A senior Iranian official said that Iran's initial reaction to the U.S. proposal, which was emailed to Pakistan,?was a characterization of it as "unfair and one-sided". He added that there might be a way forward if Washington acted with realism.

Officials said that the proposal was "reviewed in depth on Wednesday night" by senior Iranian officials and the representative of the Supreme Leader.

He said that, "in a nutshell, the proposal implies that Iran would give up its ability to defend themselves in exchange for a vague proposal to lift sanctions," adding that it lacked minimum requirements for success.

He stated that "no plan for talks appears realistic at this stage" and "there is still no arrangement for negotiations". Meanwhile, Turkey and Pakistan are trying to "establish a common ground between Iran and the United States and reduce their differences". (Writing and editing by Alex Richardson; Parisa Hafezi)

(source: Reuters)