WSJ: Mediators press Iran for nuclear concessions to revive U.S. talks — Trump sees new bombings as possible

Mediators are pressing Iran to make a concession on its nuclear program to revive ceasefire talks with the United States, after President Donald Trump rejected Tehran’s truce proposal — a desperate bid, as the Wall Street Journal reports, to stop the conflict from escalating into full-scale war.

Qatar, one of the main conduits of messages between Washington and Tehran, described the situation as increasingly difficult. In a television interview with Bloomberg, Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the conflict was becoming harder to resolve with time, citing attacks by Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen and Iraq against Saudi Arabia. “This conflict is very complex,” he said. “There is no clear main strategy we are following to end it, and that is precisely what is missing today.”

Trump himself is skeptical that diplomacy will work and, according to the American newspaper, has told his aides he sees a new bombing campaign as possible. On Friday he rejected the Iranian ceasefire proposal that would have opened the Strait of Hormuz and ended the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports for seven days, to make room for negotiations.

For his part, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that Iran is open to negotiations, but warned that Tehran would answer any aggression in kind. “We are fully prepared for the war to resume,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We stand firm against any new aggression, even if it comes to an apocalyptic war. But at the same time we are ready for diplomacy. It is up to President Trump to choose.” According to Arab officials, Iran has made no compromise since Trump rejected the ceasefire plan, and demands that Washington offer concessions first before talks move forward.

Middle Eastern government officials who speak regularly with Tehran say Iranian leaders are convinced they can survive a prolonged U.S. blockade or a new bombing campaign, and that power in Iran is now concentrated in the hands of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — a paramilitary and economic force that has long held a hard line against compromise with the West. A senior official of a regional government involved in the peace talks said Iran would be willing to compromise on the nuclear program and was close to such a thing earlier this year in talks with Vice President JD Vance — but Tehran would need clear guarantees that Israel would not strike again after any deal between Washington and Tehran.

Analysts warn both sides are hardening their positions. “It should be no surprise that all sides are hardening their positions,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington. “Tehran is trying to box Trump into a compressed version of the deal it violated earlier this summer. Meanwhile Washington looks determined to escalate sanctions and keep the blockade until it sniffs surrender.”