‘At this moment I’m not satisfied with what they’re offering,’ Trump told reporters.
An employee of Basra Oil Company, inspects the Nahr Bin Umar Oil and Gas Field on the outskirts of the southern Iraqi city of Basra on April 29, 2026.
HUSSEIN FALEH / AFP
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — A senior Iranian military officer said on Saturday that renewed fighting between the United States and Iran was “likely,” hours after President Donald Trump said he was “not satisfied” with a new Iranian negotiating proposal.
Iran delivered the draft to mediator Pakistan on Thursday evening, state media reported without detailing its contents.
The war, launched by the US and Israel in late February, has been on hold since 8 April, with one failed round of peace talks having taken place in Pakistan since then.
“At this moment I’m not satisfied with what they’re offering,” Trump told reporters, blaming stalled talks on “tremendous discord” within Iran’s leadership.
“Do we want to go and just blast the hell out of them and finish them forever — or do we want to try and make a deal?” he added, saying he would “prefer not” to take the first option “on a human basis.”
On Saturday morning, Mohammad Jafar Asadi, a senior figure in the Iranian military’s central command, said “a renewed conflict between Iran and the United States is likely,” in quotes published by Iran’s Fars news agency.
“Evidence has shown that the United States is not committed to any promises or agreements,” he added.
‘Stuck in purgatory’
Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said on Friday that his country had “never shied away from negotiations,” but added it would not accept an “imposition” of peace terms.
The White House has declined to provide details on the latest Iranian proposal, but news site Axios reported that US envoy Steve Witkoff had submitted amendments putting Tehran’s nuclear program back on the negotiating table.
The changes reportedly include demands that Iran not move enriched uranium from bombed sites or resume activity there during talks.
News of the Iranian proposal briefly pushed oil prices down nearly five percent, though they remain about 50 percent above pre-war levels amid the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran has maintained a stranglehold on the strait since the war began, choking off major flows of oil, gas and fertilizer to the world economy, while the US has imposed a counter-blockade on Iranian ports.
Tehran resident Amir told Paris-based Agence France-Presse journalists that the stalemate “feels like we are stuck in purgatory,” and he expressed little hope for the Iranian proposal.
“This is all to waste time,” he said, predicting the United States and Israel “will attack again.”
Despite the ceasefire in the Gulf, fighting has continued in Lebanon, where Israel has carried out deadly strikes despite a separate truce with the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.
Lebanon’s health ministry said 13 people were killed in strikes in the south, including in the town of Habboush, where the Israeli military had issued an evacuation warning.
Meanwhile, Washington announced late Friday it had approved major arms sales to its allies in the Middle East, including a $4 billion Patriot missile deal with Qatar and nearly $1 billion in precision weapons systems to Israel.
