry said 13 people were killed in the attacks in the south, including in the town of Habboush, where the Israeli army had issued an evacuation warning.
Meanwhile, Washington announced late Friday that it had approved major arms sales to its Middle East allies, including a $4 billion Patriot missile deal with Qatar and nearly $1 billion of precision weapons systems to Israel.
– ‘Finished’ –
In Washington, lawmakers were grappling with a legal dispute over whether Trump had violated a deadline to seek congressional approval for the war.
Administration officials argue that the truce imposes a 60-day limit, after which congressional authorization would be required — a claim disputed by opposition Democrats.
Trump faces mounting domestic pressure, rising inflation, no clear victory in sight and looming midterm elections.
“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 hostilities “have ended.”
In Iran, the economic scale of the war is deepening.
Washington has imposed new sanctions on three Iranian currency firms and warned others not to pay a “tax” for safe passage through Hormuz, as demanded by Iran.
The US military says the blockade of Iranian ports has stopped $6 billion in Iranian oil exports, while inflation in Iran, already high before the war, has soared past 50 percent.
“Everyone is trying to bear it, but … they are falling apart,” 40-year-old Amir, a resident of Tehran, told an AFP journalist based abroad.
“We haven’t seen much of the economic effects yet because everyone had little savings. They had gold and dollars for a rainy day. When they run out, things will change.”
Meanwhile, Iranian authorities executed two men on Saturday convicted of spying for Israel, the judiciary said, the latest in a string of executions in recent weeks.
One of the men was found guilty of aiding Israel during the 12-day war last June.
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