The Iranian regime’s response to the latest U.S. proposal to end hostilities was “totally unacceptable,” U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday.
“I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called ‘representatives.’ I don’t like it — totally unacceptable!” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported earlier on Sunday that Tehran’s response to Washington’s plan had been submitted to Pakistani mediators.
According to the regime outlet, Iran’s response sought to end “the war in the region.” Tehran’s proposal conditions any future understandings with Washington on reaching a ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon and lifting restrictions on Iranian oil exports, according to separate reports in Arab media.
In another post on Sunday, Trump had accused the regime of “playing games with the United States,” warning the mullahs they would be “laughing no longer.”
“For 47 years the Iranians have been ‘tapping’ us along, keeping us waiting, killing our people with their roadside bombs, destroying protests, and recently wiping out 42,000 innocent, unarmed protestors, and laughing at our now great again country,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social.
The Islamic Republic “has been playing games with the United States, and the rest of the world, for 47 years (delay, delay, delay!),” he charged.
According to Trump, the regime “finally hit pay dirt” when Barack Obama became president in 2009 and pushed through the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which lifted sanctions in return for limitations on Tehran’s nuclear program.
“He was not only good to them, he was great, actually going to their side, jettisoning Israel, and all other allies, and giving Iran a major and very powerful new lease on life. Hundreds of billions of dollars, and 1.7 billion dollars in green cash, flown into Tehran, was handed to them on a silver platter,” he said. Trump withdrew from the deal in May 2018.
The mullahs “had never seen money like this, and never will again,” the president vowed.
On Saturday, Trump warned that “Operation Project Freedom” in the Strait of Hormuz could be resumed and expanded if Tehran doesn’t agree to a deal to end the war.
“We’ll go a different route if everything doesn’t get signed up, buttoned up,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We may go back to ‘Project Freedom’ if things don’t happen, but it’ll be ‘Project Freedom Plus,’ meaning ‘Project Freedom’ plus other things.”
Trump launched “Operation Project Freedom” on May 4, to safeguard merchant vessels in the Strait of Hormuz following a series of Iranian attacks in the vital waterway. Tehran has largely blocked the strait since the start of the war, triggering a spike in global fuel prices and putting pressure on financial markets.
The operation was suspended two days after its launch at the request of Pakistan, which is mediating talks with Tehran.
Trump’s most recent threat followed an exchange of fire between U.S. and Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, fueling uncertainty over the temporary ceasefire that Washington claims remains in place.
Trump told journalists on Friday that he would “see what happens” with the negotiations, adding: “Look, they have no military, they have not a lot left.”
“We’ll find out soon enough,” the president said.
