THE United States ambassador to the United Nations accused Iran on Sunday of not negotiating “in good faith” to end the war launched by his country and Israel. Mike Waltz said that the US had rejected Iran’s proposal to end the war because Iranian negotiators were “asking for everything up front.”
Page A4From§Eachthe late evening edition — 30 September 2026
Iran's ceasefire offer has now been rejected, re-offered and re-received for six months running.
As it ran on the front
On April 6, Pakistan's foreign ministry said talks involving army chief Asim Munir, Vice President JD Vance, envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi had produced what reporters dubbed the Islamabad Accord: an immediate halt to hostilities, a reopened Strait of Hormuz, and fifteen to twenty days set aside to negotiate. The Pakistani ministry called the talks ongoing. The record does not say what ended them.
By June, Iran and the United States had reached a separate memorandum of understanding — a different instrument, the same shape. On September 1, at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would return to that June deal if Washington did too, after, he said, the United States had broken it again.…
…(cont) Twenty-six days later, on September 27, Donald Trump confirmed in public that he had rejected Iran's latest ceasefire offer — one trading a halt on Strait of Hormuz attacks for resumed nuclear talks. Iran's foreign minister answered that his country was ready for what he called a "doomsday war."
The next day, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told CNN the rejection stood because Iran wasn't negotiating "in good faith" — Iranian negotiators, he said, wanted relief from sanctions "up front," before anything else moved.
Four days after that, on October 1, Iranian state media said Tehran had now received Washington's full written response to its ceasefire counterproposal — the seven-day plan the White House had already rejected once — and was weighing it.
The score so far: one war, zero ratified ceasefires. Call it diplomacy's rerun button: pause, reject, redraft, resend. The strait doesn't get a vote on the schedule. It just gets the next strike while the next draft is in transit.
“Six months, three different ceasefires, zero signatures — that's not diplomacy, that's a vending machine that keeps eating the dollar and handing the candy back behind the glass. Every time Iran sends a yes, Washington sends back a different yes, and somehow the tankers in the strait are the only ones getting hit on schedule. Follow the paperwork long enough and you notice it never has to reach a vote, a deadline, or a signature — just another envelope.”
“Look, rejecting Iran's offer wasn't rejecting peace, it was holding out for a better peace — Ambassador Waltz said it himself, they wanted sanctions relief up front, which, I mean, isn't that just... asking to not be sanctioned anymore? Okay, hearing it back that's not the gotcha I wanted it to be. The point is we're the ones who sent the next draft, so clearly we're not the ones stalling. Probably.”
Earlier in this story
- Iran received Washington's full reply to a ceasefire proposal Trump had already rejected in public. By Sal · the early evening edition, 30 September 2026
- The war keeps hitting new targets while the ceasefire memo stays exactly where it was last week. By Sal · the early bird edition, 30 September 2026
- Iran urges Americans to end the war by voting; the bombing was already rescheduled for after they do. By Sal · the noon edition, 30 September 2026
- President rejects Iran's seven-day ceasefire plan, counteroffers on it, expects the bombing after the midterms By Lou · the breakfast edition, 30 September 2026
- Trump promises the war ends 'very soon' but leaves the details to Iran, whose letter runs 25 pages. By Lou · the milkman edition, 30 September 2026
- War that promised to shut the Strait of Hormuz shuts a new rial record every few weeks instead. By Chip · the supper edition, 29 September 2026
The receipts
Iranian state media said the regime has received a full U.S. response to its proposal for a ceasefire and the phased reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran says it has received a U.S. counterproposal to the seven-day ceasefire plan that was rejected by the White House. CBS News' Olivia Rinaldi has more.
· Iran ready for ‘doomsday war’ after Trump rejects ceasefire, foreign minister says from the morgue, 27 Sep 2026
· Pakistan proposes a ceasefire plan received by Iran and the United States, reportedly dubbed the Islamabad Accord, which calls for an immediate halt to hostilities, the reopening of the Strait of Horm from the morgue, 6 Apr 2026
· Iran’s president says Iran would return to ceasefire deal if the US does from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.