U.S. President Donald Trump rejected Iran’s latest proposal to end the war between the countries, saying Friday he still was not satisfied while blaming Iran’s “fractured” leadership.
Trump turned back the latest proposal almost as soon as it was delivered. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that Iran handed over its plan to mediators in Pakistan on Thursday night.
“They want to make a deal, I’m not satisfied with it, so we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters Friday at the White House, without elaborating on what he saw as its shortcomings.
The shaky three-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran appears to still be holding though both countries have traded accusations of violations.
While the ceasefire has largely halted fighting in Iran, the U.S. and Iran are locked in a standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas passes in peacetime. A U.S. Navy blockade stopping Iran’s tankers from getting out to sea has Iran’s economy reeling. The world economy is also under pressure as Iran maintains its chokehold on the strait.
Negotiations have continued by phone after Trump called off his envoys’ trip to Pakistan last week, the president said. Trump this week floated a new plan to reopen the critical passageway used by America’s Gulf allies to export their oil and gas.
On Friday, Trump expressed frustration with Iran’s leadership, describing it as fractured.
“It’s a very disjointed leadership,” Trump said. “They all want to make a deal, but they’re all messed up.”
Discussing a briefing he had Thursday with Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, the president said the U.S. has just two options in Iran.
“I mean, do we want to go and just blast the hell out of them and finish them forever? Or do we want to try and make a deal? I mean, those are the options,” Trump said.
Trump said he believes Iran’s leadership has made some progress toward unifying around a resolution.
“They’ve made strides, but I’m not sure if they ever get there,” he said. “There’s tremendous discord, they’re having a tremendous problem getting along with each other in Iran.”
Iran’s top diplomat sought support for plan
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held a flurry of calls on Friday with many of his regional counterparts, including from Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Azerbaijan, to brief them on his country’s latest initiatives to end the war, according to his social media.
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European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also spoke over the phone Friday with Araghchi. They discussed ongoing diplomatic efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and long-term security arrangements, Kallas’ office said in a statement. Kallas also has been in contact with the EU’s Gulf partners.
Pakistani officials have said efforts were continuing to ease tensions between Iran and the U.S.
Pakistan’s former ambassador to Washington, Masood Khan, said the continued exchange of proposals indicates that the U.S. and Iran remain engaged in seeking a diplomatic midpoint.
The proposals also come after leaders of the two countries had exchanged some of their harshest threats, Khan said, fueling fears that military hostilities could resume at any moment.
Hostilities 'terminated,' Trump tells Congress to bypass war approval deadline
Separately, the White House asserted to Congress in a letter Friday that hostilities with Iran have “terminated” despite the continued presence of U.S. armed forces in the region.
The message from Trump effectively skirts a May 1 legal deadline to gain approval from members of Congress to continue the war with Iran. That deadline was already set to pass without action from Republican lawmakers who are deferring to the president.
The letter brings into stark relief the bold but legally questionable assertion of presidential power at the heart of Trump’s war, which he began without congressional approval two months ago.
“The hostilities that began on February 28, 2026, have terminated,” Trump wrote House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the Senate president pro tempore.
Yet he also made it clear in the letter that the war may be far from over.
“Despite the success of United States operations against the Iranian regime and continued efforts to secure a lasting peace, the threat posed by Iran to the United States and our Armed Forces remains significant,” the Republican president said.
Under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, Congress must declare war or authorize the use of force within 60 days — Friday was the deadline — or within 90 days if the president asks for an extension. This Congress made no attempt at enforcing that requirement, leaving town Thursday for a week after the Senate rejected a Democratic attempt to halt the war for a sixth time.
Some GOP senators are growing uneasy about the war’s timeline, which Trump initially said would last a few weeks. But Trump’s letter showed how the president continues to forego congressional approval. It contends the deadlines set by the law do not apply because the war in Iran effectively ended when a shaky ceasefire began in early April.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a congressional hearing Thursday, “We are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means, the 60-day clock pauses or stops.”
Imprisoned Iranian Nobel laureate moved to hospital
Iran’s imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi was urgently transferred from prison to a hospital in northwestern Iran after a “catastrophic deterioration” of her health, her foundation said Friday.
The Narges Mohammadi Foundation said she had two episodes of complete loss of consciousness and a severe cardiac crisis. She was believed to have suffered a heart attack in late March, according to her lawyers who visited her a few days after the incident.
The hospital transfer comes “after 140 days of systematic medical neglect,” since her arrest, the foundation said.
Mohammadi, 53, a rights lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 while in prison, was arrested in December and sentenced to seven more years in prison.
Explosion of leftover bombs killed 14 in Iran
An explosion of leftover bombs from strikes during the war against Iran killed 14 Revolutionary Guard members, IRNA and other Iranian media reported Friday.
A report by the Nournews website, believed to be close to Iran’s security, said the explosion happened near the northern city of Zanjan, which is northwest of Tehran.
It was the largest number of Revolutionary Guard members reported to be killed since the ceasefire began on April 7. The report said the ammunition included cluster bombs and air mines dropped during the fighting.
Since the war began on Feb. 28, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, and more than 2,600 people in Lebanon, where new fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah broke out two days after the war started, according to authorities.
Additionally, 24 people have died in Israel and more than 20 in Gulf Arab states. Seventeen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.
Ezzidin reported from Cairo and Binkley from Washington. Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report. Additional files from Mary Clare Jalonick, Stephen Groves And Seung Min Kim
Hey El Trumpo, the world is not satisfied with YOU! The war is OVER by your own words! PULL YOUR TROOPS OUT! Get your damned boats out of the strait! YOU LOST! GET THE F*CK OUT!
there is no proposal for what? no deal. get the hell out. that is the deal
iran proposal to Trump: US troops and US military bases get the hell out of the middle east. US needs to evacuate and leave the middle east,,and war ends.. proposal for what?
Iran is not a war with it’s middle east neighbors maybe just isreal. so Trump sells 8 billion of weapons to countries it gets money for military bases. these countries are not military ‘allies’ US military like mercenary army in ME and paid for defense which has proven to be useless against iran missles. again. Iran is not at war with kuwait or any of these countries, they are attack US military bases. Tell you this, billions in profits selling 8 billion of US ‘weapons’ from private companies. which has proven to be useless in defending against missle attacks.
militarily, the americans have no position to negotiate with Iran in a war. Iran is no surrendering and any ground invasion massive casualties on american soldiers like possible 100,000 american soldiers dead if you deploy 200,000 amerian troops in any ground invasion. and entire US navy risk getting destroyed in total war where Iran uses all it’s missles. in one total war. where both sides use all their bombs
these ‘new’ hypersonic missles, no anti-missle defense system can shoot it down.
kuwait pays the US military for their military baes? and americans want japan to pay $2 billion/year for 30,000 military resort in their country the military bases in kuwait were sitting targets. kuwait better off not having military bases. instead the country was target of attack because of the US military bases which were destroyed it’ more like Trump wants a cease fire. so US troops can evacuate and abandon the ME. because those missles were next targeting the aircraft carriers and entire US navy could be wiped if iran targets the aircraft carriers with hypersonic missles which they have in reserve in limited amounts
I like big one’s
Such a pompous azzhole. The day a bullet puts this all to rest is going to be a day to celebrate for sure. So had it with that orange turd.
who cares what Trump wants. he lost the war. trump either leaves the middle east alive as there is no american military bases in middle east now. as for ground invasion. Trump doesn’t have authority to wage war without congress ‘approval’ who the hell does this guy Trump think he is?
iran has a lot of bedrock underground unlike kuwait which is all sand there is no where for US military bases to hide in the open desert
in war, if you destroy enemy positions they lost. all the military bases in kuwait was destroy by iran bombs. iran weapons are underground and in mountains impossible for US bombs to destroy it. iran has a lot of mountains to hide their weapons those rock even missles cannot break through
the attacks on iran was missles shot from war carriers ships that iran missles cannot hit.. the generals don’t want ground invasion. the US military bases were easy targets by land. Trump talks about bombing iran. well iran bombed all the US military base in middle east which are now out of service. what is the point of military bases if they can be destroyed in few..days those military bases were resorts for the military
all US bases destroyed in Middle East..so billions /year on bases was useless in defending any Iran attack. the Is military is under reporting the casualties or severity of the personnel in the bases. the bases bombed and buildings and planes. what victory? Trump looks like duck talking tough . all US military bases are destroyed in the middle east.
Here’s what the Resolution actually says triggers the 60 day clock (Section 4(a)):
The President must report to Congress within 48 hours when US armed forces are introduced:
1. Into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by circumstances
2. Into foreign territory while equipped for combat
3. In numbers which substantially enlarge US forces already located in a foreign nation
#1 is certainly still the case
#2 & #3 can be argues as untrue since troops aren’t on foreign soil or foreign waters (since UN considers the straight to be international waters)
Trump and Hegseth will wait for a military provocation from Iran and then claim they are dealing with a new war.
If they are not at war, then return the navy to US waters. Return the army to US soil. Return the air force to US bases. Then we will believe it is truly over. – anything else is a lie.