Iran says it is embracing latest US peace proposal, Trump says he will wait “a few days”

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit Beijing from Saturday to Tuesday for talks, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, without specifying whether the Iran war would be discussed.

“The leaders of China and Pakistan will have deep views on bilateral relations and issues of common concern,” ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a press conference on Thursday, adding that “China supports Pakistan in playing an equal and equal role in mediation in promoting peace and ending war.”

The two countries sought to mediate in the Middle East conflict, which was sparked by US and Israeli strikes.

One of Pakistan’s top negotiators in the ongoing talks between the US and Iran, Army Chief Asim Munir, will arrive in Tehran on Thursday in an effort to broker a peace deal, according to Iranian media.

A senior UAE official slammed Iran’s claim to control Emirati waters in the besieged Strait of Hormuz as a “pipeline’s dream” on Thursday, following an announcement by Iran’s body that oversees the strait.

“The regime is trying to establish a new reality born of a clear military defeat, but efforts to control the Strait of Hormuz or break the UAE’s maritime sovereignty are just a dream,” said the advisor to the president of the United Arab Emirates Anwar Gargash on the X website.

Israel has released hundreds of activists who tried to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza ships and is in the process of expelling them, according to a legal organization working with the flotilla.

An Israel-based advocacy group, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, or Adalah, said Thursday that most of the international activists were on their way to an airport near the southern Israeli city of Eilat for deportation.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday he had ordered the activists to be deported “immediately,” after strongly reprimanding Israel’s national security minister over a provocative video showing the minister mocking a flotilla of activists who were handcuffed and kneeling.

Netanyahu said that while Israel has every right to stop the “provocative flotillas of Hamas terrorist supporters,” the way National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir dealt with the activists “is not consistent with Israeli values ​​and practices.”

Ben-Gvir released videos On Wednesday, he was shown walking among approximately 430 prisoners. In another, activists with their hands tied behind their backs are kneeling, their heads touching the floor inside what appears to be a makeshift detention center on the ship’s deck.

The flotilla, made up of more than 50 boats, left Gaza last week from Turkey, near Cyprus. Organizers said they wanted renewed attention to the living conditions of the nearly two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The government of Iran is reviewing the latest proposal for a peace agreement from the United States, and the chief of the Pakistani army, Asim Munir, is expected on Thursday in Tehran to continue efforts to mediate between the two countries.

“We have received the views of the American side and we are currently reviewing them,” Nour News, which is close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei as saying on Thursday.

Baqaei added that Pakistan’s current exchange between the US and Iran is based on Iran’s original proposal of a 14-point framework, which called for “a complete end to war on all fronts, including Lebanon,” the release of frozen Iranian financial assets and an end to what he described as “crimes” against Iranian commercial vessels.

Iranian lawyer Fada Hossein Maleki said in a statement broadcast on state television that Pakistan’s military chief will arrive in Tehran with a new message from the US.

Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir will travel to Tehran on Thursday to continue his nation’s efforts to reach an agreement to end the US-Israeli war with Iran, Iranian news agency ISNA said.

“This visit comes amid ongoing regional activities aimed at reducing tensions and advancing dialogue,” ISNA said.

Pakistan has been the main mediator between the US and Iran, relaying messages as the sides continue their informal talks.

Interior Minister of Pakistan, Senator Syed Mohsin Reza Naqvi, arrived in Tehran on Wednesday to meet with senior Iranian officials, but Islamabad did not confirm the pending new visit of Munir, who was among the key figures in the negotiations between Washington and the Iranian government.

President Trump said he is willing to wait for Iran’s latest response to talks between Washington and Tehran, but not for long.

“If I can save the war by waiting a few days, if I can save the people who were killed by waiting a few days, I think it’s a good thing to do,” the president told reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday afternoon.

Monday, Mr. Trump finished what he said was a planned attack on the country that was supposed to happen on tuesday.

“If we don’t get the right answers, it goes quickly,” the president said on Wednesday. “We’re all ready to go. We have to get the right answers. They have to be 100% perfect answers, and if we do, we save a lot of time, energy and lives, most importantly.”

Mr. Trump said US officials were impressed by the Iranians who were negotiating with his administration.

“We are dealing with people, I think, who are more rational than people who are no longer with us,” said the president. “We’re working with some really talented people, with great brain power, and we’re very impressed with it, so hopefully those people will make a deal that’s going to be good for everyone.”

President Trump said on Wednesday – before boarding Air Force One to deliver his speech at the US Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut – that, “We are in the final stages of Iran.”

“We’ll see what happens,” he said. “We’re either going to have a deal or we’re going to do some bad things, but hopefully that won’t happen.”