Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency says Tehran has rejected the latest ceasefire proposal and wants a permanent end to the war.
The report comes shortly before U.S. President Donald Trump’s deadline for Tehran to open the Strait of Hormuz or see its power plants and bridges attacked.
The news agency said Iran had conveyed its response to the U.S. through Pakistan.
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“We won’t merely accept a ceasefire,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press on Monday. “We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again.”
On the Strait of Hormuz, Ferdousi Pour said Iranian and Omani officials were working on a mechanism for administering the shipping chokepoint.
Iran’s attacks on regional energy infrastructure and its hold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped in peacetime, have sent global energy prices soaring.
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Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose to $109 in early Monday spot trading, about 50% higher than when the war started, then wavered. U.S. stocks were mostly holding steady.
Under pressure at home as consumers worry, Trump has warned Iran that if no deal is reached to reopen the strait, the U.S. would hit power plants and other infrastructure and set the country “back to the stone ages.”
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one,” he threatened Sunday.
Trump has given multiple deadlines to Iran and they could expire Monday night Washington time — though he also posted: “Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time!” without elaborating.
