Iran claims it submitted a new 14-point proposal to the United States and received an official American response, the latest signal that the two governments may be inching toward direct negotiations after months of military conflict and diplomatic false starts.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei confirmed Wednesday night that mediation through Pakistan continues and that Tehran presented its updated proposal to Washington. The United States, Baqaei said, sent its own position back to Tehran. The Emirati newspaper The National, citing unnamed Arab sources, reported Thursday that direct talks could resume as soon as next week.
If true, it would mark a significant turn in a standoff that began in February when the Trump administration launched the military campaign known as "Operation Epic Fury." American and Israeli operations killed dozens of senior Iranian regime leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and destroyed missiles, drones, and other military assets before President Trump called an indefinite ceasefire.
With no direct diplomatic channel between Washington and Tehran, Pakistan has stepped in as the go-between. Iran's state-run Tasnim News Agency reported this week, citing anonymous sources, that Tehran sent a new round of proposals to Washington via Islamabad.
The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported Thursday that Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi was in Tehran meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and had reportedly also met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Pezeshkian, a figurehead who previously served under Khamenei, now leads a government stripped of its most powerful figure.
The president's decision to stay at the White House and skip his son's Bahamas wedding over Iran tensions underscored how seriously the administration is treating the standoff.
The National's Arab sources offered one of the few glimpses into the substance of the proposals. Iran reportedly signaled a willingness in principle to suspend its nuclear program for up to 12 years, subject to unspecified conditions. The United States, those same sources said, wanted a suspension of at least 20 years.
That gap, eight years and a pile of undefined conditions, captures the difficulty ahead.
President Trump called off in-person negotiations in April, a move that left Iran scrambling to find a path back to the table. Trump's posture since has been blunt. He reportedly told his negotiators:
"We have all the cards. They can call us anytime they want, but you're not going to be making any more 18-hour flights to sit around talking about nothing."
That framing, that the United States holds the stronger hand and will not chase a deal, sets a sharp contrast with the Obama-era approach that produced the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Under that agreement, critics argued, Washington made concession after concession while Iran slow-walked compliance and stonewalled international inspectors.
Iranian officials have repeatedly rejected proper inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Trump administration has identified eliminating Iran's nuclear program as a major objective, and Operation Epic Fury was designed to reduce Iran's ability to threaten its neighbors.
The administration's focus on Iran has required the president to make difficult scheduling choices. Trump also scrapped a Memorial Day weekend trip to remain in Washington as the standoff continued.
Iran's negotiating position is complicated by the fact that its government has been decapitated. The killing of Khamenei left a power vacuum at the top of the Islamic Republic. Mojtaba Khamenei, the late supreme leader's son, was announced as the next supreme leader, but his authority remains uncertain.
Reuters reported, citing Iranian sources, that the younger Khamenei commanded the country not to give up any enriched nuclear materials. If accurate, that directive puts him on a collision course with any deal that would satisfy Washington's stated demands.
Foreign Minister Araghchi has led negotiations in the absence of clear leadership at the top. That raises a basic question: even if Araghchi reaches an agreement, does anyone in Tehran have the authority to enforce it?
Baqaei, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, offered a window into Tehran's priorities. He said, as translated by Rudaw, that Iran's focus is on broader regional stability:
"current focus is on ending the war on all fronts, including Lebanon"
Israel invaded Lebanon shortly after Operation Epic Fury began, adding another front to a conflict that already stretched across multiple countries. Iran funds and supports Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, proxy forces that have been degraded but not eliminated.
The full terms of Iran's 14-point proposal have not been made public. Neither has the content of the U.S. response. The identities of The National's "Arab sources" and Tasnim's anonymous sources remain unknown. Where any resumed talks would take place is also unclear.
What is known: both sides are exchanging written positions through a Pakistani intermediary. Both sides have indicated, at least publicly, a willingness to keep talking. And the reported gap on the nuclear suspension timeline, 12 years versus 20, suggests the hardest questions remain unresolved.
The Trump administration has managed other high-stakes foreign policy moments in parallel. The president recently fielded questions from reporters on the White House lawn before departing for a landmark China summit, demonstrating the range of diplomatic fronts the White House is juggling.
Iran's willingness to talk at all reflects the pressure it faces. Operation Epic Fury destroyed senior leadership, degraded military infrastructure, and left the regime without its most powerful decision-maker. The proxy networks that once gave Tehran regional leverage have been battered by Israeli operations in Lebanon and Gaza.
Meanwhile, the administration has also been managing domestic policy shifts. The White House recently delayed a major AI executive order signing, a reminder that the Iran standoff is only one of several priorities competing for presidential attention.
For conservative observers, the central question is whether this administration will hold the line or repeat the mistakes of the past. The Obama administration's Iran deal traded tangible sanctions relief for temporary, loosely enforced restrictions on a nuclear program that Tehran never fully disclosed. The result was an emboldened Iran that poured resources into proxy wars across the Middle East.
Trump's approach, military pressure first, negotiations only from a position of overwhelming strength, has produced a fundamentally different dynamic. Iran is not negotiating from confidence. It is negotiating because its supreme leader is dead, its military assets are degraded, and its proxies are weakened.
The risk is that diplomatic momentum creates its own pressure to close a deal, any deal. Mojtaba Khamenei's reported insistence on keeping enriched nuclear materials suggests Iran will push hard to preserve the core of its program while offering cosmetic concessions on timelines.
The administration has said clearly that it will not accept an outcome that leaves Iran with a path to a nuclear weapon. The next few weeks will test whether that commitment holds when proposals start flying back and forth through Islamabad.
Strength brought Iran to this point. Only discipline will keep the terms where they need to be.
