Iran on Monday rejected the latest ceasefire proposal and instead said it wants a permanent end to the war, even as US President Donald Trump’s ultimatum approaches.
“We won’t merely accept a ceasefire,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press. “We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again.”
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said Tehran had conveyed its response through Pakistan, a key mediator.
Trump’s deadline centres on Tehran opening the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped in peacetime. Ferdousi Pour said Iranian and Omani officials were working on a mechanism for administrating the shipping chokepoint.
Iran’s grip on the strait has caused oil prices to surge and shaken the world economy.
Iran’s rejection came after Israel struck a key petrochemical plant in the massive South Pars natural gas field and killed two paramilitary Revolutionary Guard commanders.
The gas field attack aimed at eliminating a major source of revenue for Iran, Israel said.
The field is critical to electricity production, but the strike appeared to be separate from Trump’s threats. The gas field shared with Qatar is the world’s largest.
Under pressure at home as consumers worry, meanwhile, Trump has warned Iran that if no deal is reached to reopen the strait, the US would set the country “back to the stone ages.”
Trump has given multiple deadlines to Iran. The report of Iran’s rejection came as he was making comments to journalists at an annual Easter event at the White House, ahead of more extensive comments Monday afternoon.
It was not clear whether Trump was aware of the news.
He called Iran a “strong” enemy but “not so strong like they were about a month ago.”
Asked if Tuesday at 8 pm Washington time was his final deadline, Trump replied simply, “Yeah.”
Airstrikes kill more than 25 across Iran
Thick smoke rose near Tehran’s Azadi Square after an airstrike hit the grounds of the Sharif University of Technology. Multiple countries have sanctioned the university for its work with the military, particularly on Iran’s ballistic missile program. Araghchi called university “the MIT of Iran,” posting on social media that “Aggressors will see our might.”
Iranian media reported damage to buildings and a natural gas distribution site next to campus. The university is empty as the war has forced all schools into online classes. A strike near Eslamshar, southwest of Tehran, killed at least 15 people, authorities said. Five were killed in a residential area in Qom, and six were killed in strikes on other cities, the state-run IRAN daily newspaper reported. Three people were killed at a home in Tehran, state television reported. In Lebanon, where Israel has launched air attacks and a ground invasion that it says target the Iran-linked Hezbollah militia, an airstrike hit an apartment in Ain Saadeh, a predominately Christian town east of Beirut.
Head of intelligence of IRGC killed
The head of intelligence for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was killed Monday in an attack targeting him, Iranian state media reported. The Guard blamed the attack on the United States and Israel. It did not elaborate on where Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi was killed. However, multiple airstrikes targeted residential areas around Iran’s capital, Tehran, early Monday morning.