Iran-US war latest: Tehran refuses to back down on Trump’s demand to end nuclear programme in latest peace proposal

Donald Trump has said he will hold off on a planned attack against Iran at the request of Gulf allies, who believe a deal to end the war will be reached with “serious negotiations” being held.

The US president claimed renewed military strikes had been due to take place on Tuesday.

He said he had been told the agreement would be “very acceptable” to the US and would mean “no nuclear weapons for Iran”.

But he warned that he had instructed US forces to prepare for “a full, large-scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice” in case a deal was not struck.

Iran has rejected Donald Trump’s demand that it end its nuclear programme in its latest peace proposal, in a signal that both sides remain far apart.

Tehran’s deputy ‌foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said that Iran’s revised proposal emphasised the country’s “right to enrich and enjoy peaceful nuclear rights” and called for an end to the US blockade.

Both Iran and the US have exchanged various peace proposals since a ceasefire agreed last month, but are yet to reach an agreement on key issues.

Iran has figured out that Trump’s bluster and swirl of social media threats doesn’t matter much so long as they control the Strait of Hormuz, Andrew Feinberg writes,

US treasury secretary Scott Bessent has announced another 30-day extension of a sanctions waiver allowing purchases of Russian seaborne oil to aid “energy-vulnerable” countries hit by the Iran war.

Bessent said that the treasury was issuing the 30-day general license after a previous waiver lapsed on Saturday, reversing plans not to grant an extension.

This will allow temporary access to Russian oil and petroleum products stranded on tankers without violating severe US sanctions on Russian oil majors, he said.

The second waiver extension was requested by poor and vulnerable countries that cannot get Gulf oil shipments due to the US-Israeli war with Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a source familiar with the decision told Reuters.

“This extension will provide additional flexibility, and we will work with these nations to provide specific licenses as needed,” Bessent said.

“This general license will help stabilize the physical crude market and ensure oil reaches the most energy-vulnerable countries.”

Donald Trump has accused Iran of derailing efforts to end the war by sending a peace proposal with “no relationship” to the deal being discussed between the two countries.

The US president said Tehran was “dying to sign a deal” even as both sides appeared to have reached an impasse on key issues, including the abandonment of Iran’s nuclear programme.

“They scream all the time,” he told Fortune ahead of his trip to China last week. “I can tell you one thing – they’re dying to sign [a deal]. But they make a deal, and then they send you a paper that has no relationship to the deal you made. I say, ‘Are you people crazy?’”

Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper will warn that Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz could result in tens of millions going hungry as she hosts a major aid summit today.

In a speech in London, she is expected to say the world is “sleepwalking into a global food crisis” as the Hormuz blockade disrupts global supplies of fertiliser.

The disruption comes at a crucial time for world agriculture, with Ms Cooper set to warn that fertiliser needs to begin moving through the strait within weeks to avert a crisis.

Markets are already pricing in weaker harvests and the World Food Programme estimating 45 million people could fall into acute food insecurity if the conflict does not end by the middle of the year.

Cooper is expected to say: “We cannot risk tens of millions of people going hungry because one country has hijacked an international shipping lane.

“Iran’s continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz while the agriculture clock is ticking shows why we need urgent global pressure to get the strait reopened, fertiliser and fuel moving and ease the cost of living pressures.”

Iran’s top security body has announced the formation of a new body to manage the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council on X claimed that it would provide “real-time updates on the #Hormuz_Strait operations and latest developments”.

Iran has largely blocked shipping through the vital strait since the US and Israel attacked Tehran on 28 February. A fragile ceasefire has been in place since 8 April.

Israel built and operated two covert military bases in Iraq to support its strikes on Iran, according to a new report.

Previous reports by the Wall Street Journal said that Israel had spent over a year building a makeshift base in Iraq’s western desert to aid its attacks on Iran in the 12-day war in June 2025.

But senior Iraqi officials have now confirmed the existence of a second base, whose precise location is undisclosed but is also reported to be in the Iraqi desert.