\u201cThe most important thing by far is Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,\u201d Trump continued. \u201cEvery American understands it. If the stock market goes up or down a little bit, the American people understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ahead of his meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, Trump said he did not think he would need to enlist China to resolve the conflict with Iran, which has continued to bottle up maritime traffic that normally provides one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil supply.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we need any help with Iran. We\u2019ll win it one way or the other, peacefully or otherwise,\u201d Trump said. \u201cNo matter how you cut it, we win.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t Trump claimed that Iran agreed that they will never have nuclear weapons \u201cand then that\u2019s not what they sent to me. We don\u2019t play games.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a lot of things to discuss. I wouldn\u2019t say Iran is one of them, to be honest with you, because we have Iran very much under control.\u201d Trump insisted. \u201cWe are either gonna make a deal or they will be decimated.\u201d<\/p>\n After reports that Pakistan allowed Iran to stash fighter jets on its territory during the war, Trump said that the Pakistanis \u201chave been great\u201d mediators.<\/p>\n Iran remains defiant<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s chief negotiator meanwhile said Tuesday that Washington must accept Tehran\u2019s latest peace plan or face failure, after Trump warned Monday the truce was on the brink of collapse.<\/p>\n The war, which erupted more than two months ago with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, has spread throughout the Middle East and roiled the global economy despite the ceasefire, impacting hundreds of millions worldwide.<\/p>\n Both sides have refused to make concessions and repeatedly threatened to resume fighting, but neither appears willing to return to all-out war.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no alternative but to accept the rights of the Iranian people as laid out in the 14-point proposal. Any other approach will be completely inconclusive; nothing but one failure after another,\u201d Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a post on X.<\/p>\n \t Iran sent its latest proposal in response to an earlier US plan, details of which remain limited. Media reports have said the American plan involved a one-page memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the fighting and establishing a framework for negotiations on Iran\u2019s nuclear program.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s foreign ministry said its response called for ending the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, halting the US naval blockade of Iranian ports and securing the release of Iranian assets frozen abroad under longstanding sanctions.<\/p>\n But Trump slammed Tehran\u2019s reply as \u201cTOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE,\u201d saying the United States would enjoy a \u201ccomplete victory\u201d over Iran and that the truce that has halted fighting for over a month was on its last legs.<\/p>\n In a show of defiance, Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it carried out drills in Tehran aimed at \u201cenhancing combat capability to confront any movement of the American-Zionist enemy,\u201d state media reported Tuesday.<\/p>\n Iranian defense ministry spokesman Reza Talaei-Nik said that if the US \u201cdoes not submit to the rightful and definitive demands of the Iranian nation in the diplomatic arena, it should expect a repeat of its defeats on the military battlefield.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Living day to day\u2019<\/p>\n The war of words has unnerved people in Iran who do not know what the coming months will bring.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are just trying to dig our nails into anything that could help us survive. The future is so uncertain and we are just living day to day,\u201d Maryam, a 43-year-old painter from the capital Tehran, told Paris-based journalists.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are trying to find a way to continue. Keeping hope is very difficult right now.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Trump\u2019s angry reaction to Iran\u2019s counteroffer sparked a spike in oil prices and dashed hopes that a deal could be quickly negotiated to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping.<\/p>\n Iran is restricting maritime traffic in the waterway and has been setting up a payment mechanism to charge tolls for crossing ships, sparking a global energy crisis that the head of Saudi oil giant Aramco has described as the largest energy supply shock \u201cthe world has ever experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n US officials have stressed it would be \u201cunacceptable\u201d for Tehran to maintain control of the strait, which usually carries about a fifth of the world\u2019s oil and natural gas.<\/p>\n \u201cIran should not use this strait as a weapon to pressure or to blackmail the Gulf countries,\u201d Qatari foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n According to a report<\/a> Tuesday in the New York Times that cited US intelligence assessments, Iran still has access to 30 of the 33 missile sites it has along the key waterway, allowing it to threaten vessels traversing the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n The report quoted those knowledge of the assessments as saying the Iranians can use mobile launchers inside the sites to move missiles elsewhere and that some of the sites have launchpads from which missiles can be fired, with only three of the 33 sites near Hormuz completely inaccessible.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tUS President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping participating in a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, November 9, 2017. (AP Photo\/ Andrew Harnik, File)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AP26101454363008-e1778527166592-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tIran\u2019s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, in Islamabad, Pakistan, on April 11, 2026. (Pakistan Prime Minister Office via AP)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AP26126593132169-e1778631920452-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tA man waves an Iranian flag for a pro-government campaign under a billboard with graphic showing Strait of Hormuz and sewn lips of US President Donald Trump in a square in downtown Tehran, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo\/Vahid Salemi)<\/p>\n
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David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel<\/p>\n
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