Iran says latest US proposal has ‘narrowed gaps’: Report

Iran said the latest proposal from the US has partly bridged the gap between the warring sides, as they seek to turn a fragile ceasefire into a peace deal. Tehran is in the process of responding to a text submitted by the US, which “has narrowed the gaps to some extent,” the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency reported on Thursday, without saying where it got the information. “Further narrowing requires an end to the temptation for war on Washington’s part.”

The exchange of messages is based on Iran’s 14-point text from several weeks ago, the Iranian foreign ministry said separately. That plan essentially suggests a short-term deal that would see Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz and the US lift a blockade of Iranian ports, with the warring sides then going into deeper negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran gave no indication of when it would formally answer the US. The Iranian foreign ministry reiterated it wants a commitment that fighting will end “on all fronts, including Lebanon.” It also called for the unfreezing of sanctioned assets.


Trump vows US will retrieve uranium from Iran: Trump vowed on Thursday that the US will eventually recover Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium despite comments from Iran that it will not hand over the material. “We will get it.



We don’t need it, we don’t want it. We’ll probably destroy it after we get it, but we’re not going to let them have it,” Trump told reporters at the White House. Iran is believed to possess about 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium, which Trump says was buried by US and Israeli airstrikes nearly a year ago. Iran’s supreme leader has issued a directive that the country’s near-weapons-grade uranium should not be sent abroad, two senior Iranian sources said.
Iran’s Hormuz authority claims control of waters
Iran’s new body overseeing the Strait of Hormuz said its claimed area of control extends to Emirati waters, drawing a sharp rebuke from the Gulf neighbour. In a post on X on Wednesday accompanied by a map, the newly-established Persian Gulf Strait Authority said it had outlined “the regulatory jurisdiction for the management” of the strait. It said this covered the area between the line extending from “Kuh-e Mubarak in Iran to the south of Fujairah in the UAE... to the line connecting the tip of Qeshm island in Iran to Umm Al-Quwain in the UAE.”

It added that “transit through this area requires coordination with, and authorisation from, the Persian Gulf Strait Authority.” The UAE’ Fujairah port hosts oil infrastructure designed to bypass the strategic waterway. Emirati presidential adviser Anwar Gargash on Thursday slammed the move.

“The regime is trying to establish a new reality born from a clear military defeat, but attempts to control the Strait of Hormuz or infringe on the UAE’s maritime sovereignty are nothing but pipe dreams,” he posted on X.