Iran has submitted an updated proposal for a deal to end the war, but the White House believes it is not a significant improvement and is insufficient. This is reported by Axios, citing a senior US official.
President Donald Trump wants a deal to end the war, but is considering restarting it due to Iran's rejection of many of his demands and its refusal to make meaningful concessions on its nuclear program.
Trump is expected to convene his top national security team on Tuesday to discuss military options, two US officials said.
If Iran does not change its position, the US will have to continue negotiations "with bombs".
In a phone call on Sunday, before the US received Iran's latest offer, Trump told Axios that "time is running out" and if Iran does not show flexibility, "they will be hit much harder".
The senior US official said that the Iranian counter-proposal, which was shared with the US on Sunday night through Pakistani intermediaries, had only symbolic improvements over the last version.
The new proposal includes more language on Iran's commitment not to pursue nuclear weapons, but no detailed commitments to halt uranium enrichment or hand over its existing stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
While Iranian state media reported that the US had agreed to waive some oil sanctions on Iran during the talks, the US official said that any sanctions relief would not come "for free" without reciprocal action from Iran.
"We are really not making much progress. We are in a very serious place today. The pressure is on them to respond in the right way," the senior US official said.
"It's time for the Iranians to show off. We need a real, solid, detailed conversation about the nuclear program. If that doesn't happen, we'll be talking through bombs, which would be unfortunate." The senior U.S. official said the U.S. and Iran are not directly negotiating the substance of the deal but are engaged in indirect talks to try to reach a consensus on what those talks will look like. The U.S. official said the fact that Iran has made a new counteroffer, even with only minor changes, suggests Tehran is concerned about the possibility of further U.S. military action. The Iranians have long argued that Trump is the one who desperately needs a deal and that time is on their side. Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi spent three days in Tehran as part of the mediation effort and returned to Islamabad on Monday. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who is also involved in the mediation, told a news conference in Berlin on Monday said he hoped the US and Iran "are aware of the dangers of restarting the war".
He said Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia were also involved in the mediation efforts and stressed that both the US and Iran must find a middle ground and agree to end the war.