Iran and the USA were at an impasse again Monday over how you can end their war while their ceasefire grew increasingly shaky, with the two sides exchanging fire in recent days, ships and Gulf states being targeted, and fighting flaring between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
The volatility could tip the Middle East back into open warfare and lengthen the worldwide energy crisis sparked by the conflict, with Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and America’s blockade of Iranian ports still in place. U.S. President Donald Trump is anticipated to make use of a trip this week to China to induce Chinese President Xi Jinping to pressure Iran into making concessions and end the limbo. Beijing is the largest buyer of the Islamic Republic’s sanctioned crude oil, giving it leverage.
But attending to any deal likely stays tough work. Iran insists it desires to see the American blockade end and sanctions lifted before starting negotiations over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. The U.S. — and Israel — want that material removed because it might be used to eventually construct a bomb, should Iran decide to accomplish that. Tehran insists its program is peaceful, nevertheless it has enriched uranium beyond the degrees needed for civilian power generation.
Israel insists enriched uranium should be taken out of Iran
Trump said Sunday that Iran’s response to his latest proposal was “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” Ending the U.S. blockade before discussing Iran’s nuclear program would eliminate a serious point of leverage.
Within the meantime, the standoff over the strait, a key transit point for the world’s oil and natural gas exports, has sent fuel prices skyrocketing and rattled world markets.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who launched the war with Trump on Feb. 28, insisted that the conflict was “not over,” telling CBS’ “60 Minutes” in an interview that aired Sunday that a critical goal is getting the nuclear material out of Iran. If that may’t be completed with negotiations, Netanyahu said that Israel and the U.S. agree “we are able to reengage them militarily.”
Netanyahu also said the present Iranian government’s “days are numbered — nevertheless it could take plenty of days.”
The U.S. and Israel have killed dozens of high-ranking Iranian officials, including the country’s supreme leader within the opening salvos of the war, and the conflict has inflicted heavy damage to Iran’s economy, but its theocracy maintains its grip on power.
Iran and the US blame one another for the impasse
Trump quickly rejected a brand new Iranian proposal sent Sunday to him via Pakistan. In it, Iran demanded war reparations from the U.S., full Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, an end to sanctions and the discharge of its seized assets abroad, Iranian state television reported.
Get each day National news
Get each day Canada news delivered to your inbox so you may never miss the day’s top stories.
Iran also called for a right away end to the war, including the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah — which have repeatedly exchanged fire though technically in a ceasefire. That conflict has seen Israeli strikes in Lebanon, its occupation of Lebanese territory and deadly Hezbollah attacks, including one which killed one other Israeli soldier, the Israeli military said Monday.
“We didn’t demand any concessions — the one thing we demanded was Iran’s legitimate rights,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Monday. “The American side still insists on its one-sided views and unreasonable demands.”
Iran did, nevertheless, offer to dilute a part of its highly enriched uranium and transport the remaining to a 3rd country, and called for 30-day negotiations to finalize details, two regional officials involved within the negotiations told The Associated Press. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to debate the sensitive diplomacy happening.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered to take the uranium from Iran.
Russia runs Iran’s sole nuclear power plant at Bushehr and likewise took a few of Iran’s uranium stockpile in Tehran’s 2015 nuclear cope with world powers, which the U.S. later withdrew from under the primary Trump administration.
Asked Monday about Putin’s comments, Baghaei said: “At the present stage, our focus is on ending the war.”
Iran continues with its executions
Meanwhile, Iran executed one other man it accused of spying for each the CIA and Israel’s Mossad intelligence service. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency identified the prisoner as Erfan Shakourzadeh, saying he had worked on satellite communications and relayed classified information to those intelligence services.
Iran has carried out a string of executions since nationwide protests swept the country in January. Activist groups have long accused Iran of carrying out closed-door trials during which defendants are unable to completely defend themselves. Iran’s judiciary chief has repeatedly said that Tehran would increase the speed with which it carried out hangings to fight back against its enemies at home and abroad.
© 2026 The Canadian Press