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(Bloomberg) — The ceasefire between the US and Iran reached a particularly precarious moment Monday as President Donald Trump said the agreement was on “massive life support” after he rejected Tehran’s latest peace offer.
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Speaking to reporters Monday in the Oval Office, Trump called Iran’s response to his proposal a “piece of garbage” and that that he “didn’t even finish reading it.”
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Iran responded to last week’s US peace proposal by demanding a lifting of Washington’s naval blockade and sanctions relief, while maintaining a degree of control over traffic through Hormuz, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive information.
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Trump didn’t indicate whether the US would resume military attacks on Iran as he previously has threatened if the Islamic Republic’s leadership didn’t agree to his terms. Trump said earlier Monday that he’s looking at reviving a plan to escort ships through the vital Strait of Hormuz.
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The developments marked the latest failure by Trump to engineer a resolution to the 10-week war, which touched off a global energy crisis and continues to pose grave domestic political risks for him and his Republican party. The conflict also has strained relations with China, whose president Xi Jinping Trump is still slated to meet in Beijing later this week.
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Tehran has also insisted that any agreement result in an immediate end to fighting, including in Lebanon, where Israel is waging a parallel war against militant group Hezbollah, the person said. The conflict has killed thousands of people across the Middle East and upended oil and gas markets.
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The impasse means Hormuz remains largely blocked, with Iran and other Persian Gulf countries unable to export energy supplies through the waterway — a conduit for a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas before the war.
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The US Navy faces millions of dollars of extra costs each time it sends one of its destroyers through the waterway, in a fraught voyage that requires added surveillance measures and support from fighter jets and helicopters. The total for repeatedly escorting commercial shipping in and out of the Gulf would add billions to the price of a conflict.
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Fox also cited Trump as saying Iran’s leaders are going to surrender and that they are leaving it up to the US to transport uranium stockpiles out of the Islamic Republic. There’s been no public indication during the war to date that Tehran is about to back down.
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Iran has deployed its Ghadir-class midget submarines in the Persian Gulf to act as an “invisible guardian” of Hormuz, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. The home-grown model, capable of firing anti-ship cruise missiles, will add to concerns among shipowners about transiting the chokepoint.
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A tanker loaded with LNG from Qatar appeared to have turned back from the strait on Monday. Still, some vessels managed to get through, including a Qatari ship.
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The reputation of the strait as a reliable artery for global energy trade may be permanently damaged by its prolonged closure, International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said.
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