Iran sends new peace deal proposal to US via Pakistani mediators

Tehran has sent its latest proposal for negotiations with the United States to Pakistani mediators, Iranian state news ‌agency IRNA said on Friday, a move that could improve prospects for breaking an impasse in efforts to end the Iran war.

IRNA gave no details but global oil prices, ​which have risen sharply since ⁠Iran started a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, dropped after its report.

The blockade of the vital sea channel has choked off ‌20% of the world's oil and gas supplies, and the ‌US Navy is blocking exports of Iranian crude oil.

This has pushed up energy prices and increased concerns that there will be an economic downturn. It was not immediately clear whether the Iranian proposal had been passed on to Washington yet.

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

The war, launched by the United States and Israel with a vast wave of surprise strikes on February 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 United States has imposed a counterblockade on Iranian ports.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday 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 Friday, 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, 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 percent above their prewar levels as traders confront a prolonged closure 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 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, February 28 have terminated," a senior administration official told AFP late on Thursday.

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 Thursday, 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 Thursday, the US military said its blockade had stopped Iran from exporting $6 billion worth of oil, while inflation, already above 45 percent before the war, reached 53.7 percent 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 percent of its staff.
IRan

Agence France-Presse / Reuters