THE NEW YORK TIMES: Defiant Donald Trump rejects latest Iran offer for peace talks resolution

Donald Trump rejected the latest offer from Iran to end the war with the United States, declaring that it was “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.”

Trump commented hours after the Iranian Government said it had sent a counterproposal to end the conflict following a tense week of attacks and responses in the Persian Gulf that rattled a fragile ceasefire between the countries.

The details of Iran’s proposal were not made public, and Trump did not say what was objectionable.

“I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called ‘Representatives,’” he wrote in a post on his social media platform. “I don’t like it.”

Trump’s rejection extended the latest stand-off in the effort to end the war and cast doubt on whether the stalemate would be broken anytime soon. The US President, however, has shown little appetite for resuming hostilities, particularly before he meets this week in Beijing with President Xi Jinping of China, whose country maintains close ties with Iran.

The United States and Israel began coordinated strikes on Iran on February 28, and Iran responded with attacks on Israel and neighbouring Arab countries allied with the United States. Iran also closed off the Strait of Hormuz, the gateway to a fifth of the world’s oil supply.

Trump declared an indefinite ceasefire last month and told Congress that hostilities between the two countries had been “terminated,” though they have continued their tense face-off in the strait. Some Gulf countries have also reported drone attacks from Iran in recent days.

Trump has maintained that the United States has met its military objectives in joining the bombardment with Israel in February. But his ultimate goal of the war — preventing Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon — remains unfulfilled.

Trump said in an interview aired Sunday (US time) the United States was surveilling Iran’s remaining enriched uranium stockpile, which could enable the country to build a nuclear weapon, and that it would “get that at some point.”

In the interview, released by the syndicated news show “Full Measure,” he repeated a claim that the United States was monitoring sites that contained the uranium. He warned that “if anybody got near the place, we will know about it, and we’ll blow them up.”

The President’s messaging on the importance of the existing uranium stockpiles has been inconsistent: Last month, Trump said he didn’t care about the uranium because it was buried “so far underground.”

In the back-and-forth since the start of the ceasefire, Iran and the United States have offered few details about their proposals. But on Thursday, as Iran was reviewing the United States’ latest offer, Trump gave some specifics.

“It’s an offer that basically said they will not have nuclear weapons,” he said. “They’re going to hand us the nuclear dust and many other things that we want.” The president often refers to Iran’s near bomb-grade uranium as “dust,” though the material is stored in canisters, typically as a gas.

Trump has said that a deal has remained elusive because Iran lacks leadership after the United States and Israel killed much of the leadership’s top ranks.

His rejection of the Iranian offer came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes that the conflict with Iran was “not over.” He said that was in part because Iran had yet to give up the material that Israel feared could one day be made into a nuclear weapon.

Last week, the White House sought to portray the military campaign, named Operation Epic Fury as, in fact, over. But in the Full Measure interview, Trump said it was inaccurate to say combat operations were finished.

“No, I didn’t say that,” Trump said, adding that Iran was “defeated, but that doesn’t mean they are done.”

Trump hoped to have the conflict resolved by the time he headed to China to meet with Xi, who is eager to see an end to the conflict in Iran, which is China’s closest partner in the Middle East.

The war has led to a global energy crisis and diverted U.S. military assets from Asia. It has also depleted U.S. munitions, raising doubts among some Chinese analysts about the United States’ ability to defend Taiwan, a close partner of Washington.

Negotiators for Iran had passed their response to Pakistani mediators, who have been brokering the talks, according to Iran’s state broadcaster.

Iranian officials have said the two countries are working on a short-term agreement that would pause fighting for another 30 days and end Iran’s blockade of the strait. The officials said the United States and Iran would try to reach a comprehensive deal during the monthlong lull.

The intermittent clashes across the region over the past week have underscored the frailty of the ceasefire — what analysts have labeled a state of “no war, no peace.”

On Sunday, the United Arab Emirates said it had again been attacked by Iranian drones, after several Iranian strikes this past week. U.S. warships also fired on military facilities along Iran’s coast last week after coming under attack, the US military said.