By Parisa Hafezi, Alexander Cornwell and Ariba Shahid
DUBAI/TEL AVIV/ISLAMABAD, March 25 (Reuters) – Iran is still reviewing a U.S. proposal to end the war in the Gulf, despite an initial response that was negative, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday, indicating that Tehran had so far stopped short of rejecting it outright.
Publicly, Iranian officials poured withering scorn on the prospect of any negotiations with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. But an apparent delay in delivering a formal response to Pakistan, which delivered a 15-point proposal on behalf of Washington, appeared to signal that at least some figures in Tehran may be considering it.
The senior Iranian official’s comments that the proposal was still under review – though the initial response was “not positive” – appeared to contradict a report by Iran’s Press TV that cited an unidentified official as saying Iran had rejected it.
A senior Pakistani security official said that Pakistan had followed up with Iran’s foreign minister and was still awaiting a formal reply.
A second Pakistani source said: “The Iranians told us they will get back to us tonight. The media is reporting they’ve said no. But we have not received any official confirmation from Iran. So we are just waiting. They are all underground and communication is big challenge.”
Another senior Iranian official had earlier confirmed that Tehran had received a proposal and said that talks, if they went ahead, could be held in either Pakistan or Turkey.
MARKETS RESPOND POSITIVELY TO PROPOSAL
Global equity markets regained some ground while oil prices dipped on Wednesday after reports that Washington had sent the 15-point plan to Iran, with investors hoping for an end to a war that has disrupted global energy supplies and risks fuelling inflation.
The senior Pakistani security official said Pakistani intelligence had delivered the U.S. proposal to Iran, and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar had followed up with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.
So far there had been no response from the Iranians, or any confirmed dates or venue for talks, the Pakistani official said.
Three Israeli cabinet sources said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet had been briefed on the U.S. proposal. They said its terms included removing Iran’s stocks of highly enriched uranium, halting enrichment, curbing its ballistic missile programme and ending funding for regional allies.
The Pentagon is meanwhile planning to send thousands of airborne troops to the Gulf to give Trump more options to order a ground assault, sources have told Reuters, adding to two contingents of Marines already on their way. The first Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard a huge amphibious assault ship could arrive around the end of the month.
Iran could open a new front in the Bab al-Mandab Strait if attacks are carried out on Iranian territory or its islands, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency cited an unnamed Iranian military source as saying on Wednesday. The source said that Iran has the capability to pose a “credible threat” in the strategic strait that flows into the Red Sea.
Since the start of what the U.S. calls “Operation Epic Fury”, Iran has attacked countries that host U.S. bases and effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, conduit for a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday warned the “world is staring down the barrel of a wider war” in the region.
“It is time to stop climbing the escalation ladder – and start climbing the diplomatic ladder,” he said at the U.N. headquarters in New York.
IRANIAN MILITARY RULES OUT DEAL WITH TRUMP
Pakistan has offered to host talks attended by senior U.S. officials as soon as this week. A senior ruling party official in Turkey, Harun Armagan, told Reuters that Ankara was also “playing a role passing messages” between Iran and the U.S.
But so far there has been no public recognition from Iran that it is willing to negotiate at all, and its assertions that it will not do so have become increasingly caustic.
“Has the level of your inner struggle reached the stage of you negotiating with yourself?” the top spokesperson for Iran’s joint military command, Ebrahim Zolfaqari, taunted Trump in comments on Iranian state TV.
A senior Israeli defence official said Israel was sceptical Iran would agree to the terms, and that Israel was concerned that U.S. negotiators might make concessions in any talks.
A source familiar with Israel’s war plans said Israel wanted any U.S.-Iranian agreement to preserve Israel’s option to conduct pre-emptive strikes.
Trump said early in the war that it would end only with Tehran’s “unconditional surrender”, but has abruptly changed tack this week, saying “productive” talks were already under way with unspecified Iranian officials.
MORE STRIKES
The war has raged on with no let-up in air attacks against Iran, or in Iranian drone and missile strikes against Israel and U.S. allies.
An Israeli military official, asked whether Israel had adjusted its military plans since Trump said talks were under way, said it was “pretty much business as usual”.
The Israeli military described several new waves of attacks on Iran during the day, including one on Iran’s construction of ships and submarines.
The semi-official Iranian SNN News Agency said a residential area was hit in Tehran, with rescuers searching the rubble.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had launched new attacks against Israel and U.S. bases in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Peter Graff and Keith Weir; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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