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Donald Trump met with his top national security advisors in the Situation Room of the White House on Monday to assess the next steps regarding Iran, following a deadlock in peace negotiations after Iran's refusal to compromise on its nuclear program.
According to an official U.S. source cited by The Times of Israel, Trump is considering resuming military action to increase pressure on Tehran, with a senior official stating bluntly: "Trump is going to hit them a bit."
The meeting was attended by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Dan Caine, and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
The immediate trigger was the response that Iran sent on Sunday to the U.S. proposal, which Trump called "totally unacceptable" and "rubbish" that he didn't even finish reading.
"It was simply unacceptable. Many people asked, 'Do you have a plan?' Yes, of course I have a plan. I have the best plan of all," Trump said from the Oval Office on Monday.
The president was explicit about what that plan is: "The plan is that they cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they did not mention that in their letter."
The most contentious point remains the fate of Iran's enriched uranium reserves. The United States estimates that Iran has accumulated about 1,000 pounds of uranium enriched to 60%, buried underground during the American attacks, and demands its extraction from the country, something that Iran did not include in its latest proposal, according to a report from ABC News.
"They changed their mind, because they didn't put it on paper," Trump noted.
The conflict began on February 28, 2026, with massive joint airstrikes by the U.S. and Israel that destroyed over 12,300 Iranian military and nuclear sites. After weeks of fighting, Trump announced a two-week ceasefire on April 8, which he later extended indefinitely along with a naval blockade.
The peace talks held in Islamabad, Pakistan, in April ended in failure without an agreement. Iran then presented a revised 14-point plan on May 1, which was also rejected by Washington.
Trump declared that the ceasefire is now at its "weakest" point and stated that he feels no pressure to reach an agreement: "There is no pressure. There is absolutely no pressure. We are going to achieve a complete victory."
The president also told Fox News that he is considering reactivating Operation Freedom Project —launched on May 4 and abruptly paused the next day— to escort merchant vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, and stated that Iranian leaders "are going to give in."
From Tehran, the president of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, insisted that "there is no alternative" to the 14-point plan: "Any other approach will be entirely inconclusive; nothing but one failure after another."
The Iranian threat escalated further this Tuesday when the parliamentarian Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesperson for the National Security Commission of parliament, warned that new attacks could lead Iran to consider enriching uranium to 90%, the level necessary to manufacture a nuclear weapon: “We will review it in parliament.”
The conflict extends regionally: the Ministry of Health of Lebanon reported at least 2,869 dead and 8,730 injured since fighting resumed along the border between Israel and Hezbollah on March 2, while the Israel Defense Forces reported having attacked 45 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in the last 24 hours on Tuesday.
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