US President Donald Trump on Friday said he was dissatisfied with a new ceasefire offer from Tehran and confirmed he had been briefed on ways to “blast the hell out of them” if no deal were reached.

“They want to make a deal, but I’m not satisfied with it,” Trump told reporters outside the White House.

“They’ve made strides, but I’m not sure if they ever get there,” he said.

In response to a separate question, Trump said: “They’re asking for things that I can’t agree to.”

He also claimed the talks were complicated because Iran’s leaders were “not getting along with each other, and it puts us in a bad position.”

Confirming that US Central Command chief Adm. Bradley Cooper had briefed him this week about military options in Iran, Trump said: “Do we want to go and just blast the hell out of them and finish them forever, or do we want to try and make a deal — those are the options.”

Trump said that he would prefer “on a human basis” not to bomb Iran, but that he also doesn’t want the country to obtain nuclear weapons.

Iranian state media and a Pakistani official had said earlier Friday that Tehran had submitted its latest proposal, without elaborating.

The official, who is involved in Pakistani mediation over the war, said Islamabad had received the proposal late on Thursday and forwarded it to Washington.

Talks have faltered over Iran’s nuclear program and control of the Strait of Hormuz, which is under competing Iranian and US naval blockades.

The Wall Street Journal on Friday cited people familiar with the details as saying Iran’s new proposal drops its demand that the US blockade end before talks take place on lifting the Iranian blockade. Iran’s new proposal reportedly offers that Hormuz talks instead commence simultaneously with the US unwinding its blockade and guaranteeing no further attacks.

The new proposal........

© The Times of Israel