Iran responds to US proposal to end war

IRNA news agency reported on Sunday that Iran has sent a response to a US proposal to start peace talks to end the war, after two aircraft carriers were allowed to pass through the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.

The IRNA report said a response to a US proposal to halt fighting before starting talks on more contentious issues such as Iran’s nuclear program has been sent to mediating Pakistan. However, details were not immediately available.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Michael Walz said the Trump administration had not yet received Iran’s response to the U.S. proposal to end the war, noting that part of the difficulty in negotiating with Iran stems from Iran’s leadership.

“We know that Mojtaba (Khamenei), the son of the former Ayatollah and the new Ayatollah, is seriously injured. He’s in hiding. It’s incredibly difficult to get him, but the Revolutionary Guards still have some respect, and I think that’s making the negotiations longer and slower than anyone would like,” he said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

“But at the same time, that negotiation and diplomacy is ongoing,” he said. “So let’s see what they come back with.”

After about 48 hours of relative calm after last week’s sporadic clashes, hostile drones were detected in the skies over the Gulf state on Sunday, underscoring the threats the region still faces despite a month-long ceasefire.

A Qatari natural gas tanker crossed the strait for Pakistan on Sunday for the first time since the outbreak of the Iran war, while Washington continued to wait for Tehran’s response to its latest proposal to start peace talks.

After about 48 hours of relative calm after last week’s sporadic clashes that rocked a month-long ceasefire, Kuwait detected several hostile drones in its airspace early Sunday, authorities said.

However, the aircraft carrier Al-Kharaitiyat, operated by Qatar Energy, safely passed through the strait and was on its way to Pakistan’s Port Qasim, becoming the first Qatari ship to cross the strait carrying liquefied natural gas since the US and Israel began their war on February 28, according to data from shipping analysis firm Kpler.

Sources earlier said the transfer, which provides some relief to Pakistan after a series of power outages due to the suspension of vital gas imports, was approved by Iran to build trust between Qatar and Pakistan, the mediators of the war.

Additionally, a Panamanian-flagged bulk carrier bound for Brazil, which had attempted to transit the strait earlier on May 4, did so using a route designated by the Iranian military, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday.

US President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit China this week, increasing pressure to draw a line between wars that are causing a global energy crisis and increasing threats to the global economy.

However, despite diplomatic efforts to break the deadlock between the two countries and allow the Qatari gas tanker to sail, threats to the shipping lanes and the regional economy remained high.

On Sunday, the United Arab Emirates said it had intercepted two drones from Iran, and Qatar condemned a drone attack that struck a cargo ship from Abu Dhabi in its territorial waters. Kuwait said its air defenses responded to a hostile drone that entered its airspace.

Tehran has largely blocked non-Iranian shipping through the narrow strait, which transported a fifth of the world’s oil supplies before the war and emerged as a central pressure point in the war.

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who discussed Pakistan’s mediation efforts to end the war with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Miami on Saturday, told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Arakchi that using the strait as a “pressure tool” would only deepen the crisis.

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Sunday that he told Arakchi in the phone call that freedom of navigation must not be violated, although the exact date of the call was not disclosed. Turkey’s foreign minister also met with Arakçi, a Turkish foreign ministry official said.

Iranian lawmakers said they were drafting a bill to formalize Iran’s control of the strait, with provisions including a ban on ships belonging to “hostile countries.”

In recent days, fighting in and around the strait has seen its biggest escalation since a ceasefire began a month ago. The UAE suffered new attacks on Friday, with reports of sporadic clashes between Iranian forces and US ships in the strait.

The U.S. government imposed a blockade on Iranian shipping last month, but Tehran has so far taken its time responding to calls for an end to the war that are unpopular with U.S. voters in the face of rising gasoline prices.

The CIA’s assessment indicates that Iran will not face severe economic pressure from the U.S. blockade for about four months, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.

A senior intelligence official characterized the “claims” about the CIA’s analysis, first reported by the Washington Post, as false.

The United States also has little international support in the conflict, with NATO allies refusing requests to send ships to open the straits absent a full peace deal and an internationally mandated mission.

After speaking with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday, Mr. Rubio questioned why Italy and other allies did not support U.S. efforts to reopen the strait and warned that a dangerous precedent would be set if Iran was allowed control of the international waterway.

Britain, which is working with France on proposals for safe passage through the strait once the situation stabilizes, said on Saturday it was sending warships to the Middle East in preparation for such a multinational mission.

— CNBC contributed to this report.