Washington sent a peace plan to Iran, US media reported, as Donald Trump voiced optimism Tuesday at ending nearly a month of warfare and Tehran announced that it will let “non-hostile” oil vessels go through the crucial Strait of Hormuz.
The tentative signs of a diplomatic solution came despite new violence.
Trump, whose pronouncements in recent days have swung wildly from vowing massive attacks on Iran to declaring the nearly month-long war virtually over, said the United States was “in negotiations right now” with Iran.
“They did something yesterday that was amazing actually. They gave us a present and the present arrived today. And it was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“That meant one thing to me — we’re dealing with the right people.”
He did not explain further but said it related to the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has largely blockaded in retaliation for US and Israeli strikes, sending global energy prices soaring.
Iran, in a message circulated by the International Maritime Organisation shortly afterwards, assured safe passage to “non-hostile vessels” going through the strait, the gateway for one-fifth of the world’s oil.
Iran had already, in recent days, said it was not targeting friendly nations, although many vessels have shied away as insurance companies refuse to take risks.
The benchmark price of crude oil dropped close to six per cent after the latest developments. Prices at the pump have soared in the United States after the war by Trump, causing him a political headache.
New nuclear deal?
Trump had earlier threatened to “obliterate“ Iran’s power plants, which some argue would be a war crime, if it did not open the strait by late Monday Washington time. Before US markets opened on Monday, Trump abruptly extended that deadline by five days, citing diplomatic progress.
Pakistan’s prime minister has offered to host US-Iran talks, which Trump said involved top officials, including Vice President JD Vance.
Trump said that he had sent a plan and that it “all starts with, they cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
The New York Times, quoting unnamed officials, said that the United States had sent the 15-point plan to Iran through Pakistan.
Israel’s Channel 12 said that Trump was proposing a one-month ceasefire during which the sides would discuss a proposal that would include handing over Iran’s enriched uranium and banning further enrichment.
Iran would also ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran, in turn, would see an end to all sanctions, which have been in place in various forms for years, the Israeli report said.
Iran would also receive assistance in developing civil nuclear energy at Bushehr, a key site which dates from before the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Iran on Tuesday accused Israel of carrying out a second strike on Bushehr, which lies perilously close to Gulf Arab population centres.
“The sounds, the explosions, the missiles — they are part of our daily life now,” a 35-year-old woman in Tehran told AFP by telephone. “Our one real worry now is that our oil and gas infrastructure isn’t targeted by missile strikes.”
Iran had agreed in 2015 to broad restraints on its contested nuclear program in a deal that Trump ripped up during his first term as he joined Israel in applying pressure to the cleric-run state.
The reported new proposal would keep in place the Islamic republic which weeks earlier ruthlessly crushed mass protests, killing thousands, despite earlier vows of regime change by Trump and especially Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
