US President Donald Trump rejected Iran's terms for ending the war in the Middle East on Sunday, after the Islamic Republic responded to Washington's latest proposal earlier in the day.
Iranian state television reported that Tehran rejected the US proposal as amounting to surrender, insisting instead on “war reparations by the US, full Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, an end to sanctions, and the release of seized Iranian assets.”
Trump himself provided no details on Tehran's counterproposal, but in a brief post on his Truth Social platform made clear he was rejecting it.
"I have just read the response from Iran's so-called 'Representatives.' I don't like it -- Totally unacceptable!" Trump said.
"We will never bow down to the enemy, and if there is talk of dialogue or negotiation, it does not mean surrender or retreat," Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday on X.
According to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB, Tehran's response to the US plan, passed to Pakistani mediators, focuses on ending the war "on all fronts, especially Lebanon", as well as on "ensuring shipping security".
It offered little detail, though the US proposal had reportedly focused on extending the truce in the Gulf to allow for talks on a final settlement of the conflict and on Iran's contested nuclear programme.
The response from Iran comes after media reports emerged that US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Qatar’s prime minister on Saturday to discuss the war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with CBS that aired on Sunday that the war isn't over because the enriched uranium needs to be taken out of Iran. “Trump has said to me, ‘I want to go in there,’ and I think it can be done physically,” he said.
Drone attacks on ships across the Gulf
Meanwhile, drones were launched at multiple targets across the Gulf on Sunday, with one striking a freighter bound for Qatar.
"Any attack on Iranian tankers and commercial vessels will result in a heavy attack on one of the American centres in the region and enemy ships." Iranian media reported quoting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
According to Qatar's defence ministry, a small fire was sparked on the commercial vessel, but there were no casualties, while in Kuwait, the military said it repelled a dawn drone attack.
Earlier, South Korea said that one of its cargo vessels, damaged days ago in the Strait of Hormuz, was hit by "two unidentified aircraft", and analysis was being conducted on engine debris and fragments to determine the origin of the attack. Iran denies responsibility for the 4 May attack.
RelatedBut at the time, the US president said Iran had "taken some shots" at the cargo vessel.
Speaking in a phone call on Saturday, Qatar's prime minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told Iran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi that using the Strait of Hormuz as a "pressure card" will only deepen the Middle East crisis, the Qatari foreign ministry said.
Iran imposed a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz early in the war, sending global oil prices soaring and rattling financial markets.
It has since set up a payment mechanism to extract tolls from ships crossing the strait, but US officials have stressed it would be "unacceptable" for Tehran to control an international waterway and the route for a fifth of the world's oil and other vital materials.
The US Navy, meanwhile, is blockading Iran's ports, at times disabling or diverting ships heading to and from them.
Britain and France are leading efforts to create an international coalition to secure the strait after a peace deal is reached, with both countries sending vessels to the region in advance.
