Iran has sent its formal reply to the United States' latest proposal aimed at ending the war between the two countries, Iranian state media said Sunday. The announcement comes during a week of renewed clashes in the Persian Gulf, underscoring the strain on a ceasefire that has held only tenuously since April.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran sent today through Pakistani mediators its response to the latest text proposed by the United States to end the war," the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported, saying the current phase of negotiations was concentrated on halting hostilities.

Pakistan, which brokered the April 8 ceasefire that halted roughly 40 days of joint U.S.-Israeli military operations against Iran, has been the channel for the talks. The Pakistani prime minister confirmed in a separate statement Sunday that Iran's response had been received, per IRNA. The American delegation in past rounds has been led by Vice President JD Vance, with Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner involved.

The New York Times reported, citing Iranian officials, that negotiators are pursuing a 30-day arrangement that would suspend hostilities and lift Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. A broader settlement would be the goal during that monthlong pause, the officials said.

The Sunday announcement landed against a backdrop of fresh skirmishes. The U.S. military said it had hit Iranian coastal targets Friday in response to fire directed at three American destroyers. The United Arab Emirates reported a new round of Iranian drone strikes on its territory Sunday.

Even as Iran's response moved through Pakistan, other Iranian officials struck a more confrontational tone Sunday. Iran's deputy parliament speaker said "the era of dictation is over" and that military operations would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz, per IRNA. Separately, Iran's supreme leader issued new directives to the country's armed forces "to confront enemies' hostile actions," the agency reported.

Iran's nuclear program remains the most contested element of any deal. Inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency have publicly said roughly 970 pounds of highly enriched uranium is believed to remain at sites the U.S. and Israel bombed last year โ€” material Iranian officials have insisted will not be part of any negotiated handover.

In an interview released Sunday by the syndicated program "Full Measure," President Trump said the United States is keeping watch over the stockpile and will eventually retrieve it. "If anybody got near the place, we will know about it, and we'll blow them up," he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to CBS News for an interview airing Sunday on "60 Minutes," said the conflict had not concluded as long as the uranium remained in place. "There is still nuclear material, enriched uranium, that has to be taken out of Iran," Netanyahu said. He said Trump had personally told him, "I want to go in there." Asked how the uranium could be physically removed, Netanyahu said: "You go in and you take it. ... If you have an agreement and you go in and you take it out, why not? That's the best way."

Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who voted with 39 other Senate Democrats last month to block certain arms sales to Israel, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday that he would not support additional military armaments for the current war. "We have a longstanding commitment to Israel having a qualitative military edge. I will continue to support that," Booker said. "In the context of this war, I will not support more military armaments to conduct what I think is a disaster that's endangering American lives, Israeli lives and, as we see in the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia, our regional allies as well."

Sen. David McCormick, a Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Near East, said Iran needs to "give up their enriched uranium, give up their nuclear weapons, and the path to nuclear weapons" in any deal. "It's unclear whether they're going to go down a path of reason," McCormick said on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures." "If they don't, the president has made clear that we have the military capability to put additional pressure in place."

This is a developing story.