{"id":313105,"date":"2026-02-16T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T12:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=313105"},"modified":"2026-02-11T06:51:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T06:51:33","slug":"irans-comprehensive-peace-proposal-to-the-united-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/02\/irans-comprehensive-peace-proposal-to-the-united-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s Comprehensive Peace Proposal to the United States"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Middle East stands at a crossroads between endless war and comprehensive peace. A framework for peace does exist. Will the US finally seize it?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

9 Feb 2026 – <\/em>History occasionally presents moments when the truth about a conflict is stated plainly enough that it becomes impossible to ignore. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi\u2019s February 7\u00a0address<\/a>\u00a0in Doha,\u00a0Qatar<\/a>\u00a0(transcript here<\/a>) should prove to be such a moment. His important and constructive remarks responded to the US call for comprehensive negotiations, and he laid out a sound proposal for peace across the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Last week, US Secretary of State\u00a0Marco Rubio<\/a>\u00a0called for comprehensive\u00a0negotiations<\/a>: \u201cIf the Iranians want to meet, we\u2019re ready.<\/em>\u201d He proposed for talks to include the nuclear issue, Iran\u2019s military capabilities, and its support for proxy groups around the region. On its surface, this sounds like a serious and constructive proposal. The Middle East\u2019s security crises are interconnected, and diplomacy that isolates nuclear issues from broader regional dynamics is unlikely to endure.<\/p>\n

On February 7, Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi\u2019s responded to the United States\u2019 proposal for a comprehensive peace. In his speech at the Al Jazeera Forum, the foreign minister addressed the root cause of regional instability \u2013 \u201cPalestine\u2026 is the defining question of justice in West Asia and beyond<\/em>\u201d and he proposed a path forward.<\/p>\n

The Foreign Minister\u2019s statement is correct. The failure to resolve the issue of Palestinian statehood has indeed fueled every major regional conflict since 1948. The Arab-Israeli wars, the rise of anti-Israel militancy, the regional polarization, and the repeated cycles of violence, all derive from the failure to create a State of\u00a0Palestine<\/a>\u00a0alongside the State of Israel.\u00a0Gaza<\/a>\u00a0represents the most devastating chapter in this conflict, where Israel\u2019s brutal occupation of Palestine was followed by Hamas\u2019s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and then by Israel\u2019s\u00a0genocide<\/a>\u00a0against the people of\u00a0Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In his speech, Araghchi condemned Israel\u2019s expansionist project \u201cpursued under the banner of security<\/em>.\u201d He warned of the annexation of the\u00a0West Bank<\/a>, which Israeli government officials, as National Security Minister\u00a0Ben Gvir<\/a>, continually call for, and for which the Knesset has already passed a\u00a0motion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Araghchi also highlighted another fundamental dimension of Israeli strategy which is the pursuit of permanent military supremacy across the region. He said that Israel\u2019s expansionist project requires that \u201cneighboring countries be weakened\u2014militarily, technologically, economically, and socially\u2014so that the Israeli regime permanently enjoys the upper hand<\/em>.\u201d This is indeed the\u00a0Clean Break<\/a>\u00a0doctrine of Prime Minister Netanyahu, dating back 30 years. It has been avidly supported by the US through 100 billion dollars in military assistance to Israel since 2000, diplomatic cover at the UN via repeated vetoes, and the consistent US rejection of accountability measures for Israel\u2019s violations of international humanitarian law.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s impunity has destabilized the region, fueling arms races, proxy wars, and cycles of revenge. It has also corroded what remains of the international legal order. The abuse of\u00a0international law<\/a>\u00a0by the US and Israel with much of Europe remaining silent, has gravely weakened the UN Charter, leaving the UN close to collapse.<\/p>\n

In the concluding remarks of his speech, he offered the US a political solution and path forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe path to stability is clear: justice for Palestine, accountability for crimes, an end to occupation and\u00a0apartheid<\/a>, and a regional order built on sovereignty, equality, and cooperation. If the world wants peace, it must stop rewarding aggression. If the world wants stability, it must stop enabling expansionism.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a valid and constructive response to Rubio\u2019s call for comprehensive diplomacy.<\/p>\n

This framework could address all the interlocking dimensions of the region\u2019s conflict. The end of Israel\u2019s expansion and occupation of Palestine, and Israel\u2019s return to the borders of June 4, 1967, would bring an end to outside funding and arming of proxy groups in the region. The creation of a Palestinian state alongside the state of Israel would enhance Israel\u2019s security as well as that of its neighbors. A renewed nuclear agreement with Iran, strictly limiting Iran to peaceful nuclear activities and paired with the lifting of US and EU\u00a0sanctions<\/a>, would add a crucial pillar of regional stability. Iran already agreed to such a nuclear framework a decade ago, in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that was adopted by the UN Security Council in\u00a0Resolution 2231<\/a>. It was the US during Trump\u2019s first term, not Iran, that\u00a0withdrew<\/a>\u00a0from the agreement.<\/p>\n

A comprehensive peace reflects the foundation of modern collective security doctrine, including the\u00a0United Nations<\/a>\u00a0Charter itself. Durable peace requires mutual recognition of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and equal security guarantees for all states.<\/p>\n

Regional security is the shared responsibility of all states in the region, and each of them faces a historic obligation. This comprehensive peace proposal is not new, it has been advocated for decades by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (57 Muslim\u2011majority countries) and the League of Arab States (22 Arab States). Ever since the\u00a02002 Arab Peace Initiative<\/a>, all of these countries have endorsed, on a yearly basis, the framework of land-for-peace. All major Arab and Islamic states, allies of the US, have played a crucial role in facilitating the latest round of US-Iranian negotiations in Oman. Additionally,\u00a0Saudi Arabia<\/a>\u00a0has clearly reminded the US that it will normalize relations with Israel only on the condition of the establishment of a Palestinian State.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0United States<\/a>\u00a0faces a moment of truth. Does it really want peace, or does it want to follow Israel\u2019s\u00a0extremism<\/a>? For decades, the US has blindly followed Israeli misguided objectives. Domestic political pressures, powerful lobbying networks, strategic miscalculations, and perhaps a bit of blackmail lurking in the Epstein files (who knows?) have combined to subordinate American diplomacy to Israel\u2019s regional ambitions.<\/p>\n

The US subservience to Israel does not serve American interests. It has drawn the United States into repeated regional wars, undermined global trust in American foreign policy, and weakened the international legal order that\u00a0Washington<\/a>\u00a0itself helped to construct after 1945.<\/p>\n

A comprehensive peace offers the US a rare opportunity to correct course. By negotiating a comprehensive regional peace grounded in international law, the United States could reclaim genuine diplomacy and help to establish a stable regional security architecture that benefits all parties, including Israel and Palestine.<\/p>\n

The Middle East stands at a crossroads between endless war and comprehensive peace. The framework for peace exists. It requires first and foremost Palestinian statehood, security guarantees for Israel and the rest of the region, a peaceful nuclear deal restoring the basic agreement adopted by the UN a decade ago, lifting of economic sanctions, the unbiased enforcement of international law, and a diplomatic architecture that replaces military force with security cooperation. The world should rally behind a comprehensive framework and take this historic opportunity to achieve regional peace.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Jeffrey D. Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University, is Director of Columbia\u2019s Center for Sustainable Development and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He has served as Special Adviser to three UN Secretaries-General [Kofi Annan (2001-7), Ban Ki-moon (2008-16), and currently serves as an SDG Advocate under Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres. His books include <\/em>The End of Poverty<\/a>, Common Wealth<\/a>, The Age of Sustainable Development<\/a>, Building the New American Economy<\/a>, and most recently,<\/em> A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism<\/a>. Sachs was also an advisor to the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as to the first president of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Sybil Fares is a specialist and advisor in Middle East policy and sustainable development at SDSN.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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