The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, has said Iran laid out its own demands to Washington and proposed to have some of its highly enriched uranium diluted, and the rest transferred to a third country.
In its response, delivered through mediators, Iran sought guarantees that the transferred uranium will be returned if negotiations fail or Washington quits the agreement later, the Journal citing sources reported.
Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB, earlier reported that Tehran’s response to the US plan, passed to Pakistani mediators, focuses on ending the war “on all fronts, especially Lebanon” — where Israel has kept up its fight with Iran-backed Hezbollah — as well as on “ensuring shipping security.”
It offered little detail, though the US proposal had reportedly focused on extending the truce in the Gulf to allow for talks on a final settlement of the conflict and on Iran’s nuclear program.
US President Donald Trump on Sunday branded Iran’s terms for ending the Middle East war “totally unacceptable,” raising the likelihood of renewed conflict after weeks of negotiations.
Iran had responded to Washington’s latest peace proposal earlier in the day, while warning it would not hold back from retaliating against any new US strikes or permit more foreign warships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump himself provided no details on Tehran’s counterproposal, but in a brief post on his Truth Social platform made clear he was rejecting it.
“I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called ‘Representatives.’ I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” Trump said.
Iran imposed a blockade on the vital Strait of Hormuz early in the war, sending global oil prices soaring and rattling financial markets.
It has since set up a payment mechanism to extract tolls from ships crossing the strait, but US officials have stressed it would be “unacceptable” for Tehran to control an international waterway and the route for a fifth of the world’s oil and other vital materials.
The US Navy, meanwhile, is blockading Iran’s ports, at times disabling or diverting ships heading to and from them.
Britain and France are leading efforts to create an international coalition to secure the strait after a peace deal is reached, with both countries sending vessels to the region in advance.
The two countries on Tuesday will host a multinational meeting of defense ministers from more than 40 nations on military plans to restore trade flows through the Strait of Hormuz, the British government said.
But Iran warned Sunday that Britain and France would meet “a decisive and immediate response” should they deploy their ships to the strait.
“Only the Islamic Republic of Iran can establish security in this strait, and it will not allow any country to interfere in such matters,” Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi posted on X.
French President Emmanuel Macron later insisted his country had “never envisaged” a naval deployment in Hormuz, but rather a security mission “coordinated with Iran.”