West Asia conflict: Trump reviews Iran’s 14-point proposal, hints at eliminating remaining missiles and deeper troop cuts

US President Donald Trump on Saturday said he is reviewing a 14point proposal from Iran to end the regional conflict while indicating the possibility of further military actionSpeaking to reporters on the tarmac in Palm Beach Florida before boarding Air Force One Trump said ldquoWersquore doing very well with regard to Iran They want to make a dealrdquoHe confirmed that the proposal had been delivered through a Pakistani intermediary ldquoIrsquom looking at ithellip Irsquoll let you know about it laterrdquo he saidTrump described Iran as significantly weakened ldquoThey wanna make a deal theyrsquore decimated Theyrsquore having a hard time figuring out who their leader isrdquo he addedOn Iranrsquos remaining missile capability estimated at about 15 per cent he said ldquoWell Irsquod like to eliminate it Yeah Irsquod like to Itrsquod be a start for them to build up again and yeah I would like to eliminate itrdquoThe US President did not rule out renewed strikes ldquoIf they misbehave if they do something badhellip itrsquos a possibility that could happen Certainlyrdquo he saidTrump also defended the ongoing US blockade as ldquovery friendlyrdquo and unchallenged and left open the possibility of American energy companies operating in Iran saying ldquoCould be It could berdquo He further announced deeper troop cuts in Germany ldquoWersquore gonna cut way down and wersquore cutting a lot further than 5000rdquo he saidIn a post on Truth Social Trump expressed scepticism over the proposal ldquoI will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us but canrsquot imagine that it would be acceptable in that they have not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to Humanity and the World over the last 47 yearsrdquo he wroteWhat Tehranrsquos counterproposal statesIran has submitted a 14point response to the US via a Pakistani intermediary calling for an end to the conflict on all fronts including Lebanon within 30 days rather than a twomonth ceasefireThe proposal includes guarantees against aggression withdrawal of US forces from the region release of frozen assets removal of sanctions and a new mechanism for the Strait of HormuzDeputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said the proposal was ldquoaimed at the permanent endrdquo of the conflict ldquoNow the ball is in the United Statesrsquo court to choose either the path of diplomacy or continuation of a confrontational approachrdquo he addedIsrael strikes Hezbollah targets in LebanonThe Israel Defense Forces IDF carried out strikes on around 50 Hezbollahlinked infrastructure sites and 70 military structures in southern Lebanon over the past dayThe IDF said it targeted command centres weapons storage facilities and other sites used to plan attacks against Israeli forcesldquoThe IDF will continue to operate against threats directed at Israeli civilians and IDF soldiersrdquo it saidUS fasttracks USD 8 billion arms salesThe Trump administration has approved more than USD 8 billion in emergency arms sales to Gulf countries and Israel bypassing CongressThe packages include Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems for the UAE Israel and Qatar Patriot missile replenishment for Qatar and an Integrated Battle Command System for Kuwait The State Department cited national security interests and an existing emergencyIran condemns Trumprsquos remarksIranrsquos Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei criticised Trumprsquos description of US vessel seizures as ldquoWersquore like piratesrdquo calling it a ldquodamning admission of the criminal nature of their actionsrdquoHe urged the international community and UN SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres to reject any normalisation of such violations of international maritime lawWith IANS AFP and ANI inputs