Trump said he is not satisfied with Iran’s updated peace proposal, leaving U.S.-Iran talks uncertain as shipping costs rise around the Strait of Hormuz.
President Donald Trump said Friday he is not satisfied with a new Iranian proposal to end the two-month-old war with the United States and Israel, even as mediators said Tehran had sent Washington an updated offer aimed at restarting peace talks.
The new proposal, delivered through Pakistani officials involved in the negotiations, comes at a sensitive moment for the Trump administration: the conflict that began Feb. 28 has pushed up energy and shipping costs, strained global aid routes and triggered a legal fight in Washington over presidential war powers.
“Iran wants to make a deal, but I’m not satisfied with it,” Trump told reporters at the White House. Asked why, he said Iran was “asking for things that I can’t agree” to. He also repeated his view that Iran must never be able to obtain a nuclear weapon.
Pakistani officials said Iran sent an updated proposal that was passed to American officials. The earlier Iranian offer had sought to delay talks over Iran’s nuclear program, a condition Trump rejected. The White House declined to discuss the details of the diplomacy, saying negotiations were continuing and that Trump’s position on Iran’s nuclear ambitions had not changed.
Trump also argued Friday that the U.S. has “already won” the war, but said he wants to “win by a bigger margin.” He described Iran’s leadership as divided and said that had complicated efforts to reach a deal, though that characterization could not be independently assessed from the supplied reporting.
The diplomatic opening coincided with a 60-day deadline under the War Powers Resolution, the 1973 law that requires a president to end the use of U.S. forces in hostilities unless Congress has declared war or authorized military action. Trump told congressional leaders Friday that “hostilities” with Iran had “terminated,” writing that there had been no exchange of fire between U.S. forces and Iran since April 7.
Trump separately called the need for a war powers vote “unconstitutional.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers Thursday that the administration viewed the current ceasefire as pausing or stopping the 60-day clock.
The economic fallout remains immediate. The U.S. Treasury warned shippers Friday that paying Iran a “toll” for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz could violate U.S. sanctions. Iran has demanded that commercial vessels coordinate with its military to transit the waterway, and the U.K. navy has said shipping traffic in and out of the Persian Gulf has fallen by 90% since the war began.
The U.N. refugee agency warned that disruptions around key maritime routes, including the Strait of Hormuz, are driving up humanitarian delivery costs and causing delays. It said transport costs for some shipments from its Dubai stockpiles to operations in Sudan and Chad had more than doubled, while rerouting shipments around the Cape of Good Hope can add up to 25 days.
Oil prices eased Friday on hopes that talks could resume, with Brent crude trading around $107 a barrel after briefly touching $126 on Thursday. The U.S. also announced new sanctions on entities tied to Iranian oil sales to China, including a Chinese petroleum terminal operator and a tanker linked by the State Department to so-called dark fleet shipping.
The next test is whether Iran’s revised offer addresses Trump’s nuclear demand and whether the administration can maintain its legal position that the ceasefire has ended or paused the war powers clock while negotiations continue.
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