President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a tense call on Tuesday as mediators pushed a new proposal meant to end the war and open a month-long round of negotiations that would also cover Iran’s nuclear program and the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump called Netanyahu to tell him that mediators were working on a letter of intent, and two Israeli sources said the two men were in clear disagreement over how to handle Iran next. One US source briefed on the call said, “Bibi’s hair was on fire after the call.” Another source said, “Bibi is always concerned.”
The call landed at a moment of real movement in the diplomacy. The United States sent a fresh proposal to Iran through Pakistani mediators, while sources close to Iran’s negotiating team said Tehran’s mediators were reviewing the document and nothing had been finalized. Qatar and Pakistan had also drafted a revised peace memo to bridge gaps between Washington and Tehran, and Pakistan’s interior minister was in Tehran for his second visit in a week to help narrow them.
Those details matter because the talks are not limited to a ceasefire. The broader package includes Iran’s nuclear program, the possible opening of the Strait of Hormuz and the release of frozen Iranian funds. An Arab official told Axios the goal of the letter of intent was to get Iran to provide more concrete benchmarks on its nuclear work and clearer US information on how those frozen funds would be released.
Trump, for his part, has been publicly pressing the pace. On Wednesday, he told reporters that Iran and the United States were “right on the borderline” between restarting the war and making a deal. He added, “If we don’t get the right answer, it could happen very quickly. We have not got the right answer. It will have to be 100% good answers,” and said he would give talks a “few days.”
He also underscored how much leverage he believes he has over Netanyahu, saying the Israeli leader “will do whatever I want him to do” on Iran. On the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said, “We’d have to open the Strait; that would open immediately. We’re gonna give this one shot. I’m in no hurry,” a remark that reinforced how tightly the ceasefire track and the Iran track are now linked.
Qatar has publicly backed the mediation push. A Qatari diplomat said, “As stated previously, Qatar has been and continues to support the Pakistan led mediation efforts, we have been consistently advocating for de-escalation for the sake of the region and its people.” Tehran also said on Wednesday that talks were ongoing.
There is, however, no deal yet. A source with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday that there had been progress on a memorandum of understanding and principles that would lay the groundwork for negotiations, but the sources also said gaps remained and no agreement had been reached. That leaves the diplomacy in a narrow window: active enough to keep going, fragile enough to fall apart fast.
