Iran Abruptly Shuts Down Peace Talks Due to Trump’s Demands

Iran is no longer entertaining a potential peace deal with U.S. negotiators.

Tehran declared Friday that it would not meet with U.S. officials in Islamabad, adding that the White House’s demands are “unacceptable,” reported The Wall Street Journal’s senior Middle East correspondent, Summer Said.

The country’s regional neighbors are still attempting to mediate the situation, offering Iranian officials other opportunities to settle the conflict with the U.S. Turkey and Egypt have offered new venues for the talks, including Istanbul and the Qatari capital, Doha, as well as new proposals, noted Said.

However, Qatar has so far resisted efforts by its neighbors and the U.S. to play a major role in the peace talks, “complicating efforts to find a way forward for the talks,” mediators told the Journal.

Earlier Friday, Mohammad Javad Zarif—a former Iranian foreign minister who served as Iran’s top diplomat from 2013 to 2021—became the first figure in the country to offer a detailed, “comprehensive peace” plan that he believed Tehran would find attractive. It outlined a nonaggression pact between the U.S. and Iran, as well as “economic interactions” that include the involvement of American companies in Iran’s oil sector.

But Zarif is only on the periphery of power in Iran. The country’s current leadership is fronted by Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of previous Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated in February by a U.S.-Israeli joint operation. The junior Khamenei is considered even more extreme, and has been described as his father “on steroids.”

Iran’s newly installed leadership refuted claims made by Donald Trump earlier this week that the country was open to a ceasefire, informing state media Wednesday morning that the idea was “false and baseless.” Iranian state media has repeated the idea that Iran is “winning” the war, despite the devastation wrecked by American forces.

The campaign has so far cost the lives of more than 2,000 people in Iran, including dozens of political leaders, according to Al Jazeera. At least 13 U.S. soldiers have also been killed in the war, not including the two crew members of an F-15 fighter jet that was downed by Iranian fire earlier Friday. So far, one crew member has been rescued, while the other is still missing. American, Israeli, and Iranian forces are rushing to locate the ejected soldier, reported Axios.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted Monday that the conflict would be resolved in the coming weeks, and that the war itself would not take longer than four to six weeks (the conflict is currently in its fifth week). Military officials have not agreed with that estimate, predicting that the war could instead rage for months or even years.