- Brent jumps above $104 a barrel.
- Netanyahu demands removal of uranium.
- Foreign ships warned off Hormuz.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Sunday branded Iran’s terms to end the Middle East war as “totally unacceptable”, raising the likelihood of renewed conflict after weeks of negotiations.
Iran had responded to Washington’s latest peace proposal earlier in the day, while warning that it would not hold back from retaliating against any new US attacks or allowing more foreign warships into the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump himself did not provide details on Tehran’s counterproposal, but in a brief post on his Truth Social platform, he made it clear that he rejected it.
“I just read the response from Iran’s so-called ‘Representatives’. I don’t like it – TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” Trump said.
The back-and-forth came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – whose forces launched the war against Iran alongside the US military on February 28 – insisted the conflict was not over until Iran’s enriched uranium was removed and its nuclear facilities dismantled.
Tehran publicly maintained its defiant line despite behind-the-scenes diplomacy.
“We will never bow down to the enemy, and if there is talk of dialogue or negotiation, it does not mean surrender or retreat,” Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday, X.
According to state television IRIBTehran’s response to the US plan, given to Pakistani mediators, focuses on ending the war “on all fronts, especially Lebanon” – where Israel has stopped its fight with Iran-backed Hezbollah – as well as on “ensuring the safety of shipping”.
It gave few details, although the US proposal had reportedly focused on extending the ceasefire in the Gulf to allow for talks on a final resolution to the conflict and on Iran’s disputed nuclear programme.
The impasse unsettled global energy markets, with oil prices opening significantly higher on Monday. International benchmark Brent crude rose 2.69% to $104.01 a barrel. barrel for delivery in July.
Netanyahu said in an interview broadcast Sunday that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium must be removed before the war can end.
“It is not over, because there is still nuclear material – enriched uranium – to be taken out of Iran. There are still enrichment sites to be dismantled,” Netanyahu told CBS’s “60 minutes.”
He added that Trump was on the same page about the enriched uranium, although the president said in a recent interview that the United States could remove it “whenever we want” and that it was “very well monitored” where it is now.
Trump is expected to press President Xi Jinping of China – a major buyer of Iranian oil – on Iran when he visits Beijing in the coming week, a senior US administration official said.
No Hormuz ‘Interference’
Meanwhile The Wall Street Journalciting people familiar with the matter, Iran presented its own demands to Washington and proposed to have some of its highly enriched uranium diluted and the rest transferred to a third country.
In its response, delivered through mediator Pakistan, Iran sought guarantees that the transferred uranium will be returned if talks fail or Washington later leaves the deal, the sources said. Journal.
Trump did not mention such details when dismissing Iran’s response.
Iran imposed a blockade of the vital Strait of Hormuz early in the war, sending global oil prices skyrocketing and rattling financial markets.
It has since set up a payment mechanism to deduct tolls from ships crossing the strait, but US officials have stressed that it would be “unacceptable” for Tehran to control an international waterway and the route for a fifth of the world’s oil and other vital materials.
The US Navy, meanwhile, blockades Iran’s ports, sometimes disabling or diverting ships going to and from them.
Britain and France are leading efforts to create an international coalition to secure the strait after a peace deal was struck, with both countries sending ships to the region in advance.
The two countries will host a multinational meeting of defense ministers from more than 40 nations on Tuesday on military plans to restore trade flows through the Strait of Hormuz, the British government said.
But Iran warned on Sunday that Britain and France would face “a decisive and immediate response” if they deploy their ships to the strait.
“Only the Islamic Republic of Iran can establish security in this strait, and it will not allow any country to interfere in such matters,” Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi wrote on X.
French President Emmanuel Macron later insisted that his country had “never envisaged” a naval deployment in Hormuz, but rather a security mission “coordinated with Iran.”
‘restraint over’
Fresh drone strikes on Sunday in the Gulf were the latest to rattle the ceasefire after several recent flare-ups.
The United Arab Emirates said its “air defense systems successfully engaged two UAVs launched from Iran.”
Kuwait also reported an attempted attack and said its armed forces dealt with “a number of hostile drones in Kuwaiti airspace.”
And Qatar’s defense ministry said a cargo ship arriving in its waters from Abu Dhabi was hit by a drone.
There was no immediate responsibility but Iran’s Dad the news agency reported that “the bulk carrier that was hit near the coast of Qatar was flying an American flag.”
In a social media post on Sunday, the spokesman for Iran’s parliament’s national security commission warned Washington: “Our restraint is over today.”
“Any attack on our vessels will trigger a strong and decisive Iranian response against US ships and bases,” Ebrahim Rezaei said.
