Trump warns Iran 'good times are over', must 'wake up' on nuclear talks

US President Donald Trump warned Iran to “wake up quickly” after Tehran put forward a proposal to delay an agreement on its nuclear program.

“Iran cannot get things on track,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on April 29. “They do not know how to sign a non-nuclear deal. They’d better wake up quickly!”

The US president also shared an AI-generated image showing himself holding an assault rifle, with bombs exploding on a mountainside in the background. A banner on the photo read: “GOOD TIMES ARE OVER!”

The latest threats come amid rising uncertainty around the fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran, days after the president canceled the latest round of talks with Tehran.

Although Washington said it was reviewing Tehran’s proposal, the initial response was reportedly lukewarm. The White House stressed that Trump “will not be pressured into signing a bad deal” and that “Iran must never acquire nuclear weapons.”

Fierce competition

Rob Geist Pinfold, a lecturer in international security at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera that “we have moved past the stage… of an actual war,” but both Tehran and Trump are in a phase of “fierce competition.”

“Basically, both sides are trying to signal to the other that they have greater resilience, that time is on their side,” Pinfold said.

Tehran’s proposal “kicks all the hard issues down the road” by prioritizing ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

“[But that tactic] simply doesn’t work with the Americans because they feel that if they give up the leverage they have – the leverage of military power – the war could restart,” Pinfold added.

Meanwhile, Washington claims it has increased financial pressure on Tehran.

In a post on X on the evening of April 28, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said his department had “targeted Iran’s international underground banking infrastructure, its cryptocurrency access, its ghost fleet, and its weapons procurement network.”

Last week, the US Treasury sanctioned an independent Chinese refinery for buying hundreds of millions of dollars of Iranian crude oil, along with 40 shipping companies and vessels allegedly operating in Iran’s ghost fleet.

Bessent claimed these actions “have disrupted tens of billions of dollars in revenue” and caused Iran’s currency to depreciate “rapidly.”

On April 29, the Iranian rial fell to a record low against the US dollar, losing about 6% of its value since the war began.

According to exchange rate tracking websites Bonbast and AlanChand, the rial was trading at around 1.8 million rials to the dollar on the black market. When the war started in late February, the rate was about 1.7 million rials to the dollar.

Iran executes, imprisons protesters

As negotiations stall, the Iranian authorities have intensified prosecutions of protesters and dissidents.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on April 29 that at least 21 people have been executed and more than 4,000 arrested since the war began in Iran.

His office said 9 executions were linked to the January protests, 10 for alleged membership of opposition groups, and 2 for espionage.

“I am appalled to see that – alongside the already severe impacts of the conflict – the rights of the Iranian people continue to be harshly and brutally stripped away by the authorities,” Turk said.

According to the UN, many of the 4,000 arrested have been subjected to enforced disappearance, torture, or other unlawful penalties.

Iran’s newly strengthened espionage law allows authorities to execute and confiscate property of those accused of various activities linked to “hostile states and groups.”