The U.S. proposal for a 10-day ceasefire was rejected by Iran, leading to a crisis of trust as U.S. military airstrikes continue alongside ongoing negotiations.

The United States has called on Iran to halt hostilities for ten days! Iran directly rejected it! On July 20, according to foreign media reports, Iran has rejected the U.S.-proposed 10-day ceasefire plan mediated through Qatar. Muhammad Marandi, a senior Iranian analyst and close advisor to the Iranian negotiation team, said outright: "Don't even think about it." Marandi stated that Iran has no intention of resuming negotiations, citing the fundamental lack of seriousness from the Trump administration. Iranian officials have repeatedly emphasized that talks will not resume until threats against Iran come to an end.

Reports indicate that the proposal calls for a 10-day truce to reopen two shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz. Clearly, the U.S. proposing a 10-day ceasefire is quite surprising. In fact, Trump publicly declared he would open the "gates of hell" for Iran, while the U.S. military has carried out consecutive bombing raids on Iran for nine straight days—clearly demonstrating an unyielding determination to achieve its goals at all costs.

Yet unexpectedly, while relentlessly bombing Iran, the U.S. is also secretly seeking to negotiate with Iran. From Iran’s perspective, the U.S. has repeatedly broken promises, making further talks pointless. Even if they sit at the negotiating table today, Iran cannot be sure what the U.S. might do tomorrow. In reality, during these brief ten days, the U.S. won’t cease all military deployments—it will only temporarily suspend air strikes.

The U.S. military can fully exploit this ceasefire window to repair damaged bases, reassemble fighter aircraft, and redeploy intelligence assets. Once the deadline passes, they could immediately launch even larger-scale attacks. Indeed, previously both sides signed a memorandum of understanding, but it was the U.S. that first violated the agreement, followed by a full-scale resumption of massive airstrikes. As the saying goes, “once is unfortunate, twice is suspicious, three times is unacceptable”—Iran naturally doesn’t trust verbal promises from the U.S.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1871221884793866/

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