The United States and Iran are at an impasse once again in the talks to end more than two months of war. President Trump said the ceasefire is on “life support†after Tehran’s latest offer didn’t include nuclear concessions. The administration announced new sanctions and Trump said he would meet with his top military commanders to discuss next steps. White House correspondent Liz Landers reports.
Geoff Bennett:
The U.S. and Iran are at an impasse once again in the talks to end more than two months of war. President Trump says the cease-fire is, in his words, on life support after Tehran’s latest offer did not include nuclear concessions.
Amna Nawaz:
This afternoon, the administration announced a new round of sanctions against Iran, and Mr. Trump said he would meet with his top military commanders today to discuss next steps.
All of this comes just days ahead of a critical meeting with China, one of Iran’s closest allies.
Our White House correspondent, Liz Landers, begins our coverage.
Liz Landers:
On Iranian state television today, messages of defiance. Broadcasters claimed to show shipping in the Strait of Hormuz still at a grinding halt, while talks to end the war between the United States and Iran have also once again come to a standstill.
After waiting almost a week for Iran to respond to the U.S.’ demands, President Trump said he rejected their latest offer outright and said today that his patience was wearing thin.
President Donald Trump:
I would say the cease-fire is on massive life support. It’s unbelievably weak, I would say. I would call it the weakest right now after reading a piece of garbage they sent us. I didn’t even finish reading it.
Liz Landers:
President Trump claims that Iran had agreed to let the United States take its highly enriched uranium as part of nuclear concessions. He said Tehran went back on that promise.
Donald Trump:
They sent us this document that we waited four days for that should have taken 10 minutes to do. Look, very simple. We get that, they guarantee no nuclear weapons for a very long period of time, and a couple of other minor things, but they just can’t get there. So they agree with us and then they take it back.
Liz Landers:
Iran has remained defiant, defending the far-reaching demands in its latest proposal. They included asking the U.S. to recognize its sovereignty and control over the Strait of Hormuz. Before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, the international waterway was free and open to all ships.
And Iran demanded ending the war on all fronts, including Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and a lifting of international sanctions, pushing all talk about Iran’s nuclear program until a later time.
The Foreign Ministry called those terms both reasonable and generous.
Esmaeil Baghaei, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman (through interpreter):
Whenever necessary, we will fight, and we don’t care if others are happy or not. Diplomatic processes have their own rules. The Islamic Republic of Iran has shown that it’s serious in pursuing its national interests and inalienable rights.
Liz Landers:
President Trump said he would meet with top generals today to discuss ways to break the logjam. His energy secretary, Chris Wright, alluded this weekend to possibly restarting military operations.
Chris Wright, U.S. Energy Secretary:
If it’s clear in the next few days that there’s not a good path to a negotiated settlement, we will go back to the military method to open the strait.
Liz Landers:
The threat of returning to war sets the stage for President Trump’s trip to China in the coming days for a high-stakes meeting with President Xi Jinping. China is a key ally of Iran and a major economic partner. They’re the biggest buyer of Iranian crude oil.
Senior administration officials said they expect Mr. Trump to continue his discussion with Xi about their financial support of Iran’s regime.
Donald Trump:
It’s a small percentage, but it’s still money.
Liz Landers:
Back here at home, the president is trying more ways to take the pressure off of Americans paying higher prices at the pump. As Brent crude oil rose back above $100 a barrel today, Trump promised to temporarily pause the 18 cent federal gas tax, though he’d need Congress’ approval to do so.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister:
Causing a crisis.
Liz Landers:
All this comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CBS’ “60 Minutes” last night he didn’t think the war was nearly over.
Benjamin Netanyahu:
I think it accomplished a great deal, but 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. There’s still proxies that Iran supports. There are ballistic missiles that they still want to produce.
Now, we have degraded a lot of it, but all of that is still there and there’s work to be done.
Donald Trump:
There’s no pressure. There’s no pressure at all. We’re going to have a complete victory.
Liz Landers:
Hints of a lengthier war that President Trump appeared to echo today.
For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Liz Landers.
