Today's Edition
DUBAI/WASHINGTON (REUTERS)
US President Donald Trump's swift rejection of Iran's response to a US peace proposal sent oil prices surging on Monday amid concerns the 10-week-old conflict will drag on, keeping shipping through the Strait of Hormuz paralysed.
Days after the US floated an offer in the hopes of re-opening negotiations, Iran on Sunday released a response focused on ending the war on all fronts, especially Lebanon. Tehran also included a demand for compensation for war damage, Iranian state TV said. It also called on the US to end its naval blockade, guarantee no further attacks, lift sanctions, and end a US ban on Iranian oil sales, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said.
Within hours, Trump dismissed Iran's proposal with a post on social media.
"I don’t like it - TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE," Trump wrote on Truth Social, without giving further detail. The US had proposed an end to fighting before starting talks on more contentious issues, including Iran's nuclear programme.
Oil prices jumped more than $4 a barrel on Monday following news of the continued stalemate that leaves the narrow Strait of Hormuz largely closed. Before the war began on February 28, the waterway carried one-fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas flows, and has emerged as one of the central pressure points in the war.
While traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is at a trickle compared to before the war, shipping data on Kpler and LSEG showed three tankers laden with crude exited the waterway last week, with trackers switched off to avoid Iranian attack.
Trump is expected to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday. With mounting pressure to draw a line under the war and the global energy crisis it has ignited, Iran is among the topics Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to discuss.
Addressing whether combat operations against Iran were over, Trump said in remarks aired on Sunday: "They are defeated, but that doesn't mean they're done."
