President Donald Trump met with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani at the White House on Monday to discuss ongoing diplomatic efforts to conclude the Iran war.
Tehran pushed a slightly abbreviated version of the seven-point “peace plan” dismissed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio as “outrageous and ridiculous.”
Trump’s meeting with al-Thani lasted just under an hour, according to White House officials. Unlike most of his meetings with foreign heads of state, Trump did not hold a media event with reporters.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday pushed Tehran’s “two-day proposal” for resolving the conflict, a trimmed-down version of the “seven-point plan” Iran rolled out after Democrats won the U.S. midterm elections.
The proposal calls on the United States to make unconditional concessions to Iran just to get talks moving again, including massive demands like sanctions relief and war reparations. Iran has taken to calling it the “two-day proposal” because the United States could ostensibly grant all of Iran’s demands in two days, and Iranian officials would then be willing to meet with American representatives for further discussions.
“American voters have made their choice. Time for the White House to make its own,” Araghchi said in a social media post on Sunday.
“Our 2-day proposal stands: meet the requirements, including end to war on all fronts, and you will see results. Or choose war, and see our alert and battle-hardened Warriors rain down hell,” he threatened.
Rubio said on Sunday that negotiations with Iran are at a standstill.
“I have no progress to report. There are several countries that continue to engage with Iran and put forward various ideas, but I would not say that we are on the verge of a breakthrough,” Rubio told reporters as he departed for a meeting of Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers in France.
“At the moment, the talks have not been particularly productive because the Iranian demands are simply unacceptable, and in some cases they are outrageous, ridiculous, and detached from reality,” he said.
“Is it unreasonable that Iran demands that U.S. illegal sanctions and its naval blockade must be lifted before negotiations start and that the war should end on all fronts?” responded Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said at a press conference on Monday.
An Iranian official on Monday denied reports from Turkish media that Vice President JD Vance and Iranian Supreme National Security Council chief Mohsen Rezaei have been invited to meet in Doha, Qatar next week.
“Iran’s policy and plans regarding talks have not changed. Until the U.S. side takes concrete steps to meet our seven conditions, plans won’t be made to negotiate with the U.S. side,” the Iranian official said.
Iranian state media reported on Sunday that four more explosions were heard on Qeshm Island, an island near the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz which was bombed by American forces last Monday after Iran fired at American planes.
President Trump said on Sunday it was “highly unlikely” that the United States would return to large-scale hostilities with Iran, but he was prepared to give the order for more strikes if necessary.
“We have 38 bridges in our sight that we can knock down in literally one hour. They’ll all be down,” he said.
“I don’t like ripping down bridges. And the hardest thing to build is a bridge. It takes years, and I’m a good builder,” he added.
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