President Donald Trump said on May 2 that he will review a new peace framework submitted by Iranian negotiators, but raised doubts that the latest proposal would provide the basis for a satisfactory agreement.
"I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but can’t imagine that it would be acceptable in that they have not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to Humanity, and the World, over the last 47 years," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Relations between Washington and Tehran have been strained since the 1979 Islamic revolutionaries overthrew Iran's last Shah and installed the country's current Shia Muslim leadership structure. Islamic revolutionary activists took 66 U.S. citizens hostage on Nov. 4, 1979, before releasing them on Jan. 20, 1981.
The U.S. government has consistently designated Iran as the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the decades since.
Trump has routinely described U.S.–Iran relations since 1979 as a 47-year war.
The Iranian state-run PressTV reported that Tehran's latest proposal entails a 14-point framework including an end to fighting on all fronts, the cessation of an ongoing U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, guarantees against future hostilities, a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iran's vicinity, the lifting of sanctions, the release of frozen Iranian assets, and a payment of reparations.
PressTV reported Tehran's latest peace framework also included a "new mechanism" for the Strait of Hormuz, but offered few details about the proposed mechanism.
After U.S. and Israeli forces commenced attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, Iranian forces began attacking shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, slowing commercial traffic through the key international shipping lane.
Trump agreed to a ceasefire with Iran on April 7, and has pursued additional negotiations since then, but has signaled little progress toward a sustainable deal.
The president has maintained that preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon was a primary reason for ordering offensive operations. Trump and other members of his administration have continued to raise concerns about Iran’s nuclear program amid ongoing negotiations.
Iranian leaders have long claimed their country’s nuclear program is peaceful, though it has enriched uranium up to 60 percent purity, bringing their nuclear fuel closer to weapons-grade material. Iran ramped up its uranium enrichment after Trump pulled the United States out of an international nuclear safeguards agreement and reinstated sanctions on the Persian state.
Throughout the recent negotiations, Tehran has insisted on retaining the right to a domestic nuclear program. This week, Iranian leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said Iran will continue to treat its nuclear program as a protected national asset.
When asked, on Saturday, what circumstances could lead him to order new combat operations against Iran, Trump told reporters, “If they misbehave, if they do something bad ... It's a possibility that could happen, certainly.”