Iran said on Wednesday it was reviewing a new US proposal to end the war in the Gulf after sources said Washington and Tehran were closing in on a one-page memorandum while leaving tricky issues such as Iran’s nuclear programme for later.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, said his government would convey its views to Pakistani mediators even as US president Donald Trump renewed threats against Iran, fuelling uncertainty over the prospect for talks.
“If Iran agrees to truce terms, operation Epic Fury will end and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz will open,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“If they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before.”
It comes as an Oireachtas committee will on Thursday hear that about 1.6 million barrels of oil from the State’s national reserve will be released into the market in the coming weeks as part of a global effort to boost supplies in the face of the war.
The National Oil Reserves Agency (Nora) is expected to tell the Dáil Public Accounts Committee this move will leave the organisation holding sufficient fuel in storage to last for 80 days rather than 90 at present.
It is understood Nora will say it was holding the equivalent of 1.7 million tonnes of oil at the end of March, or about 2.1 billion litres.
Earlier on Wednesday, another Iranian official had dismissed a reported proposal to end the war as a “list of American wishes.”
Nonetheless, a Pakistani source was upbeat about the prospects for an agreement.
“We will close this very soon. We are getting close,” the source said.
The deal, according to media reports, will include Iran’s commitment to freezing uranium enrichment and the US agreeing to remove sanctions and release billions of dollars in frozen funds, while establishing a detailed framework for negotiations on the nuclear issue.
Trump told PBS Iran would hand over its highly-enriched uranium to be shipped to the US in a potential deal.
“It goes to the United States,” he said, adding that Iran would also agree not to use its underground nuclear facilities.
Axios news website reported on Wednesday that Washington expects an Iranian response on several key points within the next 48 hours.
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the US has not yet understood that the Iranian nation will rather die than surrender.
“No matter how difficult it may be, [Iranians] must stand against the criminal enemy,” he said.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency, affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said parts of the US ceasefire proposal were “unacceptable,” citing an anonymous source.
According to the source, the US “could make things worse” for itself by issuing threats.
The mixed messages came a day after Trump abruptly paused a US military operation to escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, citing what he said was “great progress” in talks.
Shortly after his post, crude oil fell below the $100 per barrel threshold and global stocks rose.
According to an Israeli source: “It was made clear to us from the conversations that president Trump stands by his red lines, first and foremost the removal of nuclear material.”
A senior Israeli military official said last week that if Iran’s stockpile of more than 400kg of highly enriched uranium is not removed from the country, the war could be considered “one big failure”.