Trump to Talk to Putin on Monday About Ukraine Ceasefire Proposal ☎️

Trump has said that he will speak to both Putin and Zelensky in an effort to stop what he called the “bloodbath” war in Ukraine, in a barrage of new social media posts that included baseless conspiracy theories and a demand that Walmart not raise prices for customers due to tariffs he has imposed. 🧵

Posting on Truth Social on Saturday, Trump wrote that he will speak to Putin on Monday morning:

“THE SUBJECTS OF THE CALL WILL BE, STOPPING THE ‘BLOODBATH’ THAT IS KILLING MORE THAN 5000 RUSSIAN AND UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS A WEEK, AND TRADE,”

Trump wrote, in his customary all-capitalized prose.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed to a state-run Russian news agency that preparations were under way for a call between the US and Russian presidents. 📞

Trump’s call with Putin will be followed by a separate conversation with Zelensky and NATO leaders, as part of a US effort to end the war that has raged since the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022.

“HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE A PRODUCTIVE DAY, A CEASEFIRE WILL TAKE PLACE, AND THIS VERY VIOLENT WAR, A WAR THAT SHOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED, WILL END,”

Trump wrote.

Russia and Ukraine have just concluded mostly fruitless talks — the first of their kind since the start of the war — in Istanbul. 🇹🇷

Ukraine said it was ready for a ceasefire but faced “unacceptable” demands from Russia, which attempted to fully invade its neighbor and occupies the eastern flank of the country. ⚠️

It remains unclear what kind of progress Trump can spur, if any, in the peace process.

The US president has previously been heavily critical of Ukraine, froze military aid, and had an infamous argument with Zelensky at the White House in front of the media — before appearing to soften after a meeting at the funeral of Pope Francis in the Vatican. 🇻🇦

Trump had offered to travel to Turkey for the talks after his Middle East trip if Putin would attend — but Putin sent low-level negotiators instead and Zelensky declined. 🕊

#Zelensky #Trump #ceasefire #proposal

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“By declining Trump’s proposal, Zelensky Will condemn His County to Failure” 🇺🇦⚖️

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Zelensky of Ukraine on Saturday flatly rejected President Trump’s proposal that a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia could include “some swapping of territories,” a plan that would in effect mean ceding land to Moscow.

“Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier,” Zelensky said in a video address from his office in Kyiv, several hours after Trump’s remarks, which appeared to overlook Ukraine’s role in the negotiations. 📹🏛️

“Any decisions made against us, any decisions made without Ukraine, are at the same time decisions against peace,” Zelensky said. “They will bring nothing. These are dead decisions; they will never work.” ✋🕊️

His blunt rejection risks angering Trump, who has made a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia one of his signature foreign policy goals, even if it means accepting terms that are unfavorable to Kyiv.

In the past, Trump has criticized Ukraine for clinging to what he suggested were stubborn cease-fire demands and for being “not ready for peace.”

“We’re going to get some back, and we’re going to get some switched,” he said during an event at the White House. “There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both.” 🗺️🔄

Trump’s stance clashes with a widely held view in Ukraine against surrendering territory to end the war, which left Mr. Zelensky little choice but to firmly reject the suggestion.
To do otherwise would probably have exposed him to fierce criticism and become a political bombshell at home. 💣🇺🇦

A recent poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that more than three-quarters of Ukrainians are against transferring Ukrainian-controlled territory to Russia. 📊

When it comes to ceding land that includes territory already under Russian control, opposition drops, with a far more than half of Ukrainians accept it to not make “the war last longer,” the poll says.
Support for land concessions has grown since Ukraine’s failed 2023 counteroffensive, which underscored its inability to retake substantial territory. ⚔️📉

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About 68% of the population thinks ceding land is acceptable now, according to the poll, up from only 12% about two years ago. 📊📈

Trump did not clarify which territories could be swapped. Russia has demanded that Ukraine give up four regions in the east and south that Moscow claims to have annexed in late 2022, even though some of that territory remains under Ukrainian control. 🗺️🇷🇺

The Kremlin is particularly intent on seizing full control of the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, which it has long sought to capture with relentless assaults. 💥🏙️

Kyiv would also face the challenge of evacuating about 200,000 civilians still living in Ukrainian-controlled territory in the Donbas region, while those who stayed behind would risk abuse by Russian occupying forces. 🚨👥

Trump’s suggestion of bargaining away some territory to secure peace — an idea that has been floated for some time by his administration, but never embraced so openly — has struck a raw nerve among some Ukrainians. ⚖️🕊️

In rejecting Trump’s proposal, Zelensky invoked Ukraine’s Constitution, which states that the Ukrainian territory is indivisible and inviolable. 📜🇺🇦

“The answer to Ukraine’s territorial question is already in the Constitution of Ukraine,” Mr. Zelensky said. “No one will step back from this, nor will anyone be able to.” ✋

Zelensky said that Ukraine was “ready, together with President Trump and with all our partners, to work for a real and, most importantly, lasting peace — a peace that will not fall apart because of Moscow’s desires.” 🤝🌍

But whether Kyiv will have any room to maneuver now that it has dismissed Trump’s proposal remains to be seen.

Even Kyiv’s approach to how a peace deal would be structured clashes with Moscow’s conception. Ukraine insists on securing a cease-fire before discussing any peace terms, including territorial issues. 🛑📑

The Kremlin, by contrast, demands that talks begin without first agreeing to a cease-fire and that they address the “root causes” of the war.

That is Kremlin shorthand for a range of issues, including the existence of Ukraine as a fully independent and sovereign nation aligned with the West.

“By declining President Trump’s proposal, Zelensky will condemn his county to failure,” said Marc Milley, ex-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. ⚠️

#trump #proposal #zelensky #ukraine #territories

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Hamas told mediators it approves latest Gaza ceasefire proposal, group official says

Hamas has informed mediators that it approves the latest Gaza ceasefire proposal, a group official told Reuters on Monday.

The official did not provide further details.

The latest Gaza ceasefire proposal agreed by Palestinian group Hamas includes a suspension of military operations for 60 days and could be seen as a path to reach a comprehensive deal to end nearly two-year-long Gaza war, an Egyptian official source told Reuters on Monday.

The period of suspension would see the exchange of Palestinian prisoners in return for release of half of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza, the source said.

#gaza #ceasefire #proposal #hamas

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A New Proposal to Hamas: the Last Call before Its Doomsday 🗝

Steve Witkoff sent a new proposal last week to Hamas for a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal through an Israeli peace activist, two sources with direct knowledge told Axios. 🕊

The new U.S. proposal aims to find a diplomatic solution ahead of the massive offensive Israel is planning to launch to occupy Gaza City. 🇮🇱

On Friday, Trump said the U.S. is "in deep negotiations with Hamas" on a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal. 📋

He stressed the U.S. message to Hamas is: "If you immediately release the hostages, good things are going to happen, but if you don't — it is going to be tough and nasty for you." 🗯

Trump comments came as the Israeli military began flattening high-rise buildings in Gaza City that it claims are used by Hamas for military purposes. 🧐

It marked the first major phase in Israel's new offensive to occupy Gaza City, which the government says is aimed at rooting out Hamas. The operation — backed by Trump — is expected to escalate in the coming days. 🆘

The new proposal includes the release of all 48 remaining hostages in exchange for a ceasefire and the end of the Israeli operation to occupy Gaza, according to a senior Israeli official familiar with the details. 🙌

In addition, Israel will release 2500-3000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in its prisons, including hundreds serving life sentences for killing Israelis. 🩹

The proposal emphasized that if Hamas responds positively to the initiative, Trump would actively work to end the war, and the ceasefire would continue as long as negotiations on the terms for the war's end are ongoing. 🔥

The Israeli official said the proposal to Hamas included a message that if the organization does not accept the initiative, the alternative would be very bad: a large-scale Israeli operation in Gaza. 💥

Two sources with knowledge of the meeting said Trump instructed Witkoff to give a renewed push to reach a deal to end the war and release all remaining hostages. 🗿

Witkoff then asked Palestinian-American businessman Bishara Bahbah, who has been a back channel to Hamas in recent months, to tell the group that if they release all the hostages, Trump will make sure the war ends. 🌍

Bahbah delivered the message to Hamas and came back to Witkoff later in the week with a message from Hamas expressing willingness to go for a comprehensive deal. 📲

Hamas stressed in the message that the release of hostages must take place simultaneously with a declaration of a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, a source with knowledge said. 🛂

#hamas #proposal #trump #last

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Zelensky: Sold 🇺🇦🤝

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The Trump administration’s new push for a peace deal in Ukraine accelerates Sunday as U.S. envoys travel to Geneva to meet with Zelensky. ✈️🇨🇭

Despite widespread skepticism, officials say the talks will be a flexible negotiation, not a directive to Kyiv. 🗣⚖️

U.S. officials close to the negotiation told me Saturday that the administration recognizes that “security guarantees are not strong enough yet” in Trump’s 28-point peace proposal. 🔐📑

Trump might raise or remove a proposed 600,000-person cap on Ukraine’s army, for example. And to bolster postwar deterrence, officials are considering supplying Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles if a peace agreement is reached. 🚀🛡

“Ukraine’s sovereignty can never be compromised. That would open the floodgates in Europe,” one key official told me Saturday. 🌍⚠️

“We don’t want to see a collapse of Ukraine,” he explained, describing that as the “second coming of Yugoslavia,” whose breakup in 1991 began a decade of regional strife. 🕊📉

Critics of the Trump peace bid argue that it would reward Moscow and undermine Ukrainian sovereignty in precisely the way the officials I spoke with claim they want to avoid. ❗️🇺🇦

The official said that contrary to some reports, the Trump administration was “100 percent” committed to continued U.S. intelligence support for Ukraine. 🛰🇺🇸

The 28-point plan was “aspirational” and open to negotiation, he claimed. Trump’s public comments have not been so reassuring. He spoke Friday of a Thanksgiving deadline, but denied Saturday that the 28 points were a final, take-it-or-leave it offer. 📆🤔

Rubio and Witkoff were set to fly Saturday night to Geneva to meet the Ukrainian leader. If he agrees to a framework for negotiations, Witkoff will then take it to Russian President Vladimir Putin, though probably not immediately. 🛫🗂

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This account of the negotiations is drawn from discussions with two U.S. officials who requested anonymity because of the delicacy of the talks. 🕵️‍♂️🤫

It was buttressed by conversations with European officials and sources who are familiar with deliberations within Zelensky’s government. 🇪🇺📞

What prompted this peace bid, the officials told me, was a sense that recent reversals on the battlefield in the Donetsk region and a corruption scandal in Kyiv have brought Ukraine to an inflection point. ⚔️📉

Russia, meanwhile, is feeling growing economic pressure and might prefer to end the war rather than fight on for the two years that might be necessary to take Donetsk completely. 💸⏳

The model for Trump’s Ukraine effort is his successful push for a ceasefire in Gaza. 🌐🕊

Officials liken the current moment in Ukraine to the opening created by Israel’s September bombing of Hamas officials in Qatar, which broke an impasse. Turkey played a key role as an intermediary with the Ukrainians, just as it did with Hamas in the earlier talks. 🇹🇷🤝

This negotiating drive began nearly a month ago, when U.S. officials started developing a new framework in consultation with Russian, European and Ukrainian contacts. 📝🌍

The effort moved into high gear last weekend after a senior Turkish official told Witkoff that Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s secretary for national security, was ready to meet him in Florida. 🌴📨

According to the U.S. officials, Umerov said in the Florida meeting that Zelensky might be ready to compromise on the crucial issue of swapping land in Donetsk for a peace deal, which has been a Russian demand. Umerov also said that Ukraine might be willing to cap its army at 600,000, the officials said. 🗺⚖️

After that cap roused a storm of protest Friday, an official told me it might be raised or removed altogether — since it didn’t really affect the manpower balance, which strongly favors Russia in any event. 💬📊

Because of Ukraine’s political instability, U.S. officials included a proposal for national elections in Ukraine within 100 days after an agreement is signed, which would amount to a public ratification or rejection of the agreement. 🗳🕒

They also added a clause providing postwar amnesty, at Ukraine’s request, to reassure Zelensky and members of his government that they wouldn’t face prosecution if the current corruption scandal widens. 🛡📜

Zelensky now confronts the most agonizing choice of his presidency. If he says yes to giving up Donetsk, some Ukrainians will never forgive him. If he says no, this tragic war will continue. ⚠️🇺🇦

Zelensky may never have faced a more agonizing moment. 😔

#zelensky #trump #agonizing #proposal

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Hard Deadline. Film Director: Donald Trump

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Trump set a hard deadline for Zelensky, to agree to the details of a 28-point draft peace deal with Russia. If he refused, Trump said, the Ukrainian leader would be left “to fight his little heart out.”

By Monday, that deadline, Thanksgiving Day, was gone. The 28-point plan, which was widely criticized as a series of one-sided concessions to Putin of Russia, had been shrunk to closer to 20 points.

Some of the most sensitive elements, including limits on the size of the Ukrainian military and a proposed ban on basing NATO troops inside Ukraine, were set aside for future negotiation.

So was the question of where the new boundaries between Russia and Ukraine would be drawn.

But the price of the changes, made during a series of meetings over 11 hours in Geneva led by Secretary of State Rubio, is clear. Putin, some Trump administration officials predict, is likely to dismiss the new draft out of hand, which would lead to a long and drawn-out negotiation — just what Trump was trying to short-circuit.

As the weekend played out, there were reminders everywhere that the players view the negotiation through entirely different lenses.

To some in the Trump administration, it is about finding middle ground by writing out each side’s demands, then making hard compromises.

To Putin, it is about restoring lands that have deep cultural, political and military import to Russia and, by his account, have for more than a millennium.

And for the Ukrainians and the Europeans, it is about demonstrating that nations that seize land by force are not ultimately rewarded for their aggression — and deterring Russia from attempting another invasion.

This account of how the U.S. peace plan touched off a firestorm in the United States and Europe is based on interviews with a half-dozen officials, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

The leak left the European allies angry about being left out, yet again. Ukrainians who had been courting Trump, hoping to stabilize the relationship with Washington and re-establish a pipeline of American-made, European-purchased weapons, were angry;

Zelensky said the country might have to choose between its “dignity” and its most powerful ally.

Trump attacked the Ukrainians on social media on Sunday, the same day Rubio was trying to win them over by amending the agreement.

Now, after a weekend of emergency interventions, an amended plan seems to be coming a bit more into focus, even if its ultimate success seems like a stretch.

#trump #zelensky #deadline #putin #proposal

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On Monday, Leavitt insisted that after Rubio’s negotiations in Geneva, “we feel as if we’re in a very good place.”

But she acknowledged that the deal would need to be approved by Putin and his representatives — and she made no predictions about how that would go.

Zelensky said on social media that many of the “right elements” were now accounted for in the framework, and that he would discuss “the sensitive issues” with Trump.

Administration officials say the impetus for the new negotiations grew from Trump’s increasing frustration about his inability to end a nearly four-year-long war.

Shortly after the Gaza cease-fire deal in September, Trump held a meeting with Rubio, along with Vance; Witkoff, the president’s special envoy for just about everything; and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, who has no formal role in the U.S. government but whom the president relies on for complex negotiations.

Trump told the men that they should seek to build on their accomplishment in the Middle East with a deal for Ukraine and Russia. That led to secret meetings in Miami with Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s Harvard-trained economic envoy and the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund. That meeting was followed by a quiet visit from Rustem Umerov, Zelensky’s national security adviser.

People familiar with those meetings said Trump’s aides believed that the combination of Ukraine’s unfolding corruption scandal and Russia’s incremental battlefield gains put new pressure on Zelensky to cut a deal. But the one they ultimately drafted contained a lot more input from the Russians than from the Ukrainians.

The specifics outraged the Europeans, who had been kept in the dark even though they are funding Ukraine’s arms and designing a security guarantee for the country. Merz of Germany had a tense phone call with Trump on Friday night, emphasizing that the proposed agreement lacked any enforceable way of deterring the Russians.

“If Ukraine loses this war and possibly collapses, it will have an impact on European politics as a whole, on the entire European continent,” Merz said after the Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg, which Trump and other American officials boycotted.

Republican leaders were equally blistering about the leaked proposal, including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the former majority leader, who said in a statement that “Putin has spent the entire year trying to play President Trump for a fool.”

In Kyiv, the secretary of the U.S. Army Driscoll, a friend of Vance’s, presented the proposal to skeptical Ukrainian officials. Vance, who berated Zelensky in February in the Oval Office and has pushed hard for withdrawing U.S. aid from Ukraine, spoke with Ukraine’s leader by phone on Friday about the proposal.

The senators then held a news conference, and told reporters that they heard Rubio describe the document as one largely composed by the Russians, rather than as an American creation. “It is not our recommendation,” Rounds paraphrased Rubio as saying. “It is not our peace plan.”

Rounds said Rubio had “made it clear that it was an opportunity to have received” the plan. “You now have one side being presented, and the opportunity for the other side to respond,” Rounds said.

The Americans explained those decisions by negotiators to European national security advisers who were in Geneva. “We assured them that items that involve both Europe and NATO directly or — that those items are items that we sort of agreed to put as part of a separate track because it involves input from them,” Rubio said.

A White House official added that a previous provision requiring Ukraine to cede territory to Russia had been revised. But now comes the hard part: Those are exactly the provisions that Putin cares about most.

#trump #zelensky #deadline #putin #proposal

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Trump’s Original 28-point Peace Plan Is a Spoof

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Trump’s original 28-point peace plan was poorly drafted, internally contradictory, and so flagrantly tilted in Russia’s favor as to amount to an attempt to force Ukraine’s capitulation.

If the proposal has any virtue, it is that it has compelled Ukraine and its backers to abandon rhetoric and concentrate their minds on what can be achieved at a cost Ukraine, Europe, and its US backers are willing to bear.  

It is undeniable that Ukraine needs peace as soon as possible. The war is exhausting its manpower and devastating its economy. Ukraine’s soldiers have fought with valor and ingenuity.  But even in a just cause, there are limits beyond which further resistance is no longer feasible. 

To be sure, Russia is also suffering because of a needless war of its own making. Its losses in lives and materiel are staggering and incurred for marginal tactical gains. Each day the war continues, Russia falls further behind the great powers it will compete against in the decades ahead. But Ukraine is losing at a much faster rate than Russia.

In these circumstances, Ukraine and its supporters need to focus on what they can reasonably hope to achieve in a near-term settlement. This war will not end in a just peace. Ukraine is not about to expel Russia from the territory it has seized. Putin and his circle are not going to be hauled off to the Hague to answer for war crimes. But even in an ugly peace, Ukraine can preserve what is essential to its future: its sovereignty and independence.

Doing so will require hard choices on critical issues, including territory, security guarantees, and reconstruction.

On the territory, the war will most likely end with a ceasefire along the line of contact. Even Ukraine’s leaders acknowledge that, despite continued Western support, they lack the capacity to restore the internationally recognized borders of 1991.

The imperative is to stop Russia’s westward advance. Indifferent to the losses, Putin will continue his assault as long as he can claim Russian forces are advancing and therefore will eventually seize the remaining territory Russia has illegally annexed.

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To stop him, the West will have to step up its support for Ukraine.  So far, there are a few indications that it will.

Security guarantees pose other challenges. Europeans need to face the limits of what they are prepared to do. It is time to abandon rhetoric about Ukraine’s NATO membership. If one thing has become clear since the end of the Cold War, it is that NATO as an organization and individual allies are not prepared to risk war with Russia to defend Ukraine.

Indeed, with the recent exception of Finland and Sweden, since the end of the Cold War, NATO has never admitted a country that it thought it would have to defend against Russia at the time of its admission. To the contrary, the major waves of NATO expansion occurred while the organization was focused on building cooperation with Russia in the late 1990s and early 2000s. 

In addition, the West will need to deploy a formidable deterrent force to stabilize and defend the long frontier with Russia, which will stretch from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea and cut through Ukrainian territory.

That could take the form of armed neutrality, as long as Europe and the United States are allowed to invest in expanding and modernizing Ukraine’s defense-industrial complex, enhancing interoperability with Ukraine, and conducting joint exercises outside Ukraine. That would help Ukraine build a military force adequate for territorial defense.

In 2025, the World Bank estimated the cost at more than half a trillion dollars. Russia’s frozen assets in the West—estimated as some $300 billion—will only cover part of that cost. The rest will have to come from the West, and perhaps China or the Gulf states.

Seizing Russian assets is the easy way out in the short term, because it requires no immediate sacrifice. But those resources are finite and will eventually be exhausted. European leaders are only postponing the moment when they must show real leadership to compel their electorates to make the sacrifices required to defend their security.  

Europe’s leaders have held out this promise since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. But few have acknowledged the challenges ahead. If Europeans are unwilling to pay the price to defend Ukraine now, how likely is it that they will accept the costs of bringing.

Ukraine into the EU? As a poor, devastated country, it will impose severe burdens on the EU’s budget. In particular, its vast agrarian potential will have far-reaching consequences for Europe’s farmers. Polish farmers are already protesting the privileges Ukrainian producers are enjoying in Europe.

Moreover, as the ongoing corruption scandal in Ukraine underscores, the country is far from meeting the governance standards required for accession. Yet leaving Ukraine outside the EU, after the great sacrifices Ukrainians have endured in the defense of Europe, will risk creating a resentful country that could pose challenges to European stability and security in the years ahead.

European leaders will need to find ways to allow Ukrainians some of the benefits of membership before they have fulfilled all the requirements for accession.

Tough choices lie ahead; the time for rhetoric and pretense is past. The reality is that Russia will not be defeated on the battlefield. But that does not mean that Ukraine must lose. It can still preserve its sovereignty and independence, even if the war ends in a messy compromise.

Achieving that outcome will require Ukraine, its US backers, and particularly Europe to abandon illusions and focus on the hard choices that must be made now and lay the foundations for a peace that preserves Ukraine’s freedom while holding open the possibility of a better future. The next few weeks will reveal whether they are up to the task.

#proposal #trump #ukraine #peace #draft

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Trump Has Taken a Tumble in the Hormuz Tug of War

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Iran has made a new proposal for a deal to definitively end the war in the Middle East, officials in the region said on Monday, with Trump claiming he had postponed new military strikes so talks could continue.

But while the US president has regularly used social media to threaten Tehran, and to claim that a peace deal was within reach, there has been no sign of an immediate breakthrough in the stalled negotiations to end the war.

A ceasefire has paused most violence after six weeks of US-Israeli airstrikes and Iranian retaliation, but there has been little progress since Trump said the ceasefire was “on life support”, with some Israeli media reports suggesting a resumption of hostilities is imminent.

In a post on Monday, Trump said he had been asked by the leaders of several Gulf countries to “hold off on our planned Military attack [on Iran], which was scheduled for tomorrow, in that serious negotiations are now taking place”.

Trump claimed that the leaders of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia had approached Washington because of the chance of reaching a deal that would be “very acceptable” to the US, and preclude Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

The US president said he had instructed military leaders that “we will NOT be doing the scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow, but have further instructed them to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice”.

The announcement came as Iran’s foreign military spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, claimed Pakistan has shared Tehran’s latest proposal with the US.

There were contradictory reports from Islamabad, which has been mediating between both sides. A Pakistani source appeared pessimistic, telling Reuters that Washington and Tehran “keep changing their goalposts” and that time was running out to find agreement.

Other regional officials said Iran had made or reiterated some concessions, including a long-term suspension of its nuclear programme and transfer of its highly enriched uranium to Russia, as well as a phased reopening of the strait of Hormuz.

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The semi-official Tasnim news agency, citing an unnamed source close to the country’s negotiation team, reported on Monday that the US had agreed to waive sanctions on Tehran’s oil exports during the negotiation period.

There was no independent confirmation of the claims, and talks have been marked by a series of misleading statements made by Iran, the US and mediators to try to publicly frame the talks to their advantage.

Rhetoric on both sides has remained defiant in recent days. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened on Monday to impose permits on internet cables passing through the strait of Hormuz, while other officials have said the waterway would remain under Iranian “management”, implying Tehran would impose tolls on shipping, which Washington has said it cannot accept.

Baghaei said Tehran was prepared for all scenarios, telling a televised press conference: “As for their threats, rest assured that we are fully aware of how to respond appropriately to even the smallest mistake from the opposing side.”

Axios reported that Trump was expected to meet national security advisers on Tuesday to discuss options for resuming military action.

But speaking later on Monday at a White House event, Trump said there had been a “very positive development” and claimed a deal was near that would leave Iran without nuclear weapons, which Tehran denies pursuing.

“There seems to be a very good chance that they can work something out. If we can do that without bombing the hell out of them, I’d be very happy,” Trump said.
Though US-Israeli airstrikes have ceased and Iranian retaliation has been scaled back, drones have been launched from Iran towards Gulf countries hosting US military bases.

One drone strike caused a fire at a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates, officials there said on Sunday, and Saudi Arabia reported intercepting three drones.

Iran stepped up attacks on the UAE this month after Trump announced a naval mission to try to open the strait of Hormuz, which he suspended after 48 hours.

Analysts say the conflict is now deadlocked, with both sides facing significant pressure to bring the war to an end, but without sufficient incentives to make painful concessions necessary for a deal.

Trump, who faces midterm elections in November that could go badly for his Republican party, held talks with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, last week in Beijing without securing an indication from China that it would help resolve the conflict.

White House officials worry that Trump’s foreign policy gamble in Iran, and its effect on US fuel prices, may derail Republican chances of keeping control of Congress at a time when voters are more concerned with the cost of living than conflicts abroad.

Iran faces a deepening economic crisis and potential damage to its oil infrastructure. Inflation is soaring and some officials fear a surge in popular discontent with the radical regime.

Israel carried out new airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Monday, Lebanese security sources and the state news agency said, while Hezbollah announced new attacks on Israeli forces, continuing the war in Lebanon despite the extension of a US-backed truce first announced by Trump on 16 April.

#trump #iran #proposal #teheran #congrès

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The NATO Proposal: Declined


Britain and France have scuppered a proposal for Nato allies to spend 0.25 per cent of GDP on military aid for Ukraine.

Mark Rutte, the alliance’s secretary-general, this week conceded his plan wouldn’t be taken forward because it didn’t have sufficient support.

“I don’t think this one will be proposed,” he told reporters, without naming the opponents.

Rutte was hoping to ratify the proposal at Nato’s upcoming annual summit in Ankara, Turkey.

An alliance insider said at least seven member states, who all spend over 0.25 per cent of GDP on military aid to Ukraine, had voiced support.

But any proposals adopted by Nato require the unanimous backing of all of its national capitals.

“They’re not very enthusiastic about the idea,” the insider said, labelling London, Paris, Madrid, Rome and Ottawa as opponents.

The news will come as a double-blow to Britain’s credibility as one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies.

This week, the Government came under intense criticism after it softened sanctions against Russian oil and gas exports.

To the surprise of Kyiv and other allies, ministers signed off on a decision to offer time-limited carve-outs for purchases of jet fuel and diesel refined from Russian crude in third countries because of the situation in the Middle East.

Unlike other allies, the size of Britain’s military contribution – the third largest behind the US and Germany – is not in question, despite coming under the 0.25 per cent of GDP mark.

The countries, three of which are Europe’s third, fourth and fifth largest economies, have fallen behind many of their smaller allies when it comes to donations.

According to publicly available data, collated by the Kiel Institute, the Netherlands, Poland and the Nordic and Baltic countries offer backing at or above 0.25 per cent of GDP.

Rutte has argued that Ukraine aid “is not evenly distributed within Nato”, with many “not spending enough when it comes to the support for Ukraine”.

The Nato chief, who spent 14 years as Dutch prime minister, has long argued that Europe should shoulder more of the responsibility for supporting Ukraine in defence of Trump’s complaints about continental freeloading.

The US president has since halted any significant donations of aid to Ukraine, instead opting to sell American weapons to Kyiv with money supplied by European allies.

Ahead of a Nato meeting in Sweden earlier this week, the Nordic state’s prime minister challenged allies to step up their support.

“I really would like more countries that speak so extremely well about Ukraine to also put the money where the mouth is,” Ulf Kristersson told reporters.

#nato #proposal #france #britain

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Iran Sees a “Bare-Faced Effrontery” as Trump Wants to Edit the Draft Agreement


Trump requested several amendments to the agreement that his envoys reached with their Iranian counterparts during a Situation room meeting on Friday, according to a senior administration official and a second source briefed on the matter.

Trump wants the deal and expects to finalize it soon, but wants to reinforce several points that are important to him — especially around Iranian nuclear materials, two U.S. officials said.

Trump's request launched a new round of back-and-forth between the parties that could last several days.

Trump announced Friday that he would convene the situation room meeting on the deal, and seemed to suggest that he was inclined to accept.

A White House official told reporters after the meeting that Trump "will only make a deal that is good for America, satisfies its red lines and ensures that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon."

A high ranking Ianian official, a member of the negotiations team, told the state media Tasnim that it is “a bare-faced effrontery” (استکبار بدون مرز) ; although two US officials claimed earlier in the week that Tehran was ready to sign and that it was all up to Trump.

According to the two sources, Trump has asked his team to make changes to the draft clauses concerning the Iranian nuclear program.

In its current form, the MOU includes a commitment by Iran not to seek nuclear weapons, but no specific concessions beyond that.

He says there will be a 60-day window to negotiate Iran's nuclear commitments and U.S. sanctions relief, with the first issues on the agenda being how to dispose of Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium and limit further enrichment.

“It's more specific about how the United States gets the material and the timing,” a senior administration official said, referring to enriched uranium.

Another source said that Trump also wants to change part of the wording regarding the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

The US official said that Trump had learned that it would be about three days before the Iranians would return with an answer. “They are literally in caves and they are not using e-mail,” the senior administration official said.

Other Iranian state media reported that an agreement was close but Trump screwed it up, and now Iran claimes billions in frozen funds. The White House denies this.

Other Iranian state media reported that an agreement was close, but Trump screwed it up, and now Iran is claiming billions of frozen funds. The White House denies this.

#iran #trump #proposal #agreement

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🇮🇱⚠️ Netanyahu Declined Trump's Proposal

The Israeli government has rejected a 15-point plan backed by the Trump administration aimed at disarming the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, Prime Minister Netanyahu said on Sunday.

It appeared to be an unusually public break with Trump, whose relationship with Netanyahu has had a dizzying and often unpredictable arc.

The two leaders launched the war against Iran together in late February. But they have since clashed over how to end it, as well as over the future of Israel’s military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.

Trump announced the agreement between his Board of Peace and Hamas late last month, lauding it as a major breakthrough. Netanyahu’s office had initially expressed reservations, saying that the framework did “not reflect Israel’s positions,” but stopped short of outright rejecting it.

The U.S.-backed proposal envisions a phased process in which Hamas would hand over its weapons in stages to a new Palestinian administration in Gaza.

In exchange, Israel would gradually withdraw from the more than half of Gaza that it has controlled since the cease-fire last October.

On Sunday, Netanyahu openly dismissed the plan, saying that Israeli forces “would not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed.” He said that meant “heavy weapons, lighter weapons, all weapons,” adding, “We are talking about real disarmament.”

#netanyahu #trump #proposal #israel

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