Trump tightens terms on Iran war deal, US media say

US officials indicate Tehran may take days to respond to Trump’s tougher terms on a potential agreement to end the nearly three-month war.

The New York Times reported on Saturday that Trump’s changes involved toughening the deal terms, and the US has sent the new framework back to be considered by Iran, according to officials familiar with the proceedings.

The report said it was not immediately clear what the changes entailed. However, Axios reported Trump wanted to reinforce multiple points of the deal that he felt were important, such as what to do with Iran’s nuclear material.

A senior US official told Axios that Trump was informed it could take three days for Iran to respond.

“They’re literally in caves, and they’re not using email,” the official told Axios.

“There will be a deal. The imminence of it, we’ll see. We’re willing to wait so the president gets what he asks for. It could be a week. It could be less. It could be more. At the turn of the week, we hope to have something,” the official added.

Meanwhile, Iran’s chief negotiator said Sunday that Tehran would not agree to any deal with Washington unless it fully secures Iranian rights.

“There is no trust in the ⁠enemy’s words and ⁠promises. Our only criterion is to achieve tangible results ⁠before we fulfill our ⁠commitments in ⁠return,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said after taking an oath as ‌the re-elected speaker of parliament.

The new tweaks could prolong negotiations between the parties for days before a decision is reached on whether the deal would end the war, which began after the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.

US sources told the AFP news agency that the proposal had been waiting on Trump’s sign-off, but he made no decision after a White House Situation Room meeting on Friday.

Richard Weitz, senior fellow at NATO Defense College, says that “the longer we don’t have an agreed, standard ceasefire and perhaps an eventual peace agreement, there is heightened risk that the kinetic operations will restart” in the US-Israeli war on Iran.

“The risks are moderate compared to the value of reaching an agreement, in which both sides feel satisfied and therefore stick to that agreement rather than try to revise it later, which could lead to even more escalation,” he told Al Jazeera.

Trump has said his priorities for any deal included Iran agreeing to never develop nuclear weapons and the reopening of the blockaded Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply transits.

On Saturday, the Iranian military’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters reas