{"id":649,"date":"2026-05-11T18:50:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T18:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/?p=649"},"modified":"2026-05-11T18:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T18:50:07","slug":"trump-rejects-irans-counteroffer-to-end-war-insists-on-complete-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/?p=649","title":{"rendered":"Trump rejects Iran’s counteroffer to end war, insists on ‘complete victory’"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump on Monday said the ceasefire in the Middle East war<\/a> was on \u201clife support,\u201d rejecting Iran\u2019s latest counteroffer<\/a>, which it said had included demands for the release of frozen assets and the end of a US blockade<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s reaction to Iran\u2019s position \u2014 itself a response to a US proposal \u2014 sent oil prices soaring and dashed hopes that a deal could be quickly negotiated to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping.<\/p>\n

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After slamming the response as \u201cTOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE\u201d, Trump insisted the US would see a \u201ccomplete victory\u201d over Iran, adding that the truce<\/a>, which has largely halted fighting in the Gulf for over a month, was on its last legs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ceasefire is on massive life support, where the doctor walks in and says, \u2018Sir, your loved one has approximately a one per cent chance of living,\u2019\u201d he told reporters on Monday.<\/p>\n

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The developments unnerved global energy markets already thrown into chaos by the war and the overlapping blockades imposed by Iran and the US in the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 a vital conduit for oil and gas shipments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe energy supply shock that began in the first quarter is the largest the world has ever experienced,\u201d the CEO and president of Saudi oil giant Aramco, Amin Nasser, told investors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Strait of Hormuz opens today, it will still take months for the market to rebalance, and if its opening is delayed by a few more weeks, then normalisation will last into 2027,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Hunger and starvation<\/h2>\n

Aside from energy, the world also faces a shortage of fertiliser, much of which comes from Gulf ports, and hence food for tens of millions of people.<\/p>\n

Jorge Moreira da Silva, executive director of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), told AFP<\/em> there were just a few weeks left to avert a potentially \u201cmassive humanitarian crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may witness a crisis that will force 45 million more people into hunger and starvation.\u201d Trump did not say what had offended him in Iran\u2019s response, but Tehran\u2019s foreign ministry said<\/a> it had called for an end to the US naval blockade of its ports and to the war \u201cacross the region\u201d \u2014 implying a halt to Israel\u2019s strikes targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Crucially, ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told reporters, Iran demanded the \u201crelease of assets belonging to the Iranian people, which have for years been unjustly trapped in foreign banks\u201d.<\/p>\n

This would not be just a return to the status quo before the United States and Israel launched the war on February 28, but a victory in the Islamic republic\u2019s long-standing campaign against its economic isolation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not demand any concessions. The only thing we demanded was Iran\u2019s legitimate rights,\u201d Baqaei said.<\/p>\n

An end to international sanctions would diminish Washington\u2019s leverage over Tehran as it tries to secure a lasting end to Iran\u2019s nuclear enrichment. The US, Israel and their allies have long accused Iran of seeking atomic weapons, an accusation Tehran has repeatedly denied.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u2018It\u2019s not over\u2019<\/h2>\n

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted<\/a> the conflict would not end until Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities were destroyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not over, because there\u2019s still nuclear material \u2014 enriched uranium \u2014 that has to be taken out of Iran,\u201d he told US broadcaster CBS<\/em>\u2019s 60 Minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wall Street Journal<\/em>, citing people familiar with the matter, said Iran\u2019s counter-proposal had included the possibility of diluting some of its highly enriched uranium, with the rest transferred to a third country.<\/p>\n

Iran had sought guarantees that the transferred uranium would be returned if negotiations failed or Washington abandoned the agreement, sources told the Journal.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u2018Restraint over\u2019<\/h2>\n

US officials have stressed it would be \u201cunacceptable\u201d for Tehran to control the international waterway.<\/p>\n

Trump told Fox News<\/em> that he was considering reviving a short-lived US operation to escort oil and other commercial shipping through the Hormuz, but that he had not yet taken a final decision.<\/p>\n

Saudi sources previously told AFP<\/em> that Saudi Arabia had prohibited the US from using its airspace and bases for the operation the first time around over fears \u201cit would just escalate the situation and would not work\u201d.<\/p>\n

The US Navy is also blockading Iran\u2019s ports, at times firing on ships to disable them or boarding and diverting them.<\/p>\n

In a social media post on Sunday, the spokesman for the Iranian parliament\u2019s national security commission warned Washington: \u201cOur restraint is over as of today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny attack on our vessels will trigger a strong and decisive Iranian response against American ships and bases,\u201d Ebrahim Rezaei said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump on Monday said the ceasefire in the Middle East war was on \u201clife support,\u201d rejecting Iran\u2019s latest counteroffer, which it said had included demands for the release of frozen assets and the end of a US blockade. The president\u2019s reaction to Iran\u2019s position \u2014 itself a response to a US proposal \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}