‘Unacceptable’: What’s Iran’s peace proposal that Trump has rejected?

On the subject of the estimated 440kg (970lb) of highly enriched uranium in Iran, which the US is demanding be handed over to it, people familiar with the proposal told The Wall Street Journal that Tehran “proposes to have some of its highly enriched uranium diluted and the rest transferred to a third country”.

“Iran also said it was willing to suspend enrichment of uranium, but for a shorter period than the 20-year moratorium proposed by the US, they said. Iran rejected dismantling its nuclear facilities,” they added.

Under the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed with several other states in 2015, Iran had been permitted to enrich uranium to 3.67 percent – enough to develop a nuclear power programme – but far short of 90 percent weapons-grade material. However, Trump withdrew the US from that agreement in 2018 despite regular inspections concluding that Iran had held its end of the deal.

Now, the US is demanding that enrichment by Iran be reduced to 0 percent.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, however, said Iranian proposals were more focused on its demand that the US end sanctions on Iranian oil and release its frozen overseas assets. Iran has also reportedly demanded that the US lift its ongoing naval blockade on Iranian ports.

After Trump rejected Iran’s proposal late on Sunday, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, told Iranian media that the US continues to have “unreasonable demands”, adding that Iran’s response to the latest US proposal, which Tehran sent to Pakistan on Sunday, “was not excessive”.

He said Iran’s proposal to end the war with the US and lift its naval blockade in and around the Strait of Hormuz was a “legitimate” demand.

“Demanding an end to the war, lifting the blockade and piracy, and ⁠releasing Iranian assets that have ⁠been unjustly frozen in banks due to US pressure,” Baghaei said.

“Safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz and establishing security in the region and Lebanon were other demands ‌of Iran, which are considered a generous and responsible ‌offer ‌for regional security,” he added.

Tasnim quoted an “informed source” as saying Iran’s response also “emphasises the fundamental rights of the Iranian nation”.

“Nobody in Iran writes a plan to please Trump. The negotiating team writes only for the rights of the Iranian nation. If Trump is unhappy with it, that is actually better,” the source said.

“Trump simply does not like reality; that is why he keeps losing to Iran.”

Is there any way forward?

Under last week’s 14-point US peace proposal, Iran would be required to agree not to develop a nuclear weapon and to halt all enrichment of uranium for at least 12 years. It would also be required to hand over its estimated 440kg stock of uranium, which it has enriched to 60 percent.

In return, the US would gradually lift sanctions and release billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets and withdraw its blockade of Iranian ports.

Both sides, currently engaged in a naval standoff in the Strait of Hormuz, would reopen the critical waterway within 30 days of signing.

Trump has not given specific reasons for his outright rejection of Iran’s latest peace proposal. Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan said it appears that every issue the Iranians have raised touches a point that the US does not want to yield on.

“Notably, the fact that Iran has ambitions to become the 12th or 13th nuclear power in the world, as well as having the ability to carry out offensive operations against its neighbours, especially Israel, which the US has said it will not tolerate,” she said.

Jordan noted that the US also wants to end Iran’s support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah and to significantly curtail its regional influence.

“Whether or not Trump’s rejection will achieve that, or perhaps launch a different direction in the negotiations to end the war, remains to be seen,” she added.

On Monday, Baghaei warned that stability and security in the region have been “undermined” after Trump’s rejection of Iran’s counterproposal to end the war.

“Whenever we are forced to fight, we will fight, and whenever there is room for diplomacy, we will seize that opportunity,” he said.

“However, diplomacy has its own rules,” Baghaei added. “The decision will be based on our national interests, and Iran has proven that we are keen on safeguarding our people’s interests.”

There were proposals and counterproposals from the US and Iran earlier as well.

In most of the proposals, the US has insisted on resolving differences over Iran’s nuclear programme before ending the war. Iran, on the other hand, has demanded an end to fighting in the Strait of Hormuz before negotiating its nuclear programme.

Chris Featherstone, a political scientist at the University of York in the United Kingdom, pointed out that, so far, Iran has not conceded to the US demands, and this appears to have confounded Trump.

“The Iranians are maintaining their conditions for a long-term peace deal, and many of these reported conditions appear to be the same as the conditions they set prior to the US campaign,” he told Al Jazeera.

“For Trump, he appears to have painted himself into a corner in these negotiations. He is unwilling to concede further to the Iranian regime, as this would not fit the narrative of US strength and dominance that he is trying to portray in his war with Iran. However, he is also unable to pressure the Iranians into making concessions,” he said.

“Without movement on either side, these negotiations do not appear to have a clear route out for either side,” he added.

What will Trump do next?

With neither side agreeing to a peace deal, Ali Vaez, director of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that “no amount of economic coercion or military force will compel Iran to capitulate to maximalist US demands”.

“Trump is therefore left with two bad options: escalate a war he cannot win, or accept a compromise he cannot sell,” he said.

Mark Pfeifle, a former US national security adviser, pointed out that Tehran and Washington remain in the same position they were in before the negotiations even began.

However, he argued that Trump is unlikely to resume the war.

“One of the things that Mr Trump and his secretary of state did recently is they said that Operation Epic Fury is over, which takes off the table, at least, from a rhetorical standpoint, the possibility of re-engaging in some heavy military operation,” Pfeifle told Al Jazeera.

“Trump is now likely to ramp up the economic pressure on Iran through the US blockade and ‘do a military action, maybe around the coast of the Strait of Hormuz’, targeting Iran’s fast boats, drone launch pads and missile sites that threaten ships at the blockade,” he said.

He added that Trump could also tighten sanctions or continue pushing for European and Asian naval forces to help escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

But beyond those options, Pfeifle warned, “not a lot of tools are left in the toolbox”.