Iran offers new proposal amid stalled US peace talks

TEHRAN – Iran delivered a new proposal for peace talks with the US via mediator Pakistan, state media reported on May 1, with negotiations between the two sides frozen despite a weeks-long ceasefire.

The text of the proposal was handed to Islamabad on the evening of April 30, the IRNA news agency reported.

The war, launched by the US and Israel with a vast wave of surprise strikes on Feb 28, has been on hold since April 8, but only one failed round of direct talks has taken place between Iranian and US representatives.

In the meantime, Iran has maintained its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off vast amounts of oil, gas and fertiliser from the world economy, while the US has imposed a counter-blockade on Iranian ports.

The Wall Street Journal reported on April 30 that US President Donald Trump had told security officials to prepare for the blockade to last months, causing oil prices to spike.

Despite the failure to negotiate an end to the war, the ceasefire has held. On May 1, judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, a senior figure and well-respected cleric, said “the Islamic republic has never shied away from negotiations”.

But in yet another sign that finding a compromise may prove difficult, Mr Ejei said “we certainly do not accept imposition”, in a video shared by the judiciary’s Mizan Online website.

Tehran, though, does not want a return to war, he said.

“We do not welcome war in any way; we do not want war, we do not want its continuation.”

The lack of fighting has not assuaged markets, with oil prices still more than 50 per cent above their prewar levels as traders confront a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz, while the European Central Bank held interest rates amid fears of soaring inflation.

War powers debate

Washington, meanwhile, was gripped by a legalistic debate over whether Mr Trump had passed a deadline for requesting congressional approval for his war with Iran.

Administration officials, including Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, insisted that the ceasefire meant that the clock was paused on a 60-day deadline requiring the President to seek war powers authorisation from Congress.

“For War Powers Resolution purposes, the hostilities that began on Saturday, Feb 28, have terminated,” a senior administration official told AFP late on April 30.

Mr Trump is under increasing domestic pressure over the war, with no clear victory in sight, inflation spiking due to the conflict and midterm elections due in November.

On April 30, US government data showed slower than expected growth and inflation hit 3.5 per cent.

In Iran, meanwhile, the economic consequences of the war, which come on top of years of fierce international sanctions, were beginning to bite.

On April 30, the US military said its blockade had stopped Iran from exporting US$6 billion (S$7.6 billion) worth of oil, while inflation, already above 45 per cent before the war, reached 53.7 per cent in recent weeks, according to the national statistics centre.

“For many people, paying rent and even buying food has become difficult, and some have nothing left at all,” 28-year-old Mahyar told an AFP reporter based outside Iran, saying the company he worked for had laid off 34 people – nearly 40 per cent of its staff.

Hormuz missions

Mr Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Washington’s international allies for failing to join efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

France and Britain have led efforts to bring together an international coalition of dozens of countries that would help reopen the strait, but only once peace is secured.

But on April 30, a US official confirmed to AFP that Washington was launching its own international coalition to restart shipping, dubbed the Maritime Freedom Construct.

That prompted French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot to insist that the two missions would complement and not compete with each other.

The US mission is “not of the same nature as the one we established... it comes as a sort of complement”, Mr Barrot said on a visit to the Gulf. AFP