Trump says ceasefire with Iran on ‘life support’ after rejecting peace proposals | US-Israel war on Iran
Donald Trump said the ceasefire with Iran was on “life support” and that the US Navy was considering resuming military escorts of ships in the Strait of Hormuz in a bid to end Iran’s blockade of the vital waterway.
The US president dismissed Iran’s peace overtures as foolish and denied he was under any domestic pressure to reach a deal.
Referring to the ceasefire that has been in effect since April 7, Trump said: “I would call it the weakest ceasefire right now, after reading that crap they sent us; I haven’t even finished reading it.
“I would say the ceasefire was on massive life support where the doctor walked in and said: ‘Sir, your loved one has about a 1% chance of survival.'”
Last week, the United States sent Iran a set of conditions to ease the conflict, mostly about preventing Tehran from expanding its nuclear program. Over the weekend, Iran sent counteroffers that Trump quickly rejected.
Trump canceled Project Freedom, a plan to escort oil tankers through the strait, in just over two days last week, ostensibly to give Iran time to respond to peace overtures. The military escort plan also faced resistance from Saudi Arabia, which said it would not allow its airspace or bases to be used to support what it sees as an escalation of tensions.
Trump’s latest comments came after oil prices rose again after Iran said there would be no talks on ending the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz unless it agreed to terms.
Major General Muhammad Ali Jafari, a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said: “There will be no further negotiations unless the war on all fronts ends, sanctions are lifted, blocked funds are released, war damages are compensated, and Iran’s sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz is recognized.”
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei said Iran’s proposals were “reasonable, responsible and generous”. He claimed it was still possible for the two sides to reach an agreement, but nothing Iran suggested was unreasonable.
Mostafa Taheri, a member of Iran’s parliament’s industrial committee, has claimed that revenue from proposed new tolls for the Strait of Hormuz would be worth $15bn (£11bn) a year, around a third of what Iran currently receives from oil sales, and would be enough to stabilize its foreign exchange reserves.
Oil prices have soared above $105 a barrel as the stalemate continues and unpalatable military options are once again on the agenda that are unlikely to change Iran’s thinking.
The stalemate will cast a shadow over Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which begins Thursday in Beijing. China has deep economic ties with Iran, and Xi is unlikely to agree to any request from Trump to restrict oil purchases or arms sales between Beijing and Tehran.
There were expectations that the US president would remove the Iran war from the agenda when he sat down for the most important summit of the year. Despite postponing the visit until the end of March, Trump does not appear close to a deal with Tehran. He was left to reexamine military options to save Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, but Iranian officials have said the stockpile is being protected.
This means individual shipping companies are still negotiating with Iran or the United States to bypass the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, but the total number of tankers allowed through is very small. The biggest tension on Monday centered on a cargo of Emirati liquefied petroleum gas sailing under the Panamanian flag and leaving Sharjah port.
Oman’s Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi, foreign minister of the province on the southern side of the strait, held talks with Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of the UN agency International Maritime Organization, to agree a new regime for the crucial waterway as well as urgent humanitarian measures to help crews stranded on oil tankers for weeks.
According to IMO estimates, approximately 1,500 tankers and 20,000 sailors are stranded in the Gulf. Supplies, including water, food and fuel, will soon begin to run out, Dominguez said.
The Iran plan, which Trump rejected, focused largely on ending the US blockade of the strait, but left issues related to Iran’s nuclear program to a negotiation that would begin after 30 days of confidence-building, a postponement that the US president and Israel rejected. Tehran argues that the previous use of US bases in the region to attack Iran means “the strait can no longer be treated as a normal and neutral waterway”.
There are also signs that pressure on Iran’s economy continues to increase. Tehran city council said offices were instructed to reduce electricity consumption by 30 percent during working hours and 70 percent outside working hours. The decision applies to public and private offices. President of the National Association of Internal Medicine Specialists said that there is a serious decrease in the country’s drug reserves.
Estimates suggest that the daily direct cost of internet outages in Iran is approximately $30 million to $40 million in lost sales, with indirect damage as much as twice that.
Iran’s parliament did not meet in public during the war but began holding online sessions upon the recommendation of the country’s supreme national security council.
Iran’s reformist press said: “Inflation, declining purchasing power, and concerns about the supply of basic goods have weighed heavily on public opinion.”
On Tuesday, Britain and France will hold a meeting of up to 40 defense ministers to discuss contributions to the task force to protect free maritime passage in the Strait of Hormuz after the US-Iran deal.
