The US military fired on an Iranian oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday as US President Donald Trump intensified pressure on Tehran to reach a deal ending the war.
An American fighter jet fired several rounds at an unladen Iranian-flagged tanker attempting to sail toward an Iranian port, US Central Command said in a post on X.
Since the two sides agreed to a ceasefire on April 8, their negotiations have yielded no concrete results, and tensions have recently risen again.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump said the US has had “very good talks” with Iran over the past 24 hours. He added there is “never a deadline” on when he expects Tehran to respond to a US proposal for ending the war.
Trump said that Iran has agreed to his chief demand regarding nuclear weapons, saying, “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they won’t, and they’ve agreed to that, among other things”. However, there is no official confirmation of what Iran has or has not agreed to.
Iran said on Wednesday it was reviewing the new US proposal. Multiple media reports indicated Washington and Tehran were moving toward a one-page memorandum to end the war while deferring complex issues, such as Iran’s nuclear program, to later negotiations.
US media outlet Axios first reported a proposed 14-point, one-page memorandum to end the war. CNN, citing an unnamed source familiar with the negotiations, confirmed the information. The memorandum would declare an end to the war and trigger a 30-day negotiation period on resolving critical issues including nuclear matters, unfreezing Iranian assets and future security arrangements in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran is still reviewing a US proposal and will convey its response to Pakistan — which has served as the main intermediary between the two sides — after completing its assessment, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Wednesday, according to Iran’s ISNA news agency.
Iranian lawmaker Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesman for Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, expressed skepticism. He described the text reported by Axios as “more of an American wish list than a reality”.
“The Americans will not gain anything in a war they are losing that they have not gained in face-to-face negotiations,” Rezaei wrote in a social media post on Wednesday.
The firing occurred following the US launch of “Project Freedom”, a military operation to guide commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which major oil and gas supplies, fertilizer and other petroleum products passed before the war.
The US launched the mission on Sunday but halted it on Tuesday, citing progress in peace talks. Trump called the operation a “humanitarian gesture”, saying other countries had asked the US to “help free up their ships, which are locked up in the Strait of Hormuz”.
Iran and some analysts have disputed the US claims. Baghaei said the waterway had been safe for international shipping before US-Israeli attacks began.
Following the halt of Project Freedom, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy said in a post on X on Wednesday that safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz is possible under “new procedures”, though it did not specify what these procedures entail.
Source: ChinaDaily
--Agencies
