Pakistan says Iran’s response to US peace proposal has been sent to Washington

Pakistan has received Iran’s response to a United States proposal aimed at ending the ongoing regional conflict and has forwarded the reply to Washington, according to a Pakistani government official involved in the negotiations.

The official, cited by Reuters on Sunday (May 10), did not disclose details of Tehran’s response or the contents of the American proposal.

The development came after Iranian state media reported that Tehran had formally responded to a US-backed proposal to launch peace talks aimed at ending the war.

A source familiar with the discussions told IRNA that the immediate objective is to stabilize the ceasefire before broader issues are addressed.

Sources on both sides told Reuters that the latest diplomatic effort is aimed at reaching a temporary memorandum of understanding that would pause the conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz to global shipping traffic.

The proposed framework would also create space for negotiations on more contentious issues, including Iran’s nuclear programme.

According to reports, the document proposed reopening the Strait of Hormuz while establishing a roadmap for future negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear activities.

The proposal was itself a response to an earlier Iranian initiative that called for lifting parallel American and Iranian blockades in the Gulf region.

Iran has also demanded relief from sanctions and the release of frozen Iranian financial assets as part of any future agreement.

On Sunday, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait reported drone incursions into their airspace, while a drone strike reportedly caused a small fire aboard a vessel near the coast of Qatar.

Another drone strike targeted a camp linked to an Iranian Kurdish rebel group near Erbil in northeastern Iraq.

Tensions in the Gulf have remained high as both Washington and Tehran continue efforts to assert control over the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global energy corridor.

However, the mission was halted after 36 hours and the successful passage of only two US-flagged vessels.

According to reports, Saudi Arabia refused permission for American forces to use its airspace and military bases during the operation.

Iran, which closed the Strait of Hormuz after the initial US-Israel attacks on February 28, has since insisted that all vessels passing through the waterway coordinate with Iranian authorities and pay a reported $2 million transit fee.

Iranian media said Sunday that a Panama-flagged vessel heading to Brazil had been permitted to transit the strait.

“The world should not tolerate an Iranian regime that is trying to choke off the entire world’s economy,” Waltz said during an interview with Fox News on Sunday.

“It cannot start just throwing sea mines indiscriminately out into the ocean, attacking shipping,” he added.

Waltz also claimed Iran had discussed targeting undersea communication cables used for financial and digital infrastructure.

“We’ll see what the Iranians just came back with overnight in terms of their response to our very clear red line,” he said. “President Trump has been clear they will never have a nuclear weapon and they cannot hold the world’s economies hostage.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X: “We will never bow our heads before the enemy, and if talk of dialogue or negotiation arises, it does not mean surrender or retreat.”

“Rather, the goal is to uphold the rights of the Iranian nation and to defend national interests with resolute strength,” he added.

Separately, Iranian parliament spokesperson Ebrahim Rezaei dismissed the reported US proposal as a “wish list.”

“Americans will not obtain through a failed war what they failed to gain in face-to-face negotiations,” he wrote on X.

“Iran has its finger on the trigger and is ready,” he warned.