President Donald Trump has dismissed Iran’s most recent proposal to end the two-month-old conflict, publicly framing Washington’s choice as one between a negotiated settlement and a devastating military escalation. Speaking outside the White House on Friday, Trump declared himself “not satisfied” with the offer, which Tehran had conveyed to Pakistani mediators just hours earlier. He characterised the Iranian leadership as “very disjointed” and suggested that internal divisions within the clerical establishment were stalling any meaningful progress. “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?” he asked, before adding that he would “prefer not” to take the military path “on a human basis.”

The rejection caps a week of diplomatic manoeuvring that had briefly stirred hopes of a breakthrough. Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported that the new document, handed over on Thursday evening, envisaged an end to the war in exchange for a lifting of the US naval blockade and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, with the more contentious issue of Tehran’s nuclear programme pushed to a later stage of talks. A senior Iranian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described this sequencing as a “major shift” designed to facilitate agreement. Yet viewed from Washington, the proposal appeared a non-starter: Trump has consistently insisted that any deal must address the nuclear file first, and he signalled that Iran’s terms remained outside the bounds of what he could accept.

The impasse leaves a fragile ceasefire, in place since April 8, hanging by a thread. The war itself, launched by the United States and Israel with a series of surprise strikes in late February, has yielded no decisive military or diplomatic outcome. Analysts in London note that a prolonged standoff carries severe political and economic risks for the Trump administration. Global oil prices, which surged above $100 a barrel after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, have eased slightly on news of the latest proposal — but the trajectory remains precarious. With midterm elections looming and fuel costs pinching American households, Republican strategists fear that an endless, inconclusive conflict could erode Trump’s domestic standing.

From Tehran, the rhetoric remains defiant. A senior Iranian military officer said on Saturday that renewed fighting was “likely,” while Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has been struggling to mitigate the war’s toll on an already battered economy. The regime insists it will not accept an “imposed” peace, and its proposal deliberately sidesteps the nuclear question — a core demand of the US and Israel — to buy time and preserve its bargaining chips. For Islamabad, the mediator caught between the two powers, the failure of this latest initiative underscores the deepening chasm between the parties. As both sides appear convinced of their own leverage, the risk of a “frozen conflict” — one that neither escalates nor resolves — grows. Without a credible off-ramp, the question now is how long the current ceasefire can endure before one side or the other decides that the cost of waiting exceeds the price of striking.