Trump 'not satisfied' with Iran's proposal to end war

US President Donald Trump said he was “not satisfied” with Iran’s latest proposal in negotiations to end the war between the countries, rejecting the plan almost as soon as it was delivered.

Iran handed over its latest proposal for negotiations to mediators in Pakistan on Thursday night (local time), Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported.

“They want to make a deal, I’m not satisfied with it, so we’ll see what happen,” Trump told reporters Friday at the White House.

The shaky three-week ceasefire between the US and Iran appears to still be holding, though both countries have traded accusations of violations.

Trump did not elaborate on what he saw as the latest proposal’s shortcomings. “They’re asking for things I can’t agree to,” he said.

Negotiations have continued by phone after Trump called off his envoys’ trip to Pakistan last week, the president said. He expressed frustration with Iran’s leadership, describing it as fractured.

“It’s a very disjointed leadership,” he said. “They all want to make a deal, but they’re all messed up.”

Meanwhile, an explosion of leftover bombs from strikes during the war against Iran killed 14 members of the Revolutionary Guard, Iranian media reported today.

A report by the Nournews website, believed to be close to Iran’s security, said the explosion happened near the northern city of Zanjan, which is northwest of Tehran.

It was the largest number of Revolutionary Guard members reported to be killed since the ceasefire began on April 7. The report said the ammunition included cluster bombs and air mines dropped during the fighting.

The White House asserted to Congress in a letter Friday that hostilities with Iran have “terminated” despite the continued presence of US armed forces in the region.

The message from Trump effectively skirts a May 1 legal deadline to gain approval from members of Congress to continue the war with Iran. That deadline was already set to pass without action from Republican lawmakers who are deferring to the president.

The letter brings into stark relief the bold but legally questionable assertion of presidential power at the heart of Trump’s war, which he began without congressional approval two months ago.

“The hostilities that began on February 28, 2026, have terminated,” Trump wrote House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senator Chuck Grassley, the Senate president pro tempore.

He also made it clear in the letter that the war may be far from over.

“Despite the success of United States operations against the Iranian regime and continued efforts to secure a lasting peace, the threat posed by Iran to the United States and our Armed Forces remains significant,” the Republican president said.

Under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, Congress must declare war or authorise the use of force within 60 days — Friday was the deadline — or within 90 days if the president asks for an extension. This Congress made no attempt at enforcing that requirement, leaving town Thursday for a week after the Senate rejected a Democratic attempt to halt the war for a sixth time.

The Trump administration has shown no interest in seeking congressional approval at all. It contends the deadlines set by the law do not apply because the war in Iran effectively ended when a shaky ceasefire began in early April.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday he did not plan on a vote to authorise force in Iran or otherwise weigh in.

“I’m listening carefully to what the members of our conference are saying, and at this point I don’t see that,” Thune said.

The reluctance to defy Trump on the war comes at a politically perilous time for Republicans, with public frustration mounting both over the conflict and its impact on gas prices. Still, most GOP lawmakers say they are supportive of Trump’s wartime leadership or are at least willing to give him more time amid the fragile ceasefire.

Republican Senator Kevin Cramer said he would vote for an authorisation of war if Trump asked for it. But Cramer questioned whether the resolution passed during the Vietnam War era, as a way for Congress to claw back its power, was constitutional.

“Our founders created a really strong executive, like it or not like it,” Cramer said.

Some GOP senators did make clear that they eventually want Congress to have a say.

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski said in a floor speech Thursday that she will introduce a limited authorised use of military force when the Senate returns from the one-week recess if the administration has not presented what she called a “credible plan.”

“I do not believe we should engage in open-ended military action without clear accountability,” Murkowski said. “Congress has a role.”

While the ceasefire has largely halted fighting in Iran, the US and Iran are locked in a standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas passes in peacetime. A US Navy blockade stopping Iran's tankers from getting out to sea has Iran’s economy reeling. The world economy is also under pressure as Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait.

Trump this week floated a new plan to reopen the critical passageway used by America's Gulf allies to export their oil and gas.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held a flurry of calls with many of his regional counterparts, including from Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Azerbaijan, to brief them on his country’s latest initiatives to end the war, according to his social media.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also spoke over the phone with Araghchi. They discussed ongoing diplomatic efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuzand long-term security arrangements, Kallas’ office said in a statement. Kallas has also been in contact with the EU's Gulf partners.

Pakistan officials have said efforts were continuing to ease tensions between Iran and the US. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that a response from Iran was still awaited.

Meanwhile, Iran’s imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi has been urgently transferred from prison to a hospital in northwestern Iran after a “catastrophic deterioration” of her health, her foundation said Friday.

The Narges Mohammadi Foundation said the Nobel Prize laureate had two episodes of complete loss of consciousness and a severe cardiac crisis. She was believed to have suffered a heart attack in late March, according to her lawyers, who visited her a few days after the incident.

The hospital transfer comes “after 140 days of systematic medical neglect”, since her arrest on December 12, the foundation said.

Earlier this week, Trump told Axios that he had rejected Iran’s proposal to reopen the strait in exchange for the US Navy lifting its blockade of Iranian ports.

The Iranian proposal would have pushed negotiations on the country’s nuclear program to a later date, two regional officials said earlier this week. The officials with knowledge of the proposal spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door negotiations between Iranian and Pakistani officials.

One of the major reasons Trump has said he went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons.

Since the war began on February 28, at least 3375 people have been killed in Iran, and more than 2600 people in Lebanon, where new fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah broke out two days after the war started, according to authorities.

Additionally, 24 people have died in Israel and more than 20 in Gulf Arab states. Seventeen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 US service members throughout the region have been killed.