Waltz says Iranians asked for ‘everything up front’ before Trump rejected ceasefire

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (U.N.) Mike Waltz said Sunday that President Trump rejected Iranian officials’ ceasefire proposal because they asked for “everything up front.”

“They were asking for everything up front. They were asking for relief from billions and billions of sanctions that are going into place as Operation Economic Fury, but also … snapback sanctions from the United Nations that have been in place for many years,” Waltz told host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Those sanctions from the UN are in place because Iran “has violated, over and over again, a number of issues related to its nuclear program,” Waltz noted. Trump has stated the goal of the U.S. war against the Islamic Republic is to eliminate the latter’s nuclear capabilities.

The president confirmed Saturday he rejected a ceasefire proposal from Iranian officials, after the Wall Street Journal reported he turned down a seven-day halt in military hostilities.

“They want to make a deal where they open the strait immediately because they’re losing so badly,” the president told reporters on Saturday, later saying the proposed Iranian deal “would not be acceptable.”

The Wall Street Journal also reported that Trump expects to resume bombing Iran after the November midterms. But the president said this week at the U.N. General Assembly he “will not give credence to the election” regarding the conflict.

Waltz echoed those remarks on Sunday, arguing that Iranian officials are “miscalculating that [Trump is] taking” politics into consideration.

“The president’s just not confident that the Iranians are coming in good faith, and … will truly negotiate the end of their nuclear program,” the ambassador told Tapper.