Iran considering US proposal as Trump says war will be 'over quickly'

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On Wednesday, the US President indicated progress in the peace process. Iran, however, said it hadn’t yet presented its response to Pakistani mediators.

Addressing reporters at the White House, Trump said that Iran wants to “make a deal badly” and “if we get there, they can’t have nuclear weapons”.

“We’ve had very good talks over the last 24 hours, and it’s very possible that we’ll make a deal,” he said.

Trump also told PBS that he was hopeful about reaching an agreement ahead of his trip to China the following week and threatened to restart military attacks if not.

“I think it’s got a very good chance of ending, and if it doesn’t end, we have to go back to bombing the hell out of them,” he said.

“It’ll be over quickly," he told party supporters in a call on Wednesday.

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The US President has repeatedly expressed optimism about a peace deal – sentiments that have, so far, seemed baseless. Both Iran and the US appear unable to reach consensus over a multitude of issues – from Iran’s nuclear capacity to the Strait of Hormuz, which has sent one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply into chaos since the beginning of the war in February.

The two sides were close to agreeing on a one-page memorandum to formally end the war, according to Reuters. It was also reported that the two sides were “getting close” to consensus on a 14-point document, according to US media outlet Axios.

This agreement would restrict Iran from developing a nuclear weapon and would cease uranium enrichment for at least 12 years. In return, the US would lift sanctions and release billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets. Both sides would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, releasing the critical waterway from competing blockades.

Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker, seemingly mocked the Axios report, taking to social media to say that “Operation Trust Me Bro failed”.

Ghalibaf derided the report as political spin in response to the failed US attempt to reopen the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, adding: “Now back to routine with Operation Fauxios”.

Esmaeil Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Al Jazeera that Tehran has not yet responded to the US proposal and that “the investigation into the exchanged texts is ongoing”.

Ebrahim Rezaei, a spokesperson for the Iranian Parliament’s Foreign Policy and National Security Committee, described the document as “more of an American wish list than a reality”.

“The Americans will not gain anything in a war they are losing that they have not gained in face-to-face negotiations,” he wrote on social media.