Iran's top negotiator: Accept our proposal or 'American taxpayers will pay for it.'

Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, on Monday said the U.S. must accept its newest 14-point proposal or else American taxpayers “will pay for it.” “There is no alternative but to accept the rights of the Iranian people as laid out in the 14-point proposal. Any other approach will be completely inconclusive; nothing but one failure after another,” Ghalibaf wrote in a post on X. “The longer they drag their feet, the more American taxpayers will pay for it,” he added. The 14-point proposal includes an effort to end the war in 30 days, the withdrawal of American forces from Iran, removal of sanctions on Iranian assets, reparations payments, an end to fighting in Lebanon, and a new method to govern the Strait of Hormuz, according to NPR. The proposal has been submitted to the U.S. through Pakistan, which has been mediating talks. Iran’s latest proposal for peace follows a staunch rebuke to its response to the U.S. agreement submitted over the weekend. On Sunday, President Trump said, “I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called ‘Representatives.’ I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” in a post on Truth Social. The president has repeatedly urged Iran to permanently dismantle its nuclear enrichment program. Tehran previously offered to dilute some of its highly enriched uranium and give the rest to a third, unspecified country. While Iran has pushed for the U.S. to accept its proposal, Trump has done the same. On Sunday, Trump said Iran will be “laughing no longer” as he continues to hammer out the framework for a peace proposal with Tehran. “For 47 years the Iranians have been ‘tapping’ us along, keeping us waiting, killing our people with their roadside bombs, destroying protests, and recently wiping out 42,000 innocent, unarmed protestors, and laughing at our now GREAT AGAIN Country. They will be laughing no longer!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Sunday. Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.