ISLAMABAD (AP) — President Donald Trump rejected Iran's latest proposal to end the war between the countries, saying Friday he still was not satisfied while blaming Iran's "fractured" leadership.
Trump turned back the latest proposal almost as soon as it was delivered. Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported that Iran handed over its plan to mediators in Pakistan on Thursday night.
"They want to make a deal, I'm not satisfied with it, so we'll see what happens," Trump told reporters Friday at the White House, without elaborating on what he saw as its shortcomings.
The shaky three-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran appears to still be holding though both countries have traded accusations of violations.
While the ceasefire has largely halted fighting in Iran, the U.S. and Iran are locked in a standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's traded oil and gas passes in peacetime. A U.S. Navy blockade stopping Iran's tankers from getting out to sea has Iran's economy reeling. The world economy is also under pressure as Iran maintains its chokehold on the strait.
Negotiations have continued by phone after Trump called off his envoys' trip to Pakistan last week, the president said. Trump this week floated a new plan to reopen the critical passageway used by America's Gulf allies to export their oil and gas.
On Friday, Trump expressed frustration with Iran's leadership, describing it as fractured.
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"It's a very disjointed leadership," Trump said. "They all want to make a deal, but they're all messed up."
Discussing a briefing he had Thursday with Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, the president said the U.S. has just two options in Iran.
"I mean, do we want to go and just blast the hell out of them and finish them forever? Or do we want to try and make a deal? I mean, those are the options," Trump said.
Trump said he believes Iran's leadership has made some progress toward unifying around a resolution.
"They've made strides, but I'm not sure if they ever get there," he said. "There's tremendous discord, they're having a tremendous problem getting along with each other in Iran."
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held a flurry of calls on Friday with many of his regional counterparts, including from Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Azerbaijan, to brief them on his country's latest initiatives to end the war, according to his social media.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also spoke over the phone Friday with Araghchi. They discussed ongoing diplomatic efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and long-term security arrangements, Kallas' office said in a statement. Kallas also has been in contact with the EU's Gulf partners.
Pakistani officials have said efforts were continuing to ease tensions between Iran and the U.S.
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Pakistan's former ambassador to Washington, Masood Khan, said the continued exchange of proposals indicates that the U.S. and Iran remain engaged in seeking a diplomatic midpoint.
The proposals also come after leaders of the two countries had exchanged some of their harshest threats, Khan said, fueling fears that military hostilities could resume at any moment.
Iran's imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi was urgently transferred from prison to a hospital in northwestern Iran after a "catastrophic deterioration" of her health, her foundation said Friday.
The Narges Mohammadi Foundation said she had two episodes of complete loss of consciousness and a severe cardiac crisis. She was believed to have suffered a heart attack in late March, according to her lawyers who visited her a few days after the incident.
The hospital transfer comes "after 140 days of systematic medical neglect," since her arrest, the foundation said.
Mohammadi, 53, a rights lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 while in prison, was arrested in December and sentenced to seven more years in prison.
An explosion of leftover bombs from strikes during the war against Iran killed 14 Revolutionary Guard members, IRNA and other Iranian media reported Friday.
A report by the Nournews website, believed to be close to Iran's security, said the explosion happened near the northern city of Zanjan, which is northwest of Tehran.
It was the largest number of Revolutionary Guard members reported to be killed since the ceasefire began on April 7. The report said the ammunition included cluster bombs and air mines dropped during the fighting.
Since the war began on Feb. 28, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, and more than 2,600 people in Lebanon, where new fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah broke out two days after the war started, according to authorities.
Additionally, 24 people have died in Israel and more than 20 in Gulf Arab states. Seventeen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.
Ezzidin reported from Cairo and Binkley from Washington. Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report.
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