Difficulty in reaching Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei was one of several reasons cited by White House UN Ambassador Mike Waltz as to why there's been no response from Tehran to US proposals to end the war.
Ambassador Waltz also said that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been largely deferential to the Ayatollah, in terms of negotiating with the US, causing everything to take longer than expected.
"I think part of it is that their leadership has been so devastated and so fractured, we know that the new Ayatollah, the previous Ayatollah's son, has been severely injured, he's in hiding, and he's incredibly difficult to get a hold of," Ambassador Waltz said during an interview on ABC’s flagship Sunday political show, This Week.
Mr Waltz was pressed by ABC's Martha Raddatz about a social media post made by US President Donald Trump, who warned Iran's rulers 50 days ago with very strong words to open up the Strait of Hormuz, only to have the current stalemate continue weeks later.
“I think we should take a step back,” Ambassador Waltz responded. “We’re talking 50 days to deal with a 50-year-old problem," he continued, citing the lengthy and bitter history between Iran and the US.
The White House official also told ABC that high-level Iranian officials were warning about potentially causing harm to the plethora of undersea cables crucial for global internet connections.
"They've even now threatened on Iranian state TV to take over the undersea cables that flow through that waterway, which moves financial data, stock information, things that go into the cloud and data centres," he claimed.
Cybersecurity experts and military analysts have pointed out that since US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, the country has increased cyber attack attempts around the world, while also directing drone strikes to hit data centres in neighbouring countries.
Over the previous week, Iran has resumed attempted drone strikes against countries like the UAE, but so far, the US response has been tempered, insisting that technically Iran had not violated the continuing ceasefire agreement.
Ambassador Waltz maintained, however, that the White House response in recent weeks to essentially implement a blockade against Iran in and around the country was akin to a response.
"We see now Iran's economy in an absolute free fall," he maintained, attributing some of it to recent moves made by the Trump administration.
Retired US Admiral William McRaven, also appearing on ABC's This Week, laughed at Mr Waltz's comments.
"Of course the ceasefire has been violated," he said.
"Anytime rounds have been exchanged that's a violation of a ceasefire," Admiral McRaven continued, adding that he somewhat sympathised with Ambassador Waltz's overall position to try to get a response to recent US proposals to end the war.
Mr Waltz’s comments came shortly after Iranian news agency Irna said that the country had sent a response to the latest US proposal for ending the war to the designated Pakistani mediator.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman had previously said Tehran’s views and observations on the US proposals would be transmitted after a final review. Irna said the current phase of negotiations will focus on ending the war in the region.
Mr Trump, usually relatively active on his Truth Social platform on Sundays, has not yet made any specific comments related to Iran.
Meanwhile, speculation has swirled regarding the health of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
Although he has been prolific on social media, public appearances of the leader have yet to come to fruition.
Initially, data from his X social media account indicated that it was created in the Netherlands, although several weeks later it showed that the account was based in Iran.
