What must happen for the US and Iran to reach a peace deal?
US President Donald Trump, alongside Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, speaks about the conflict in Iran at the White House in Washington on Sunday.
Photo AFP As US President Donald Trump issued yet another ultimatum pressuring Iran into striking a peace deal, the two sides stood far apart amid a trust deficit, a guarantor vacuum and Israel’s role, analysts said.
Trump extended the deadline for a deal calling on Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz until Tuesday 8pm Washington time – his third time doing so since the war began on February 28.
Iran faced the “complete demolition” of its power plants and bridges if no deal was reached, Trump said on Monday, adding: “The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night.” As the deadline approached, Reza Amiri Moghadam, Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan, which has sought to broker a truce between the warring sides, said in a social media post that Islamabad’s “positive and productive endeavours” in goodwill and good offices to stop the war were “approaching a critical, sensitive stage”.
Motorists ride scooters near a large political billboard depicting missiles being fired behind Iranian demonstrators in solidarity with the government at Valiasr Square in Tehran on Sunday.
Photo: AFP The United States, Iran and Pakistan put forward respective proposals to end the armed conflict, but analysts cautioned that without a party powerful enough to act as a guarantor, any agreement risked becoming just another broken promise.
Washington and Tehran did not make their proposals public, but Israel’s Channel 12 reported that US demands included the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, stopping uranium enrichment on its territory and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
The US also reportedly demanded that Iran abandon its proxy paradigm, often referred to as Tehran’s model of warfare in which it projects power and achieves its national security goals through a network of non-state actors rather than direct military confrontation.
Iran rejected the American proposal while raising its own 10-point plan that included a call for a permanent end to the war and to Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where Hezbollah, a powerful political and military organisation backed by Tehran, has long operated.
It also proposed joint management of the Strait of Hormuz with Oman and the imposition of a fee of roughly US$2 million per ship for transiting the strategically vital waterway.
According to Guo Ha
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