UN ambassador Waltz says Iran was not negotiating ‘in good faith’ to end war

Waltz says Trump rejected Iran’s proposal to end war because they ‘were asking for everything up front’

The Trump administration’s ambassador to the United Nations said the US rejected Iran’s proposal to end the ongoing war there because Iranian negotiators “were asking for everything up front”.

Echoing comments by Donald Trump on Saturday, the president’s UN ambassador Mike Waltz told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that Iran had asked for relief “from billions and billions of sanctions that are going into place” as part of an economic blockade on Iran. The blockade is aimed at putting pressure on Iran to stop its attacks ‌on vessels in the strait of Hormuz.

“They were asking for everything up front with a promise that they would then talk,” Waltz said on State of the Union. “The president is just not confident that the Iranians are coming in good faith and that we will truly negotiate the end of their nuclear program.”

Trump said on Saturday that he had rejected Iran’s peace plan, proposed at ⁠the recent UN general assembly in New York, arguing that desperation was driving the Iranians’ push for an agreement on the key waterway. “They want to make a deal ⁠to open the Hormuz strait immediately because they’re losing so badly,” Trump said.