Iran has sent a new proposal for peace talks to the United States through Pakistani mediators, official Iranian media reported on Friday. The Islamic Republic of Iran News Agency (IRNA) said the text of the proposal was officially handed over to the Pakistani government on Thursday evening.
CBS News later quoted Pakistani officials as saying that Iran’s latest response to the terms of the peace deal proposed by the United States had been sent to U.S. officials. This confirms reports in the official Iranian media that Iran has made a new proposal and agreed to at least a second round of direct peace talks.
After news that Iran agreed to talk nuclear and freeze uranium enrichment activities for the long term in a new proposal for peace talks, international oil prices continued to extend their losses, with WTI crude dropping 5% on the day and Brent crude plunging 4%. Spot gold and silver continued to rally, gold erased all of its intraday losses, hitting a high of $4,660 per ounce, and spot silver jumped 4% during the day.CBS News noted that Iran’s previous proposal had attempted to postpone any discussion of the nuclear issue to a later date, and that this proposal was rejected by Trump. And given Iran’s new proposal, a deal is more likely than before, with Pakistani officials expressing optimism.
Earlier this week, Iran offered a negotiating proposal to hold off on discussing the nuclear program until the conflict is officially over and the shipping issue is resolved, but Trump insisted on the condition that the nuclear issue be resolved at the outset.