Trump casts doubt on prospect of Iran deal

TEHRAN/ WASHINGTON:

President Donald Trump on Thursday urged Iran to make a deal to end US and Israeli bombing or face more strikes on their country.

"They now have the chance, that is Iran, to permanently abandon their nuclear ambitions and to join a new path forward," Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

"We'll see if they want to do it. If they don't, we're their worst nightmare. In the meantime, we'll just keep blowing them away."

Trump spoke after a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Thursday that Washington's proposal for ending nearly four weeks of fighting is "one-sided and unfair" but that diplomacy continues.

Trump said Iranians were talking with the US and described them as desperate to make a deal, characterizations Tehran has denied.

He also cast Iranian officials as "great negotiators" and said he was seeking an agreement that opens the Strait of Hormuz and shuts down Tehran's military ambitions.

Trump suggested that a deal might not ultimately come together. "I don't know if we'll be able to do that," he said of the prospects for a deal. I don't know if we're willing to do that."

Meanwhile, the US president says that Washington is pausing strikes on Iranian energy plants for 10 days until Monday, April 6 "as per the Iranian government request".

"Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the fake news media and others, they are going very well," Trump has said in a post on Truth Social.

Iranian naval chief

Israel on Thursday said it has killed the Iranian navy chief overseeing what is a near-total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

Alireza Tangsiri, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) navy, was "directly responsible for the terrorist act of bombing and blocking the Strait of Hormuz", and has been "blown up", according to Israel's defence minister Israel Katz.

He added that a number of other "senior Navy command officials" have also been killed. Iran has not yet commented.

Since the start of the war on 28 February, Israel has assassinated several top Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and security chief Ali Larijani.

Effectively blockading the Strait of Hormuz - the thin waterway between Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman, through which around 20% of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes - has been a key pillar of Iran's strategy in the war.

Tangsiri was appointed as the commander of the Navy in 2018, having previously served as deputy commander since 2010. In 2019, he was sanctioned by the US Treasury along with other IRGC commanders after Iran shot down a US surveillance drone near the strait.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Tangsiri as an individual with "a great deal of blood on his hands" and said his assassination was "yet another example of the co-operation between us and our friend, the United States, toward the common goal of achieving the objectives of the war".

US Central Command said in a statement Tangsiri's death "makes the region safer" and that the IRGC's navy "is on an irreversible decline". It also called on serving members of the IRGC to abandon their posts and return home "to avoid further risk of unnecessary injury or death".

Israel's military said in a statement posted on X that the head of the IRGC Navy's intelligence directorate, Behnam Rezaei, was also "eliminated".

 

IAEA chief

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi has reiterated his concern about strikes on Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, warning that since it is an operating plant containing nuclear material, "damage to the facility could result in a major radiological accident affecting a large area in Iran and beyond".

Grossi has once again called for maximum restraint to avoid the risk of such an accident and stressed the importance of "observing the 7 pillars for ensuring nuclear safety and security during a conflict".

 

Israel hit list

Israel removed Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf from its hit list after Pakistan urged Washington to press Israel not to target them, a Pakistani source with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters on Thursday.

"The Israelis had their coordinates and wanted to take them out, we told the US if they are also eliminated then there is no one else to talk to, hence the US asked the Israelis to back off," the source said.

Pakistan's military and foreign office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Israel's military declined to comment, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that the two top Iranian officials had been temporarily removed from Israel's list of officials to eliminate as they explore possible peace talks. The two officials have been removed from the list for up to four or five days, the Journal said, citing US officials, but did not mention any Pakistani role in it.

Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey are playing the role of mediator between Tehran and Washington to end the Iran war.

Iran is reviewing a 15-point proposal from U.S. President Donald Trump, sent through Pakistan, to end the war. The proposal calls for removing Iran's stocks of highly enriched uranium, halting enrichment, curbing its ballistic missile program and cutting off funding for regional allies, according to Israeli cabinet sources familiar with the plan.

Israeli officials have repeatedly said that no senior Iranian official was immune from being attacked. Last week, Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said that he and Netanyahu had authorized the military to target officials without prior authorization.

Asked whether Araqchi and Qalibaf had been removed from an Israeli hit list following a request from Pakistan, Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said the military "has a rigorous process before every operation and every strike," but added: "I'm not going to go into specific potential targets."

 

Oil prices rise

Oil prices have risen by more than 5% as the US and Iran give differing accounts over whether peace talks on the war are taking place.

The benchmark for Brent crude oil reached a peak of $108 a barrel on Thursday, and was hovering just under this level at 15.30 GMT. It had closed at $102 the previous day.

It comes after the US insisted talks about ending the war were continuing, while Iran said negotiations were not taking place. Meanwhile, attacks on Israel, Iran and Lebanon are ongoing.

The global financial group MUFG says the "conflicting signals" have "heightened uncertainty".

"Ongoing military escalation, including troops deployments and fresh strikes, alongside limited tanker movement under strict Iranian conditions, continues to strain global energy markets," its analyst Soojin Kim says.

(With additional input from News Desk)