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Trump
calls Iran’s response to peace plan ‘totally unacceptable’ as ceasefire frays
US
president expresses ire at Tehran’s reported demands, as drones strike Gulf
nations and Israel warns war ‘not over’
Julian
Borger in Jerusalem
Sun 10
May 2026 23.03 BST
Donald
Trump has rejected an Iranian response to a US peace proposal as “totally
unacceptable”, on a day the month-old ceasefire showed signs of fraying as
drone strikes were reported around the region and Benjamin Netanyahu warned the
war was “not over”.
The
Iranian counter-proposal was passed to Washington through Pakistani mediators.
The
semi-official Tasnim news agency, citing an informed source, said on Sunday
night that Iran’s proposed text for negotiations underlined the necessity of
lifting US sanctions, ending the US naval blockade of the strait of Hormuz
after the signing of initial understanding, and an immediate end to the war
with guarantees against any renewed attack on the country.
The US
had presented a peace proposal a week ago, which was reported to consist of a
one-page, 14-point memorandum of understanding that would reopen the strait
while setting a framework for further talks on Iran’s nuclear programme.
The US
parameters for nuclear talks reportedly included a moratorium on Iranian
nuclear enrichment for up to 20 years; the transfer overseas, possibly to the
US, of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium (HEU), which could be used
to make nuclear warheads; and the dismantling of Iranian nuclear facilities.
According
to the Wall Street Journal, the Iranian counter-proposal suggested a shorter
moratorium, the export of part of the HEU stockpile and the dilution of the
rest, and refusal to accept the dismantling of facilities.
Trump
responded shortly afterwards by saying: “I have just read the response from
Iran’s so-called ‘representatives’. I don’t like it – totally unacceptable.”
Earlier
in the day Trump had posted a long statement on his online platform, Truth
Social, alleging Iran “has been playing games with the United States, and the
rest of the World, for 47 years”, adding that Tehran “will be laughing no
longer”.
Trump was
expected to talk to Netanyahu on Sunday. The Israeli prime minister had earlier
warned the war would continue as long as Iran had a stockpile of HEU.
“It’s not
over, because there’s still nuclear material – enriched uranium – that has to
be taken out of Iran. There’s still enrichment sites that have to be
dismantled,” he told the CBS programme 60 Minutes, according an excerpt
published before its broadcast.
Asked how
the HEU should be removed, Netanyahu said: “You go in and you take it out,”
adding that the best way would be to enter Iran to secure the fissile material
as part of an agreement. He said Donald Trump had told him he wants “to go in
there”.
In a
separate interview, Trump appeared to take a more relaxed view of the HEU
stockpile, which the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, says is buried deep under
mountains in central Iran. The US president suggested that for the time being,
satellite surveillance was sufficient to guarantee no one had access to it.
Trump
said on the Full Measure programme: “We’ll get that at some point … We have it
surveilled. I did a thing called Space Force, and they are watching that … If
anybody got near the place, we will know about it – and we’ll blow them up.”
As he has
on numerous occasions since a ceasefire was declared a month ago, Trump said US
attacks on Iran could be resumed. He said the US could “go in for two more
weeks and do every single target. We have certain targets that we wanted, and
we’ve done probably 70% of them, but we have other targets that we could
conceivably hit.
“But even
if we didn’t do that, you know, that would just be final touches,” he added.
Trump is
under heavy pressure to maintain the ceasefire, and potentially make a peace
deal, before a scheduled visit this week to China, which is pushing for an end
to hostilities and the opening of the strait.
Two
critical issues that will be at the heart of any future nuclear talks between
the US and Iran are the disposal of Iran’s 440kg of HEU enriched to 60% purity
– close to weapons grade – and the suspension of uranium enrichment. In an
interview on Iranian state media late on Saturday, a military spokesperson said
the country’s forces were at “full readiness” to protect the stockpile.
“We
considered it possible that they might intend to steal it through infiltration
operations or heliborne operations,” Brig Gen Akrami Nia said.
Trump is
reported to have been presented with military options for seizing the HEU, but
the operation would have required a large number of troops and would have taken
weeks.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that Moscow’s proposal to take
enriched uranium from Iran to help negotiate a settlement remains on the table.
Iran was
responding on Sunday to a US memorandum that was itself a response to an
earlier Iranian proposal. That also envisaged the lifting of parallel US and
Iranian blockades on the strait, which have been driving up oil prices and
stifling the global economy, with an emphasis on the lifting of sanctions and
the release of frozen Iranian assets.
The
announcement of a new response from Tehran came on a day when the
Pakistan-brokered ceasefire, which came into effect on 8 April, showed new
signs of strain. The United Arab Emirates and Kuwait reported drone incursions
in their airspace on Sunday, and a drone attack started a small fire on a ship
on the coast of Qatar.
Another
drone strike was reported at a camp used by an Iranian Kurdish rebel group near
Erbil in north-eastern Iraq.
Qatar’s
defence ministry did not give details of the vessel targeted on Sunday, other
than that it had come from Abu Dhabi. The UAE defence ministry said it had shot
down the drones which entered its airspace, and which it said were Iranian.
Qatar
denounced the strike on a ship in its territorial waters as a “serious
escalation”. The country’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al
Thani, told Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, that using the strait as a
means of exerting pressure would only deepen the crisis, and that freedom of
maritime navigation should not be compromised.
Kuwait’s
defence ministry spokesperson said its forces had dealt with drones which
entered the country’s airspace early on Sunday, “in accordance with established
procedures”, without attributing responsibility for the incursion.
Meanwhile,
Iran’s deputy foreign minister warned against a planned French-British effort
that aims to support maritime security in the strait after hostilities are
over. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, responded by saying it would not
be a military deployment but an international mission to secure shipping when
conditions allow.
The UK
and France will on Tuesday host a multinational meeting of defence ministers on
military plans to restore trade flows through the strait, the British
government said.
“The
defence secretary, John Healey, will co-chair a meeting of over 40 nations,
alongside his French counterpart, minister Catherine Vautrin, for the
multinational mission’s first defence ministers’ meeting,” a ministry statement
said Sunday.
Hours
earlier, Iran warned London and Paris against sending warships to the region.
Tensions
have flared under the truce as the US and Iran have sought to assert their
control of the strait. On 4 May, Trump launched what he called Project Freedom,
which was supposed to provide a route out of the Gulf for the hundreds of ships
trapped by the war.
Iran,
which closed the strait after the initial US-Israeli attack on 28 February,
responded with attacks on US naval vessels, commercial vessels and oil
facilities in the UAE.
Trump
called off Project Freedom after 36 hours and the passage of just two
US-flagged ships. Saudi Arabia had refused permission for US forces to use its
bases and airspace for the operation.
Tehran
has insisted that all ships passing through the strait coordinate with its
armed forces and pay a $2m (£1.5m) toll. On Sunday, Iranian state media
reported that a Panama-flagged vessel bound for Brazil had been allowed to sail
through the strait. The US military has blockaded Iranian ports since 13 April,
saying it has turned back 61 commercial vessels and disabled four.
Trump has
said that the current ceasefire includes Lebanon, and has told Israel to stop
the bombing of Hezbollah targets there. Israel has reduced the intensity of its
campaign but has continued to carry out strikes.
Lebanon’s
health ministry reported that 36 people had been killed and 74 wounded by
Israeli strikes on Saturday. Among the casualties were several paramedics
wounded in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military said, meanwhile, that it had
intercepted Hezbollah drones approaching its troops in the area.
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