Trump says US-Iran ceasefire is 'on massive life support'

LAST UPDATE | 50 mins ago

DONALD TRUMP HAS claimed that the US-Iran ceasefire was on “massive life support” as the two sides failed to agree terms to start talks on ending their war.

“The ceasefire is on massive life support, where the doctor walks in and says, ‘Sir, your loved one has approximately a one percent chance of living,’” he told reporters this afternoon.

Iran said earlier that it demanded the release of its frozen assets and the end of a US blockade of its ports, after Trump angrily rejected Tehran’s terms for ending the war.

The sharp exchange of messages raised the spectre of a return to open conflict in the Gulf, dashed hopes of a quick negotiated deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping and sent oil prices higher.

Trump reacted with fury after Iran responded to the latest US proposed outline for peace talks with a counteroffer he deemed, in a brief social media post, “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE”.

The impasse unnerved global energy markets, with international benchmark Brent Crude prices rising 4.65% to $99.95 (€85) a barrel during early morning trade in Asia.

The US leader did not say what had offended him in Iran’s response, but Tehran’s foreign ministry said it had called for an end to the US naval blockade and to the war “across the region” – implying a halt to Israel’s strikes targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Crucially, ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told reporters, Iran demanded the “release of assets belonging to the Iranian people, which have for years been unjustly trapped in foreign banks”.

This would suggest not just a return to the status quo before the United States and Israel launched the war on 28 February, but a victory for the Islamic government’s long-standing campaign against economic isolation.

“We did not demand any concessions. The only thing we demanded was Iran’s legitimate rights,” Baqaei said.

An end to international sanctions would also diminish Washington’s leverage over Tehran as it tries to secure a lasting end to Iran’s nuclear enrichment.

The US, Israel and their allies have long accused Iran of seeking an atomic bomb, an accusation Tehran has repeatedly denied.

“We’re going to have a complete victory,” Trump told reporters this afternoon, adding that Iran thinks “I’ll get tired of this. I’ll get bored, or I’ll have some pressure. But there’s no pressure.”

Fertiliser shortage

A UN task force today warned that tens of millions of people could face hunger and starvation if fertilisers are not soon allowed through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has had the strategic waterway, through which a third of the world’s fertilisers normally pass, in a chokehold for months in retaliation for the war launched by the United States and Israel on 28 February, disrupting a trade critical for farmers around the world in a race against the end of planting seasons.

“We have a few weeks ahead of us to prevent what will likely be a massive humanitarian crisis,” Jorge Moreira da Silva, executive director of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and leader of the task force, told AFP in an interview in Paris.

“We may witness a crisis that will force 45 million more people into hunger and starvation.”

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Global focus has been on the economic impacts of the throttled oil and gas trade, but the UN has been sounding the alarm of the threat the blockade poses to the world’s food security, with countries in Africa and Asia likely to be particularly hard hit.

While food prices have not exploded yet, Moreira da Silva said, there has been a “massive increase” in fertiliser costs, which experts say would likely lead to a drop in agriculture productivity and send food prices soaring.

Moreira da Silva said moving just an average of five vessels a day of fertilisers and related raw materials through the strait would head off the crisis for farmers.

What’s missing, he said, is “the political will”.

‘It’s not over’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted the conflict would not end until Iran’s nuclear facilities are destroyed.

“There’s still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled,” he said.

The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said Iran’s counter-proposal had included the possibility of diluting some of its highly enriched uranium, with the rest transferred to a third country.

Iran had sought guarantees that the transferred uranium would be returned if negotiations failed or Washington abandoned the agreement, sources told the Journal.

Trump is expected to press China’s President Xi Jinping – a major buyer of Iranian oil – on the Iran issue when he visits Beijing on Thursday, according to a senior US official.

The lack of a path to a resolution has focused concern on the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran is restricting maritime traffic and setting up a payment mechanism to charge tolls for crossing ships.

US officials have stressed it would be “unacceptable” for Tehran to control the international waterway — the export route for a fifth of the world’s oil.

The US Navy is also blockading Iran’s ports, at times disabling or diverting ships heading to and from them.

‘Restraint over’

As diplomatic momentum appeared to dwindle, fresh drone attacks in the Gulf yesterday rattled the ceasefire.

The United Arab Emirates said its air defences intercepted a drone attack launched from Iran, while Kuwait reported “hostile drones” in its airspace.

Qatar’s defence ministry also said a freighter arriving in its waters from Abu Dhabi was hit by a drone.

In a social media post yesterday, the spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s national security commission warned Washington: “Our restraint is over as of today.”

“Any attack on our vessels will trigger a strong and decisive Iranian response against American ships and bases,” Ebrahim Rezaei said.

- © AFP 2026