US President Donald Trump has said he is "not satisfied" with a new Iranian negotiating proposal, as peace talks remain frozen despite a weeks-long ceasefire.

Iran delivered the draft to mediator Pakistan on Thursday evening, the IRNA news agency reported, without detailing its contents.

The White House has declined to provide details on Iran's proposal, but news site Axios reported US envoy Steve Witkoff had submitted amendments that put Tehran's nuclear program back on the negotiating table, with the changes reportedly including demands that Iran not move enriched uranium from bombed sites or resume activity there during talks.

Trump blamed stalled talks on "tremendous discord" within Iran's leadership, saying "do we want to go and just blast the hell out of them and finish them forever – or do we want to try and make a deal?" but adding he would "prefer not" to take the first option "on a human basis".

The war, launched by the United States and Israel with surprise strikes on February 28, has been on hold since April 8, with only one failed round of direct talks since.

Trump, under pressure at home to seek congressional authorisation for the war, wrote to lawmakers on Friday declaring hostilities "terminated" – despite no change in the US military posture.

Despite the stalemate, the ceasefire has held – but fighting has continued elsewhere in the region, with Israel continuing deadly strikes despite a ceasefire with Iran-backed group Hezbollah in mid-April that sought to halt more than six weeks of fighting.

Washington announced late on Friday it had approved major arms sales to its allies in the Middle East, including a US$4 billion Patriot missile deal with Qatar and nearly US$1 billion in precision weapons systems to Israel.

Washington, meanwhile, is grappling with a legal dispute over whether Trump has passed a deadline to seek congressional approval for the war.

Officials argue that a ceasefire pauses the 60-day clock, at which point congressional authorisation would be required – a claim disputed by opposition Democrats.

Trump faces growing domestic pressure, with inflation rising, no clear victory in sight and midterm elections approaching.

"There has been no exchange of fire between United States forces and Iran since April 7, 2026," Trump said in letters to congressional leaders, adding that the hostilities "have terminated".

Fourteen members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards were reportedly killed defusing what the Fars news agency called unexploded cluster bombs and aerial mines in northwestern Zanjan province.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said on Friday in a statement that "the owners of damaged businesses should avoid, as much as possible, layoffs and separation of their workforce" while threatening Iran's enemies with "economic and cultural jihad". (AFP)



Edited by Thomas McAlinden