Mediators press Iran for nuclear concessions to revive talks with the U.S.

Peace negotiators are pressing Iran to make a concession on its nuclear program in order to revive ceasefire talks with the United States, after President Donald Trump rejected Tehran’s ceasefire proposal, as The Wall Street Journal reports. It is a last-ditch effort to keep the conflict from escalating into total war.

According to mediators involved in the talks, cited by the newspaper, it is a long-shot effort to push Iran to placate Trump on the issue he cares about most. Trump has sought to reframe the conflict around his war’s original goal — preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon — and to move the discussion away from the issue of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. In a speech at the United Nations last week, Trump said he was considering the “obliteration” of the Iranian government to keep it away from the nuclear bomb.

But Iran, according to the newspaper, has given mediators no sign that it is ready to talk about its nuclear program. Iranian leaders are convinced they can withstand a prolonged American blockade or a renewed bombing campaign, officials of Middle Eastern governments who speak regularly with Tehran have said. They stressed that power in Iran is now concentrated in the hands of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a paramilitary and economic force that has long taken a hard line against compromise with the West.

On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran is open to negotiations but warned that Tehran would respond to any aggression in kind. “We are fully prepared for the resumption of war,” Araghchi said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We stand firm in the face of any new aggression, even if it means an all-out war. But at the same time we stand ready for diplomacy. The choice belongs to President Trump.” Araghchi stayed in New York over the weekend after the General Assembly for additional talks, but Arab mediators say Iran has made no compromise since Trump rejected the Iranian ceasefire plan.

A senior official of a Middle Eastern government involved in the peace talks said Iran would be willing to make compromises on the nuclear program and had been close to a deal earlier this year in talks with Vice President JD Vance. However, according to him, Iran would need clear guarantees that Israel would not strike again after any agreement between Washington and Tehran.