Iran has received a US 15-point plan for a ceasefire for the Iran war through intermediaries from Pakistan, officials in Islamabad said yesterday.
The proposal was sent even as Washington began to move paratroopers to the Middle East to back up a contingent of US Marines already heading there.
Iran’s military scoffed at the diplomatic efforts and yesterday launched more attacks on Israel and the Persian Gulf region, including an assault that sparked a huge fire at Kuwait International Airport, sending black smoke billowing into the sky.
Photo: AFP
The Pakistani officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release details, described the 15-point plan broadly as touching on sanctions relief, civilian nuclear cooperation, a rollback of Iran’s nuclear program, monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency, missile limits and access for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s attacks on regional energy infrastructure and its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s oil is shipped, has sent oil prices skyrocketing and rocked world markets over fears of a global energy crisis.
At least 1,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division would be sent to the Middle East in the coming days, three people with knowledge of the plans said.
The Pentagon is also in the process of deploying two marine units that would add about 5,000 marines and thousands of sailors to the region.
The moves are being framed as US President Donald Trump maneuvering to give himself “max flexibility” on what he will do next, the person added.
Trump has said that US officials are in negotiations with Iran, although he has not said who they are in contact with.
Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, which commands the regular military and the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, suggested there are no talks.
“Have your internal conflicts reached the point where you are negotiating with yourselves?” headquarters spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaghari said.
“Our first and last word has been the same from day one, and it will stay that way: Someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you,” Zolfaghari said in a video statement aired on state television. “Not now, not ever.”
Israeli officials, who have been advocating for Trump to continue the war against Iran, were surprised by the submission of a ceasefire plan, the official said.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
The Israeli military announced it had begun new wide-scale attacks early yesterday on Iran targeting government infrastructure, and witnesses reported airstrikes in the northwestern city of Qazvin.
Missile alert sirens began early in the morning in Israel as Iran launched its own attacks, which have been a daily occurrence since Israel and the US attacked Iran on Feb. 28 to start the war.
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