Summary

The stalled diplomacy and recent exchanges of fire could tip the Middle East back into open warfare and prolong the worldwide energy crisis sparked by the conflict. US President Donald Trump said the ceasefire in Iran is "on massive life support," after rejecting Iran's counteroffer to a US proposal to end the war. After slamming Iran's reply as "totally unacceptable" Trump insisted the United States would see a "complete victory" over Iran, adding that the truce which has largely halted fighting in the Gulf for over a month was on its last legs. "The ceasefire is on massive life support, where the doctor walks in and says, 'Sir, your loved one has approximately a one percent chance of living,'" he told reporters on Monday. "I would call it the weakest right now after reading that piece of garbage they sent us," Trump added. "I didn’t even finish reading it." Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who served as chief negotiator in previous talks with Washington, said shortly afterwards that the country's armed forces were ready to "teach a lesson for any aggression." He added in a later post on X that "there is no alternative" but to accept the points laid out in Iran's 14-point proposal rejected by Trump. "Any other approach will be completely inconclusive; nothing but one failure after another. The longer they drag their feet, the more American taxpayers will pay for it," he said. Two sides remain far apart Trump has demanded a major rollback of Iran's nuclear activities, while Iran is pushing for a more limited agreement that would reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz and lift the US blockade ahead of further negotiations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted the conflict would not end until Iran's nuclear facilities were destroyed. Tehran's foreign ministry said Iran's proposal asked that the US recognise its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, which it has effectively closed since the start of the war, allowing only a small number of ships to pass and charging tolls. But experts say such an arrangement would likely violate international law that provides for freedom of navigation. That proposal is also likely to be widely rejected by the international community. The strait was open to international traffic before the war. The world now also faces a shortage of fertiliser, much of which comes from Gulf ports, risking food supplies for tens of millions of people. Jorge Moreira da Silva, executive director of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), warned there were just a few weeks left to avert a potentially "massive humanitarian crisis." "We may witness a crisis that will force 45 million more people into hunger and starvation," he said. Iran is also demanding war reparations from the US, the lifting of international sanctions, the unfreezing of Iranian assets held abroad and an end to the war between Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah, according to Iranian state TV. Israel and Hezbollah have continued to exchange blows, mainly in southern Lebanon, since a nominal ceasefire took hold last month. Israeli strikes on a town in southern Lebanon killed six people and wounded seven others, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Tuesday, as fighting continues despite a ceasefire agreement. The NNA on Tuesday reported strikes near other southern Lebanese towns, and the Israeli military ordered an evacuation of the town of Sohmor in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa valley. "We did not demand any concessions — the only thing we demanded was Iran’s legitimate rights," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Monday. "The American side still insists on its one-sided views and unreasonable demands."