Iran said yesterday it wanted a lasting end to the war with the US and Israel, and pushed back against pressure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz while US President Donald Trump warned the country could be ‘taken out’ if it did not meet his Tuesday night deadline to reach a deal.
Responding to a US proposal through mediator Pakistan, Tehran rejected a ceasefire and said a permanent end to the war was necessary, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The Iranian response consisted of 10 clauses, including an end to conflicts in the region, a protocol for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, lifting of sanctions and reconstruction, the agency added.
Trump, who has threatened to rain ‘hell’ on Tehran if it did not make a deal by 8pm EDT Tuesday (midnight GMT) to open the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global energy supplies, rejected the Iranian response and said his deadline was final.
At a news conference, Trump said Iran could be ‘taken out’ in one night ‘and that night might be tomorrow night’, referring to Tuesday. He vowed to destroy Iranian power plants and bridges, brushing off concerns that such actions would be a war crime or alienate Iran’s 93 million people.
Without an agreement with Tehran, Trump said, “Every bridge in Iran will be decimated” by midnight EDT (0400 GMT) on Wednesday and “every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again.”
After Trump’s latest comments, Iran’s deputy sports minister, Alireza Rahimi, called on artists and athletes to form human chains at power plants across the country today. “We will stand hand in hand to say: Attacking public infrastructure is a war crime,” Rahimi said on X.
After the US and Israel attacked on February 28, Iran effectively closed Hormuz, a conduit for about a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas supply. The waterway’s stranglehold on the global economy has proved a powerful bargaining chip, and Tehran is reluctant to relinquish it too easily.
The Pakistani-brokered framework for ending the war proposed an immediate ceasefire, followed by talks on a broader peace settlement to be concluded within 15 to 20 days, a source aware of the proposals said.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said earlier US demands, such as a 15-point plan, were rejected as ‘excessive’.
At the news conference, Trump and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth praised the successful weekend retrieval from Iran of a US airman whose jet was shot down on Friday.
Hegseth described the rescue in explicitly Christian terms, comparing it to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. “Shot down on a Friday, Good Friday, hidden in a cave, a crevice, all of Saturday and rescued on Sunday, flown out of Iran as the sun was rising on Easter Sunday, a pilot reborn. All home and accounted for a nation rejoicing. God is good,” Hegseth said.
The rescue mission came amid rising concern about the nearly six-week-long war’s effect on the global economy, including a sharp rise in fuel prices. The conflict has also hit Trump’s approval ratings and intensified anxiety among Republicans about November’s midterm elections.
Iranian state media said the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence chief, Majid Khademi, had died. Israel claimed responsibility for his death.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened to destroy Iran’s infrastructure and hunt down its leaders ‘one by one’. The Israeli military also said it had targeted Iran’s air force through a series of strikes on the Bahram, Mehrabad, and Azmayesh airports. Iran said two of its petrochemical complexes were attacked. Emergency and firefighting teams brought a blaze under control at the South Pars complex in Asaluyeh, Iran’s National Petrochemical Company said. No casualties were reported.
Experts have said strikes on civilian infrastructure such as power plants and bridges would constitute war crimes. Trump said Iranians are ‘willing to suffer that in order to have freedom’, saying that the US has intercepted messages asking for bombings. “They’re saying, ‘Please come back,’” he said.
Meanwhile, Israel saw a heavy day of rocket volleys yesterday, with the sounds of sirens and missile interception booms ringing out across the country throughout the day.
Israel’s military told Reuters there had been 20 missile launches from Lebanon and five from Iran during the day. Several attacks resulted in impacts. A missile hit Haifa overnight, killing four. This raised the war’s death toll in Israel to 23, according to Israel’s ambulance service.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said yesterday that they also carried out missile and drone attacks against Israel.
Thousands of people have been killed across the Middle East in the Iran war, including 3,546 in Iran, US-based rights group HRANA said, and nearly 1,500 in Lebanon.
Israel has invaded southern Lebanon and struck Beirut in a fight against Iran-backed Hizbollah militants that has become the war’s most violent spillover.
Thirteen US service members have died.
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