DUBAI — Iran said on Wednesday it was examining the latest US proposal received from mediator Pakistan in talks to end the Middle East war, despite the two sides trading threats over resuming attacks.”We received the points of view of the American side, and we are currently examining them. The presence of Pakistan’s interior minister is aimed at facilitating the exchange of messages,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told state television as quoted by the AFP news agency.Baqaei also reiterated Iran’s demands, including the release of Iranian assets frozen abroad and an end to the US blockade on Iranian ports.Iran’s official IRNA news agency announced on Wednesday a visit to Tehran by Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, his second in less than a week.Naqvi met with IRGC Commander-in-Chief General Ahmad Vahidi, discussing regional security and matters of mutual interest. He also held talks with Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni.Pakistan is actively working to facilitate a second round of US-Iran negotiations, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency.US President Donald Trump on Wednesday the negotiations with Iran were “on the borderline” between reaching a deal to end the conflict and a possible return to military strikes.Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews near Washington, Trump said, “It’s right on the borderline, believe me.”“If we don’t get the right answers, it goes very quickly. We’re all ready to go. We have to get the right answers, it would have to be a complete 100 percent good answers,” he added.Trump said an agreement with Tehran could save “a lot of time, energy and lives,” adding that a deal could happen “very quickly, or (in) a few days.”The US president had earlier said he paused plans for renewed strikes on Iran to allow time for diplomacy after requests from Gulf nations.“We’ll either have a deal or we’re going to do some things that are a little bit nasty. But hopefully that won’t happen,” Trump said.“I’m in no hurry. I just, ideally, I’d like to see few people killed, as opposed to a lot,” he added.Tehran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf had said earlier that the United States wanted to restart the Middle East war, after Trump said he would attack again unless Tehran agreed a peace deal.Ghalibaf, who warned of a “forceful response,” was speaking after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said any renewed war would spread far beyond the Middle East.“The enemy’s movements, both overt and clandestine, show that despite economic and political pressure, it has not abandoned its military objectives and is seeking to start a new war,” Ghalibaf said.A ceasefire on April 8 brought a halt to the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, which has roiled the global economy, but with Washington and Tehran seemingly reluctant to resume the fighting a war of words has taken its place.Trump has repeatedly threatened Tehran with renewed military action, while Iranian officials have hit back with their own warnings of devastating action.Nevertheless, despite sporadic outbursts of violence, the two countries have continued to take part in diplomatic exchanges, mediated by Pakistan, aimed at bringing a formal end to the war.On Tuesday, US Vice President JD Vance told reporters that “a lot of good progress is being made” and “we’re just going to keep working at it,” even as he told Iran the US military was “locked and loaded.”He acknowledged difficulties in negotiating with a fractured Iranian leadership. “It’s not sometimes totally clear what the negotiating position of the team is,” he said, so the US is trying to make its own red lines clear.He also said one objective of Trump’s policy is to prevent a nuclear arms race from spreading in the region.The Revolutionary Guards issued their own threat on Wednesday, saying, “if the aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will this time spread far beyond the region, and our devastating blows will crush you.”“The American-Zionist enemy… must know that despite the offensive carried out against us using the full capabilities of the world’s two most expensive armies, we have not deployed the full power of the Islamic revolution,” the IRGC said in a statement on their Sepah News website.On Tuesday, Trump insisted the US retained the upper hand and that Iran was desperate for peace.“You know how it is to negotiate with a country where you’re beating them badly. They come to the table, they’re begging to make a deal,” he said.“I hope we don’t have to do the war, but we may have to give them another big hit. I’m not sure yet.”He has previously made similar claims without a deal being concluded.While the ceasefire brought a halt to the fighting, it has not reopened the vital Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas usually pass.The future of the waterway is a key sticking point in negotiations, but without a deal fears are growing for the global economy as pre-war stockpiles of oil are used up.The strait is also a conduit for around a third of global fertilizer, the loss of which is pushing up food prices and could cause shortages.On Wednesday, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization warned of “a severe global food price crisis” and a “systemic agrifood shock” from the closure of the strait.The US has been struggling to end the war it began with Israel nearly three months ago. Trump has repeatedly said during the conflict that a deal with Tehran was close, and similarly threatened heavy strikes on Iran if it did not reach an accord.The US president is under intense political pressure at home to reach an accord that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz . Gasoline prices remain high and Trump’s approval rating has plummeted with congressional elections looming in November.The conflict has caused the worst-ever disruption to global energy supplies, blocking hundreds of tankers from leaving the Gulf while damaging energy and shipping facilities across the region.
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