The United States reportedly responded to Iran's proposed conditions for negotiations with "excessive demands."
Sources told Iran's Mehr News agency that the Islamic Republic has formally conditioned the start of any negotiations with the US on the fulfilment of a set of confidence-building measures.
However, the US “responded with excessive demands...seeking concessions it failed to obtain through military means.” The US offered Iran "nothing tangible in return," sources were quoted as saying.
What did Iran demand in talks?
According Mehr News Agency, Iran set the following as prerequisites for entering negotiations:
1. The end of the war on all fronts — with particular emphasis on Lebanon
3. Release of Iran's frozen financial assets
4. Compensation for war damages
5. Formal recognition of Iran's sovereign rights over the Strait of Hormuz
What did the US demand?
In response to Iran's proposals, the US reportedly put forward excessive and "unacceptable demands across five main axes."
According to Mehr news agency, Washington demanded five conditions:
1. No reparations or compensation to Iran whatsoever (for damages inflicted during the war).
2. No release of Iran's blocked assets
3. Transfer of approximately 400 kilograms of uranium from Iran to American custody
4. Long-term and sweeping restrictions on Iran's nuclear sector
5. The US also made the talks a precondition for cessation of hostilities on all fronts
In its analysis, Mehr News reported that "the structural imbalance at the heart of the impasse is clear."
"The United States is seeking to obtain through diplomacy the concessions it failed to achieve through war, while offering Iran no concrete gains in exchange. This dynamic is apparently what is causing the negotiations to remain deadlocked," the report added.
On Sunday, Iranian armed forces spokesman Abolfazl Shekarchi warned US President Donald Trump against restarting attacks on Iran.
Issuing a fiery ultimatum via official broadcast channels, the military commander indicated that any renewed Western kinetic action would unleash an unpredictable domestic retaliation.
"The desperate American president should know that if his threats are carried out and Islamic Iran is attacked again, his country's resources and military will be confronted with unprecedented, offensive, surprising and tumultuous scenarios," he said, according to state television.
