US President Donald Trump described the cease-fire with Iran as being on "life support," adding he is considering restarting naval escorts -- dubbed Operation Enduring Freedom -- through the Strait of Hormuz amid a continuing a deadlock over how to bring the conflict to an end.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on May 11, Trump said the cease-fire, agreed to on April 8, is now "unbelievably weak" and that he's looking to achieve "complete victory" in the war.
"I would say it's one of the weakest right now, it's on life support," he said. "I would say the cease-fire is on massive life support."
Trump's latest comments came after he angrily rejected Tehran's response to a US peace proposal in a social media post, calling it "totally unacceptable." He did not say what part of counterproposal he was opposed to.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei said in his weekly press conference on May 11 that Tehran's response included stopping the war, lifting the US blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, freeing Iran's assets, and "establishing security in the region and Lebanon."
Iranian state media said that accepting the US conditions would amount to the country's "surrender" to what it called "excessive demands."
Baqaei said "the only thing we demanded was Iran's legitimate rights."
Many reports have suggested the US plan was set out in a one-page memorandum that called for an end to fighting and the unblocking of the Strait of Hormuz but left other key issues -- including Iran's right to enrich uranium -- until later.
Trump said in a Fox News interview on May 11 that he was considering renewing Operation Enduring Freedom, though a final decision had yet to be made. The operation was launched on May 6 but stopped less than two days later.
"We're going to have a complete victory," he said, adding that Tehran thinks "I'll get tired of this. I'll get bored, or I'll have some pressure. But there's no pressure."
Trump has taken a dual line in public statements, stressing the possibility of a diplomatic solution to the war while alternatively threatening massive new air strikes on Iran's energy and power infrastructure.
In an interview with journalist Sharyl Attkisson broadcast on May 10, Trump said American military operations against Iran may not be over, suggesting the United States could still target additional sites if necessary.
Asked whether combat operations involving Iran had concluded, Trump responded: "No, I didn't say that. I said they were defeated, but that doesn't mean they're done. We could go in for another two weeks and hit every single target."
Trump added that US and Israeli strikes had already hit "probably 70 percent" of the intended targets since launching air strikes on Iran on February 28.
The campaign was halted on April 8 when a two-week cease-fire was agreed via mediation by Pakistan. The strikes have not resumed even though the deadline has passed.
"We have other targets that we could conceivably hit," Trump said. "But even if we don't, it will take years for them to rebuild."
He also addressed Iran's enriched uranium stockpiles, saying the United States was monitoring the sites closely.
"We have it under surveillance," he said, adding that US space-based monitoring capabilities were tracking activity around the facilities.
Iran has repeatedly rejected proposals that would require it to transfer its stockpile of enriched uranium to the United States.
Former senior US diplomat Gordon Gray, who served as deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs under President George W. Bush, told RFE/RL in an interview that indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran are likely to continue despite what he described as significant pain and pressure on both sides.
"I don't see diplomacy breaking down. I think there will be a continuation of discussions," said Gray, who also served as US ambassador to Tunisia and deputy chief of mission in Egypt and now is a professor of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University.
"That doesn't mean there won't be military strikes by one side or the other, but at the end of the day both sides have an incentive to get out of the situation they're in because the other side has created sufficient pain and therefore sufficient incentive for some kind of resolution."
