United States President Donald Trump has issued a 15-point plan containing US-Israeli demands and offers for ending the ongoing war on Iran, Al Jazeera has confirmed.
The plan has been delivered to Iran through Pakistan, which stated this week that it is ready to host peace talks.
Trump has said that Washington and Tehran have had “very good and productive conversations” aimed at ending the war this week. However, Iran has consistently denied that it is holding talks with the US. In response to Trump’s claim, Iranian leaders said the US is “negotiating with itself“.
The war, which the US and Israel launched on February 28 as negotiations with Iran were ongoing, has had a high cost, roiling energy and stock markets worldwide, disrupting shipping and resulting in casualties across the Middle East.
As of Tuesday, 1,500 people have been killed in Iran alone and 18,551 have been injured, according to official figures from the Iranian health ministry.
Days after the US and Israel began strikes on Iran, the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that the Strait of Hormuz was closed to shipping. It has since begun allowing a small number of approved ships – mainly Indian, Pakistani and Chinese-flagged – to pass.
This, combined with Iranian attacks on US military assets and energy infrastructure in the Gulf region, sent oil prices soaring above $100 a barrel, compared with the pre-war Brent crude price – the international benchmark – of about $65.
After reports of the Trump administration’s 15-point ceasefire plan surfaced on Wednesday, global stock prices rose slightly while oil prices nudged down. But observers say it is far from clear that talks are happening at all and – if they are – whether the two sides could successfully negotiate when their demands for ending the war remain so far apart.
Here is what we know about what each party wants.
What’s in the US’s 15-point plan?
Al Jazeera and American and Israeli news outlets have reported that the US sent Iran a 15-point peace plan, which includes a one-month ceasefire, while the two sides negotiate terms to end the war, via Pakistan.
It is understood that Pakistan, Egypt and Turkiye have been pressing for a peace meeting between the US and Iran in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, to be held by Thursday, Al Jazeera’s John Hendren reported from Washington, DC.
“As the US administration is preparing for peace talks, it’s also preparing for war,” Hendren said, referring to the expected deployment of as many as 3,000 US troops from the 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East.
None of the parties involved — the US, Iran, Israel or the mediating countries — have confirmed the details of the 15-point plan. But Israel’s Channel 12 released what it said were the components of the plan. Many of the proposals match what the Trump administration has spoken of previously.
Some key elements reportedly include:
- A 30-day ceasefire.
- The dismantling of Iran’s nuclear facilities in Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow.
- A permanent commitment from Iran to never develop nuclear weapons.
- The handover of Iran’s stockpile of already enriched uranium to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and a commitment from Iran to allow the IAEA to monitor all elements of the country’s remaining nuclear infrastructure. Iran must also no longer enrich uranium within the country.
- Limits on the range and number of Iran’s missiles.
- Ending Iran’s support for regional proxies.
- Ending Iranian strikes on regional energy facilities.
- Reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
- A removal of all sanctions imposed on Iran, alongside the ending of the UN mechanism that allows sanctions to be reimposed.
- The provision of US support for electricity generation at Iran’s Bushehr civil nuclear plant.
It is unclear to what extent Israel approves of US talks with Iran. On Wednesday, Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim said that “behind closed doors”, Israel agrees with the 15 points laid out by the US, but it “worries how much President Trump will compromise to get it”.
“They fear that these 15 points could be served as a framework for a potential negotiation and that a monthlong ceasefire could precede that … so President Trump could accept that some of his points will be agreed upon [but] not all of them,” Ibrahim reported.
How have US demands shifted since the start of the war?
Some – such as those relating to Iran’s nuclear programme – are the same.
During the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June 2025, the US attacked the Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow nuclear sites. These are enrichment facilities, where uranium can be enriched to levels capable – in theory – of manufacturing atomic bombs.
Under the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which Iran agreed with other nations in 2015, it had already committed not to enrich uranium beyond civilian use levels and was subject to periodic inspections. However, Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of that agreement three years later.
Bushehr, the power plant the US says it would provide assistance to in its 15-point plan – is located about 750km (465 miles) south of Tehran. It is Iran’s only commercial nuclear power plant. It is run with uranium produced in Russia.
Other US aims appear to have changed during the course of the war. While the US and Israel focused on Iran’s nuclear programme during the 12-day war last year, they have pushed for regime change in Iran during the current war.
On the first day of the ongoing war on February 28, Iranian state media confirmed that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed at his office in Tehran.
A week later, Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of Khamenei, was selected as Iran’s new supreme leader, a decision Washington was unhappy with.
After the new supreme leader was appointed, Trump told NBC News, “I think they made a big mistake. I don’t know if it’s going to last. I think they made a mistake.”
However, there is no reference to regime change in the reported 15-point plan.
How has Iran reacted?
Iranian leaders have maintained that there are no negotiations taking place between Washington and Tehran at all.
Iran’s military leadership says it cannot negotiate with the US, which has attacked Iran twice during ongoing negotiations over the past two years.
“Has the level of your inner struggle reached the stage of you [Trump] negotiating with yourself?” Ebrahim Zolfaqari, the top spokesperson for Iran’s joint military command, said on Wednesday on Iranian state TV, mocking the US president.
“People like us can never get along with people like you.”
“As we have always said … no one like us will make a deal with you. Not now. Not ever.”
Iran and Israel continued to trade attacks on Wednesday.
What are Iran’s demands for ending the war?
While Iran’s IRGC has made clear that it does not wish to negotiate with the US, Iran does have some conditions for peace. On March 11, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian laid out the Iranian terms for ending the war.
In an X post, Pezeshkian wrote that he had spoken to his counterparts in Russia and Pakistan, and had reaffirmed “Iran’s commitment to peace”.
Pezeshkian wrote: “The only way to end this war – ignited by the Zionist regime & US – is recognizing Iran’s legitimate rights, payment of reparations, and firm int’l guarantees against future aggression.”
It is understood that Iran would also want all sanctions against it to be lifted.
Additionally, Iran’s state-owned Press TV quoted an Iranian official as saying over the weekend that Tehran was seeking the closure of all US military bases in the region, and a new legal mechanism to control transit through the Strait of Hormuz that formalises its de facto dominance over the waterway.
However, the war has highlighted some differences between the IRGC and Iran’s political leadership, Zeidon Alkinani of Qatar’s Georgetown University told Al Jazeera earlier this month.
Under economic and political pressure, Pezeshkian has shown some readiness to negotiate an end to the war if Iran’s demands are met, Alkinani said. However, he added, this is an existential war for the IRGC, and the force appears willing to fight until the end to ensure the US and Israel never attack Iran again.
“These differences and divisions [between IRGC and political leaders] always existed even prior to this war but we may notice it now more, given the fact that the IRGC believes that it has the right to take the front seat in leading this regional war, which is why a lot of the statements and positions are contradicting with the official ones from Pezeshkian,” Alkinani said.
Could negotiations take place, and what would they focus on?
Some observers believe Iran may be willing to talk on a limited level.
Citing an unnamed Iranian source, US broadcaster CNN reported on Tuesday that there had been “outreach” between the US and Iran rather than “full negotiations”.
The source added that Iran was willing to listen to “sustainable” proposals to bring an end to the conflict.
“Iran is ready to provide all the necessary guarantees that it will never develop nuclear weapons but is entitled to peaceful use of nuclear technology,” CNN quoted the source, who also added that sanctions must be lifted from Iran.
Iran is one of the most heavily sanctioned countries in the world.
In 1979, after Iran’s US-backed shah was overthrown in an Islamic revolution led by returning exile Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the country became an Islamic republic after a referendum, and the US imposed its first sanctions following the Tehran embassy hostage crisis.
This has affected incomes, oil revenue and aviation in the country.
Experts think negotiations are plausible, therefore, as pressure is building on Trump to end the war. However, they are cautious about making predictions about whether they might succeed.
“I would assess the likelihood of talks at 60 percent for several reasons,” Iranian-American economist Nader Habibi told Al Jazeera on Tuesday.
Habibi explained that the costs of the war have been high for all parties. Trump faces pressure to contain the war from Gulf countries, which have suffered Iranian strikes and from major economic partners because of the effect on energy prices and stock markets.
He also faces pressure from voters, whom he will have to placate ahead of US midterm elections in November this year. Opinion polls have consistently suggested that most Americans do not support the war on Iran.
As well as suffering casualties and major disruption at home, Iranian leaders are also facing pressure from their neighbours to stop attacks on territory and energy infrastructure in the region.
Habibi added that several mediating countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye, have been able to establish communication channels with Iranian officials. This paves the way for negotiations, he said.
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