To paraphrase The Who: Meet the new proposal, same as the old proposal. Or, perhaps more accurately: Garbage in, garbage out, again and again.
Donald Trump paused a resumption of military action against Iran yesterday, again, announcing that he had done so at the request of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. He promised that the negotiations had turned serious and that the Iranian regime wanted to come to a settlement short of continued war. "We've had very big discussions with Iran," Trump declared, "and we'll see what they amount to," calling it a "very positive development."
According to Reuters, this is what it amounts to:
Tehran's latest peace proposal to the United States involves ending hostilities on all fronts including Lebanon, the exit of U.S. forces from areas close to Iran, and reparations for destruction caused by the U.S.-Israeli war, state media reported on Tuesday.
In Tehran's first comments on the proposal, Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Tehran also sought the lifting of sanctions, the release of frozen funds and an end to the U.S. marine blockade on the country, according to IRNA news agency.
The terms as described in the Iranian reports appeared little changed from Iran's previous offer, which U.S. President Donald Trump rejected last week as "garbage".
That's not the only point remaining in stasis. Masoud Pezeshkian, supposedly a "moderate" and part of the negotiating team, responded to Trump's remarks yesterday with defiance rather than any sense of openness to concessions:
Iran does not intend to "surrender" as it enters into diplomatic dialogue with the Unietd States, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a Twitter/X post on Monday.
"Dialogue does not mean surrender," Pezeshkian said. "The Islamic Republic of Iran enters into dialogue with dignity, authority, and the preservation of the nation's rights, and under no circumstances will it retreat from the legal rights of the people and the country."
This comes as a response to US President Donald Trump, who said on Monday he had paused a planned attack against Iran after Tehran sent a peace proposal to Washington, and that there was now a "very good chance" of reaching a deal limiting Iran's nuclear program.
This doesn't sound like a regime interested in "big discussions" for peace on any terms other than their own. Not even Pezeshkian sounds interested in attempting to close the gap, especially on nuclear weapons, a redline on which Trump remains firm. So, with whom are we having these discussions – the Pakistanis? The Qataris? The same people who want to keep their value as middlemen between the West and the madmen of Tehran? Pass.
If anything, this is going backward rather than forward. Ahmad Vahidi seems convinced by Trump's repeated backpedaling on military action that the US and Israel are not going to act again, and that the IRGC can dictate terms for our withdrawal. Thus far, we haven't given much evidence to change his mind, either, especially with the Gulf states successfully pushing Trump into inaction multiple times over the weeks of the 'ceasefire.'
Will Trump's patience run out soon? He's threatened it before, only to be talked out of action at the last moment on several occasions. There are at least some signs that the final chess pieces may be arranged, however:
OSINT613 EXCLUSIVE: Israeli air defense equipment is being repositioned to sites in and around Jerusalem.
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) May 19, 2026
For OpSec purposes, will not be sharing footage.
Israel is getting ready.
Trump ran a series of posts on Truth Social Sunday that threatened immediate action, only to "pause" again Monday. Yesterday evening, however, he reposted without comment a lengthy thread by Mark Levin from early March on the irrelevance of the War Powers Resolution and the unconstitutional nature of its restrictions on military action:
Does this mean anything? Maybe. Perhaps Trump just wants to get past today's primary elections, especially the KY-04 primary challenge by Ed Gallrein against Thomas Massie, before taking action. One thing is certain: the terrorist regime in Tehran won't change their position before tomorrow. Or their proposal, which has been unchanged since the start of the war.
Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
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