Trump Rejects Iran's Peace Proposal as High-Stakes China Trip Looms

President Trump rejected Iran's latest peace proposal ahead of a high-stakes trip to China this week, where he is set to meet with President Xi Jinping while the ongoing war with Iran and its global economic consequences hang over the talks.

Iranian state media reported the proposal focused on ending the war and stabilizing security and shipping traffic in the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, though it made no mention of Iran's nuclear program. That omission appears to be the deal-breaker. Trump has repeatedly insisted that Iran's nuclear capabilities must be addressed in any agreement, saying the U.S. will get ahold of Iran's enriched uranium "at some point." "We have that very well surveilled," the president said. "If anybody got near the place, we will know about it, and we'll blow 'em up."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed that position, making clear the war is not over. "There's still nuclear material, enriched uranium that has to be taken out of Iran," Netanyahu said. "There's still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled."

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, suggested an interim deal might not fully resolve Iran's nuclear program, saying only, "Certainly that's got to be possible." He also acknowledged that gas prices will stay high until the conflict ends, and defended the administration's strategy of degrading Iranian infrastructure before addressing the Strait of Hormuz. "We needed to degrade their infrastructure to project terror around the Middle East, to threaten oil supplies in the long run, and we'll deal with this," Wright said.

Democrats pushed back sharply. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey said he would not support arming the U.S. or its allies, including Israel, "in a context of a war that is endangering our national security and Israel's."

With no deal in sight, all eyes now turn to Trump's meeting with Xi Jinping in China this week.