Israeli TV Reports US Seeks 'One Month Ceasefire'; Tehran Refuses Talks With 'Backstabbers'

Oil Tumbles, Stocks Surge As Israeli TV Reports US Seeks 'One Month Ceasefire'; Tehran Refuses Talks With 'Backstabbers'

by Tyler Durden
Wednesday, Mar 25, 2026 - 09:35 PM

Summary

US seeks a one-month ceasefire with a framework to end the war, according to Israel Channel 12 reports; Telegraph says Iranians see Witkoff and Kushner as 'backstabbers'


WSJ, Fox reporting 3,000 elite Army Airborne soldiers to be ordered to Middle East. Axios says US awaits Iran response to proposed Thursday peace talks. Trump says Iran has been destroyed "militarily".


Backchannel diplomacy vs skepticism: Abbas Araghchi reportedly signaled openness to negotiations with the US via envoy Steve Witkoff, but Israel has appeared cool on deal prospects or offramp.


Heavy exchange of fire and testing red lines: Iran continues missile and drone waves targeting Israel and US bases, amid reports of overnight airstrikes on military and gas infrastructure near Isfahan.


Iran reshuffles its security leadership, appointing Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr: he's a former IRGC commander and replaces the assassinated Ali Larijani.


Iran halts natural gas exports to Turkey: follows last week's Israeli strike on the massive South Pars gas field; QatarEnergy declares force majeure on some LNG contracts due war.


* * *

Iran Refuses Talks With Trump's 'Backstabbing Negotiators': Telegraph

This is to be expected, given how things went in Geneva just hours before it was bombs away:


Iran has refused to negotiate with Donald Trump’s top envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, accusing them of “backstabbing”.

Gulf sources told The Telegraph that the Iranians would not sit down with Mr Witkoff, the administration’s Middle East envoy, and Mr Kushner, Mr Trump’s adviser and son-in-law, because of the military strikes that hit Tehran hours after they held talks in February.

JD Vance, the vice-president who has remained largely quiet during the conflict, is now being touted as chief negotiator should fresh discussions go ahead in Islamabad, Pakistan, later this week.

“Vance is preferred,” a Gulf source said of the Iranians. “They don’t want to work with Jared and Witkoff because they stabbed them in the back.”

US Seeks One-Month Ceasefire, Sent Iran Plan To End War; Israeli TV

Israel's Channel 12 TV is reporting that the US is seeking a ceasefire period of one month, to be announced shortly, to work on a framework that Witkoff and Kushner are working on.

Despite many skeptics' claims, President Trump had earlier confirmed that talks were taking place "right now", claiming that U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner held talks Sunday with an Iranian leader.

He did not say who that was.

Trump earlier signaled that Iran had offered a “present” as a show of good faith in negotiations the US leader has claimed are ongoing to end a 25-day conflict that’s upended global markets, even as he deploys more troops to the Middle East.

Trump wouldn’t detail the gift, “worth a tremendous amount of money,” but confirmed it was related to energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz.

The New York Times reports that the plan was delivered via Pakistan, whose army chief has emerged as the key interlocutor between the United States and Iran, officials say.


Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, has emerged as the key interlocutor between the United States and Iran, with Egypt and Turkey encouraging the Iranians to engage constructively, the officials added. Field Marshal Munir is believed to maintain close ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, putting him in a position to pass messages between the warring sides, they said.

He recently reached out to Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament and a former Revolutionary Guards commander, proposing that Pakistan host talks between Iran and the United States, said an Iranian official and a Pakistani official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive communications.

Field Marshal Munir met twice in 2025 with President Trump, who has showered praise on him, saying he was his “favorite field marshal.”

It was unclear how widely the plan had been shared among Iranian officials and whether Iran was likely to accept it as a basis for negotiations.

Nor was it clear whether Israel was on board with the proposal.

Nevertheless, the delivery of the plan showed that the administration was ramping up efforts to conclude a war, now in its fourth week, that has drawn in several other countries.

The ceasefire period will be used to negotiate an agreement based on the following points: (emphasis ours):

What does the US want from Iran?

Dismantling existing nuclear capabilities that have already been accumulated


A commitment that Iran will never pursue nuclear weapons


No material will be enriched on Iranian soil.


All enriched material will be delivered to Saba on a schedule to be determined by the parties.


Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow will be decommissioned - destroyed


The Atomic Energy Agency will be exposed to all information within Iran's borders.


Iran will abandon the proxy paradigm


Stop actually funding and arming the proxies in the region.


The Strait of Hormuz will remain open, will be a free maritime zone - and no one will block it


Postponement of decision on ballistic missile program


Ballistic missiles are only used for defense

What will Iran get in return?

Lifting all sanctions


Will assist them in promoting and developing a civil nuclear project in Bushehr (electricity generation)


The snapback threat of sanctions will be removed

According to Channel 12's report, Israel is concerned about proposal and thinks it is unlikely Iran will accept the terms.

The immediate reaction was a drop in crude oil prices...



...and the mirror image rise in US equity futures...



The Hill reports that President Trump said Tuesday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine were “disappointed” by the idea of a U.S.-negotiated ceasefire with Iran.

Hegseth and Caine were “the only two people that were quite disappointed” the U.S.-Israeli war against Tehran may soon come to an end, Trump said in the Oval Office following the swearing in of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

“I think this thing’s going to be settled very soon and they go, ‘Oh, that’s too bad.’ Pete didn’t want it to be settled,” Trump said.

“They were not interested in settlement. They were interested in just winning this thing,” he added.

How long before we get a denial (or a rejection from Iran)? And let's just all forget about the imminent 'boots on the ground'?
No Change in Trump Iran Rhetoric in latest from WH

Trump in the oval once again addressed the Iran conflict, saying "this is a change in the Iranian regime," and went further, stating, “I think we can say this is regime change."

Trump expressed confidence that negotiations would conclude successfully, saying, "they are going to make a deal; they gave us a significant prize worth tremendous amount of money," later reiterating that Iran had "gave us a very big present" worth "a very big amount of money" - supposedly the Strait of Hormuz. He asserted "we'll have control of anything we want."

He also hailed that Iran has been completely destroyed "militarily" - but without addressing the fact that Iranian forces continue to fire rockets on targets across the region. He at one point proclaimed once again: "we won" - but blamed the "fake news media" for not acknowledging that.