Simon Marks: US Correspondent on the peace proposals, strikes between Iran and the US

Iran's expected to respond to the US's proposal to end the conflict sometime today.  

Yesterday, Axios reported a one-page 14-point memorandum of understanding was being discussed to formally end the war.  

The memo aims to set up negotiations for limiting Iran's nuclear capabilities, releasing billions-of-dollars in frozen assets, and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. 

US Correspondent Simon Marks told Mike Hosking the reported content of the memo sounds very similar to the previous deal with Iran that was criticised by Donald Trump. 

In the meantime, the US has confirmed it has struck Iranian targets. 

US Central Command saying its forces intercepted unprovoked Iranian attacks which included missiles, drones and small boats. 

It says it responded with defence strikes against the inbound threats and targeted missile and drone launch sites, along with command and control locations. 

Iran is accusing the US of violating the ceasefire and targeting an Iranian oil tanker moving through the Strait of Hormuz.   

Its state broadcaster reports aerial attacks were carried out along the coast and Iran immediately responded by attacking US military vessels. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Stateside Simon Marx Beck will this chief correspondent a features
story News Simon morning.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Good morning to you mate.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Are we waiting? We're waiting. What's going on?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
We're waiting. We're waiting and waiting to see how Iran
is going to respond to what we are told was
a one page memo containing peace proposals that the United
States is proffering in Tehran's direction. It has to be
said that when you look at what is reported to
be in that memo, it sounds and reads very much

(00:29):
like the old Iran nuclear deal that President Trump, of course,
is previously criticized and from which he withdrew the United States.
Some kind of moratorium would be observed by the Iranians
on uranium enrichment. The US would lift tanctions and unfreeze
Iranian assets. There would be freedom of navigation in the

(00:51):
Strait of Hormuz that would be honored by both the
iran and the United States, kind of resetting the clock
to before the war began. But whether the Iranians again
to bite and advance this in any meaningful way is
very unclear. So the President continues to flex his muscles
and say that he's willing to return to the use

(01:11):
of force, but we continue to watch.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
And wait, where are the Chinese in this?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Well? I think it's a very interesting question because the
Iranian foreign minister visited Beijing over the last couple of days,
and the Chinese are being seen as potentially trying to
prod all of this in the right direction, not least
because President Trump, of course, is due in Beijing a
little bit later this month for talks with President she

(01:37):
and neither Beijing nor Washington wants this entire issue to
overshadow those talks. So it may well be that we
are seeing the hidden hand of China in all of this.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Now, do answer me this Sarrubio's with the pope and
that's just happened in the last few hours. I get
all of that. Where's this talk of twenty eight come from?
Because surely you've got to go with JD. Vance By
on the fact he's the guy who's there. How do
you injict Rubio into that?

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Well, Rubio has kind of injected himself into it in
a way, partly because he had the opportunity this week
to hold a White House press briefing standing in for
Caroline Levitt, who is on maternity leave the White House
Press secretary, and it was Marco Rubio unplugged that we
witnessed someone who was definitely enjoying the sparring with reporters.

(02:26):
It got him an enormous amount of press attention here,
and if you look at polling, it suggests that Marco
Rubio and Jade Evans are neck and neck among Republican
voters in this very nascent stage of the battle potentially
to succeed President Trump. But I think it's also worth
underscoring Mike that last week alone, President Trump was once

(02:49):
again joking or was he not joking with an audience
when he asked them if they would like him to
serve another eight or nine years in the presidency. So
you know, they're the starter's orders, but they are by
no means off and running yet.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
And that's going to be some race anyway. Lula was
there today at the White House. How did that go well?

Speaker 2 (03:09):
According to President Trump in a posting on truth Social
just within the last half hour or so, it went
very well. He says that Lula is the very dynamic
president of Brazil. We discussed many topics, including trade and tariffs.
Representatives are going to meet now to advance those discussions
in various ways. I think the most interesting aspect about

(03:31):
this meeting is that we didn't get to see it.
There was supposed to be a photo opportunity in the
Oval Office. It never happened. And it may well be
that the Brazilians, worrying that Trump might do a bit
of a z A lens Ski on Lula because they're
not exactly philosophical soulmates, said we're not participating in one
of your made for TV Trump shows. So he's left

(03:53):
the White House and we never actually saw them together
except for a handshake on the White House front doorstep.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
All right, mate, you have a good week in sheiated
Simon Mikes, Who's that you? Correspondent, Features, Story News.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
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