Iran keeps US waiting for response

TEHRAN: Iran questioned the seriousness of American diplomacy on Saturday in the wake of renewed naval clashes in the Gulf, while keeping Washington waiting for a response to its latest negotiating position.
US President Donald Trump had said on Friday that he was expecting Iran's response to Washington's latest proposal for a deal to extend a fragile truce and launch peace talks - 'supposedly tonight'.
But if Iran did send Pakistani mediators a response, there was no public sign of it, and Tehran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called into question the reliability of the US leadership in a call with his Turkish counterpart.
'The recent escalation of tensions by American forces in the Arabian Gulf and their numerous actions in violating the ceasefire have added to suspicions about the motivation and seriousness of the American side in the path of diplomacy,' he said, according to an Iranian account of the call published by the ISNA news agency.
In an incident on Friday, a US fighter jet fired on and disabled two Iranian-flagged tankers that Washington accused of challenging its naval blockade of Iran's ports.
An Iranian military official told local media the country's navy had responded 'to American terrorism with strikes' and that 'the clashes have now ceased'.
The latest incident came after a previous flare-up overnight on Thursday to Friday in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital international sea lane that Iran is seeking to control.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated on Friday that it was 'unacceptable' for Tehran to control the key oil route.
Washington has sent Iran, via Pakistani mediators, a proposal to extend the truce in the Gulf to allow for talks on a final settlement of the conflict launched 10 weeks ago with US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said on Friday that the proposal was still 'under review', according to ISNA.
Qatar's Prime Minister, Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani, met with US Vice-President J D Vance in Washington on Friday and discussed the Pakistani-led efforts to broker a permanent peace.
Meanwhile, satellite images have shown that an oil slick is spreading off the coast of Iran's Kharg Island, a key oil export terminal for the Islamic republic. It was not immediately clear what had caused the apparent spill, which was off the island's west coast and appeared to cover more than 52 square km, according to global monitor Orbital EOS.
A UK-based non-governmental organisation, the Conflict and Environment Observatory, said that by Saturday the slick was 'much reduced', and may have been caused by leaking oil infrastructure.