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US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced he would delay for two weeks the bombing of Iran's bridges and power plants, provided the Strait of Hormuz is immediately and safely reopened.
In a social media post, he said he was holding off after receiving a 10-point proposal from Iran, which the US believes constitutes a "workable basis on which to negotiate".
But that 10-point plan, as presented by Iran, contains several apparent non-starters for the US. On Monday, Mr Trump called the proposal significant but “not good enough”.
No official version of the proposal has been made available, but a summary released by Iran's Supreme National Security Council includes demands for the following:
- The Strait of Hormuz to be reopened "under the co-ordination of the Armed Forces of Iran".
- The war against "all components" of Iran's Axis of Resistance to end.
- US forces to withdraw from "all bases and points of deployment within the region".
- The establishment of a "secure transit protocol" in the Strait of Hormuz.
- The full payment of compensation to Iran.
- The lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions, as well as the resolutions of the Board of Governors and the Security Council.
- The release of all frozen Iranian assets and properties abroad.
It was not immediately clear if the US had agreed to any of those demands, even in principle. Talks are set to begin on Friday in Islamabad.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the 10-point proposal, and a 15-point proposal put forward by the US, would form the "basis" of discussions.
Mr Trump has for years attacked former president Barack Obama for sending hundreds of millions of dollars in unfrozen Iranian cash to Tehran as part of the 2015 nuclear deal, so the idea that he would agree to sending reparation money to Iran appears far-fetched.
Similarly, the departure of US forces from the Middle East bases would appear to be at odds with decades of US foreign policy, although Washington has repeatedly indicated its desire to reduce its military attention on the region.
And notably absent from Iran's proposal is any commitment to end its nuclear programme, a long-standing priority for the Trump administration.
Still, Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran programme at the Middle East Institute, said that while there are significant gaps between the US and Iranian stances, there is the potential for agreement, especially on a permanent ceasefire.
"They're talking in a way that you at least have the ability to agree on a basic framework that you then have to build on," he told The National.
The Iranian American expert said he was relieved by the breakthrough after a very troubling day.
"You have a window here to prevent disaster, and we were very close to it. I mean, the idea of what Trump was talking about would have been disastrous for the whole region," he said.
