President Donald Trump warned that the ceasefire in the Middle East war was on ‘life support’ on Monday after rejecting the latest counteroffer from Iran, which said its military stood ready to respond to any act of aggression.
The president’s furious reaction, delivered in response to a US proposal, to Iran’s position sent oil prices soaring and dashed hopes that a deal could be quickly negotiated to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping.
After slamming the 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 per cent chance of living,’” he told reporters on Monday.
Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who served as chief negotiator in previous talks with Washington, said shortly afterwards that his country was prepared for any eventuality.
“Our armed forces are ready to respond and to teach a lesson for any aggression,” Ghalibaf wrote on X.
“A bad strategy and bad decisions always lead to bad results; the world already understands this,” he added to his status.
The developments unnerved global energy markets already thrown into chaos by the war and the overlapping blockades imposed by Iran and the US in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital conduit for oil and gas shipments.
“The energy supply shock that began in the first quarter is the largest the world has ever experienced,” the CEO and president of Saudi oil giant Aramco, Amin Nasser, told investors.
“If the Strait of Hormuz opens today, it will still take months for the market to rebalance, and if its opening is delayed by a few more weeks, then normalisation will last into 2027,” he continued.
Aside from energy, the world also faces a shortage of fertiliser, much of which comes from Gulf ports, and hence food for tens of millions of people.
Jorge Moreira da Silva, executive director of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), said, “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 told again.
Trump did not say what had offended him in Iran’s response, but Tehran’s foreign ministry said it had called for an end to the US naval blockade of its ports and to the war across the region, implying a halt to Israel’s strikes targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Crucially, ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told reporters Iran demanded the release of assets belonging to the Iranian people, which have for years been unjustly trapped in foreign banks.
This would be not just a return to the status quo before the US and Israel launched the war on 28 February but also a victory in the Islamic republic’s long-standing campaign against its economic isolation.
“We did not demand any concessions. The only thing we demanded was Iran’s legitimate rights,” Baqaei said.
An end to international sanctions would diminish Washington’s leverage over Tehran as it tries to secure a lasting end to Iran’s nuclear enrichment.
The US, Israel and their allies have long accused Iran of seeking atomic weapons, an accusation Tehran has repeatedly denied.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that the conflict will not end until Iran destroys its nuclear facilities.
The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said Iran’s counterproposal had included the possibility of diluting some of its highly enriched uranium, with the rest transferred to a third country.
The lack of a path to a resolution has focused concern on the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran is restricting maritime traffic and setting up a payment mechanism to charge tolls for crossing ships.
US officials have stressed it would be unacceptable for Tehran to control the international waterway.
Trump told Fox News that he was considering reviving a short-lived US operation to guide oil tankers and other commercial ships through the Hormuz but that he had not yet taken a final decision.
Seeking to increase economic pressure on Iran, the United States issued sanctions against 12 individuals and entities that it said facilitated the sale and shipment of Iranian oil to China.
It listed three Iran-based individuals and nine companies, based in Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates, as being subject to the new sanctions.
As part of its blockade, the US Navy has sometimes fired on ships to disable them or boarded and diverted them.
In a social media post on Sunday, the spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s national security commission warned Washington, writing, “Our restraint is over as of today.”
“Any attack on our vessels will trigger a strong and decisive Iranian response against American ships and bases,” Ebrahim Rezaei said.
