President Trump declared Wednesday that negotiations with Iran are in their “final stages” and warned that the U.S. military will have to get “a little bit nasty” if no deal is reached, as a flurry of Arab and Muslim mediation efforts aims to lock in a formal end to the war and open broader talks on Tehran’s nuclear program.

“We’re in final stages of Iran,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews before boarding Air Force One to deliver a commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. “We’ll see what happens. Either [we] have a deal or we’re going to do some things that are a little bit nasty, but hopefully that won’t happen.”

“We’re going to give this one shot. I’m in no hurry,” Trump said. “Ideally I’d like to see few people killed, as opposed to a lot. We can do it either way.”

The negotiations have stalled over the future of Iran’s nuclear program and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the critical chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes. Iran has largely shut the strait to all ships apart from its own since the war with the United States and Israel began in late February, causing the biggest disruption to global energy supplies in history. The U.S. responded last month with its own blockade of Iranian ports.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the exchange of messages between Iran and the United States has continued on the basis of Tehran’s 14-point proposal, with Pakistan’s interior minister in Iran to help facilitate the talks. Baghaei told state television that Iran is also seeking to establish a mechanism with Oman to ensure sustainable security in the Strait of Hormuz and is ready to develop protocols for safe shipping traffic in cooperation with other coastal states.

Behind the scenes, a far more ambitious diplomatic push is underway, one that has produced sharp friction between the Trump White House and the Israeli government.

President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a tense phone call Tuesday night about new mediation efforts by several Arab and Muslim states to broker a deal between the United States and Iran, according to Axios, citing an American source and two Israeli sources familiar with the call.

The emerging proposal, reportedly drafted by Qatar and Pakistan with input from regional mediators Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt, would see Washington and Tehran sign a “letter of intent” that would officially end the war and open 30 days of negotiations on issues including reopening the Strait of Hormuz and limiting Iran’s nuclear program, a U.S. source involved in the phone call told the news outlet.

The two leaders disagreed sharply on the path forward. According to two Israeli sources, Netanyahu was highly skeptical of the framework and believes the United States should continue applying military pressure on Iran to further weaken the regime by destroying its critical infrastructure. The U.S. source said Netanyahu’s “hair was on fire after the call,” though Israeli sources noted that the prime minister “is always concerned” about how negotiations with Iran will go, even during stages that previously failed. The Prime Minister’s Office and the White House both declined to comment to Axios.

Mediators have been working over the last several days to bridge gaps on the last Pakistani proposal, and Qatar recently presented the United States and Iran with a new draft, according to two Arab sources and an Israeli source cited by Axios. A fourth Qatari source said there is no separate Qatari draft and that Doha is only aiming to improve the Pakistani proposal. The current efforts aim to extract stronger commitments from the Iranians on limiting their nuclear program and better guarantees from the United States to gradually unfreeze Iranian funds held abroad. Qatar and Pakistan both sent delegations to Tehran earlier this week for talks on the latest draft.

Trump’s warning of “nasty” military action carries particular weight given how close he came to ordering strikes earlier this week. Trump has said he called off attacks at the last minute in response to requests from several of Iran’s Gulf neighbors. On Tuesday, he said he had been an hour away from ordering strikes. Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, welcomed what he described as Trump’s decision to allow more time for diplomacy .

Tehran has responded to the renewed threats with warnings of its own. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a statement declaring, “If aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will extend beyond the region this time.”

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Iran’s top negotiator at the peace talks, said in an audio message released on social media that “obvious and hidden moves by the enemy” indicated the Americans were preparing new attacks.

Iran submitted a new offer to the United States this week. Tehran’s descriptions of the proposal suggest it largely repeats terms previously rejected by Trump, including demands for control of the Strait of Hormuz, compensation for war damage, the lifting of sanctions, the release of frozen assets, and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the area.

The remarks come six weeks after Trump paused Operation Epic Fury under a ceasefire arrangement, halting a conflict that had fueled fears of a broader war in the Middle East. However, there has been little progress in negotiations for ending the conflict and curbing Iran’s nuclear and military ambitions.

International pressure for a deal is mounting. Chinese President Xi Jinping told Russian President Vladimir Putin during talks in Beijing that “a comprehensive ceasefire is of utmost urgency, resuming hostilities is even more inadvisable and maintaining negotiations is particularly important,” according to Xinhua. Russia’s state news agency TASS reported that Moscow stands ready to help end the war.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)