President Donald Trump said on Monday that a ceasefire with Iran was “on life support” after he rejected Tehran’s response to a U.S. peace proposal, fuellingconcerns of a resumption of hostilities in the 10-week-old conflict that has killed thousands and halted vital energy flows.
Days after Washington floated a proposal aimed at reopening negotiations, Iran on Sunday released a response focused on ending the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, where U.S. ally Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. The response had been swiftly rejected by Trump.
Asked where the ceasefire stands, Trump told reporters on Monday that the document sent by Iran was a piece of garbage.
He said: “I would say the ceasefire is on massive life support… when the doctor walks in and says, ‘Sir, your loved one has approximately a 1 percent chance of living’.”
The US president said Iran’s leaders were “very dishonourable people.” “Look, I’ve had to deal with them four or five times – they change their mind. That piece of garbage they sent us – I didn’t even finish reading it,” he said.
Trump also accused Iran of going back on an agreement to allow the US to remove its supply of enriched uranium. He insisted that Iran would “never have a nuclear weapon”.
In its response, Tehran also demanded compensation for war damage, emphasised its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, and called on the U.S. to end its naval blockade, guarantee no further attacks, lift sanctions and remove a ban on Iranian oil sales.
The U.S. had proposed an end to fighting before starting talks on more contentious issues, including Iran’s nuclear programme. Tehran defended its stance on Monday, a Reuters report said.
“Our demand is legitimate: demanding an end to the war, lifting the (U.S.) blockade and piracy, and releasing Iranian assets that have been unjustly frozen in banks due to U.S. pressure,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson EsmaeilBaghaei said.
“Safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz and establishing security in the region and Lebanon were other demands of Iran, which are considered a generous and responsible offer,” he added.
Brent crude oil futures traded 2.7 per cent higher at around $104 a barrel, as the deadlock left the Strait of Hormuz largely closed. Before the war began on February 28, the narrow waterway carried one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, and has since become a central pressure point in the conflict.
Disruption caused by the near-closure of the strait has forced oil producers to cut exports and traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is at a trickle compared with before the war. Shipping data on Kpler and LSEG showed that three tankers laden with crude exited the waterway last week, with trackers switched off to avoid Iranian attack.
Addressing whether combat operations against Iran were over, Trump said in remarks that: “They are defeated, but that doesn’t mean they’re done.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war was not over because there was “more work to be done” to remove enriched uranium from Iran, dismantle enrichment facilities and address its proxy forces and ballistic missile capabilities.
Meanwhile, Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil output dropped further in April to the lowest in more than two decades, a Reuters survey found, as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz and forced export cuts.
Crude output by the 12-member OPEC in April fell by 830,000 barrels per day month-on-month to 20.04 million bpd, the survey found. March’s figure was revised 700,000 bpd lower due to a change in the Saudi estimate.
Eight members of the OPEC+ producer group, which includes OPEC plus allies including Russia, had agreed to resume oil production hikes in April, although the outbreak of the Iran war on February 28 and effective Hormuz closure made it impossible to deliver on the agreement.
Kuwait experienced the group’s biggest drop in production in April, reflecting a whole month of disruption to exports, the Reuters survey found.
Saudi Arabia and Iraq also had further declines, although the United Arab Emirates was the only Gulf member able to increase production. Like Saudi Arabia, the UAE has an export route bypassing Hormuz and tanker data shows higher UAE exports in April.
April’s output is the lowest by OPEC since at least 2000, excluding membership changes since then according to Reuters surveys, and is significantly below the levels reached during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when demand collapsed.
Besides the UAE, which left OPEC with effect from May 1, Venezuela and Libya also raised output during April, the survey found.
Emmanuel Addeh
