Iran War Live Updates: Iran Lists Demands That Trump Deemed ‘Unacceptable’

The first two conditions would almost certainly be non-starters for the United States, while the third would be possible only if Iran is willing to make major concessions on its nuclear program, which it has shown no sign of being willing to do.

The comments showed how far apart the United States and Iran remained after a week of strikes in the Persian Gulf rattled their month-old cease-fire. The truce was intended to provide an opening to negotiate a more comprehensive peace deal and end Iran’s de facto blockade of the strait, a vital waterway for oil and gas shipments.

Small-scale attacks have continued around the strait. On Sunday, the United Arab Emirates said it had again been attacked by Iranian drones. American warships fired on military facilities along Iran’s coast last week, after coming under attack, the U.S. military said.

Here’s what else we’re covering:

• Oil prices: Oil prices rose and stock futures ticked down on Monday as investors reacted to Mr. Trump’s swift rejection of Iran’s response. Oil companies have posted huge profits despite the shipping disruptions; Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, said on Monday that its first-quarter profits had jumped by 25 percent.

• Enriched uranium: In an interview with the syndicated news show “Full Measure” aired on Sunday, Mr. Trump said that the U.S. was surveilling Iran’s remaining enriched uranium stockpile and would “get that at some point.” The president’s comments on the stockpiles have been inconsistent; last month, he said he didn’t care about the uranium because it was buried “so far underground.”

• Mixed messages: Last week, the White House sought to portray the military campaign against Iran as over. But in the “Full Measure” interview, Mr. Trump said it was inaccurate to say that combat operations were finished, adding that Iran was “defeated, but that doesn’t mean they are done.”

• China summit: Mr. Trump hoped to have the conflict resolved by the time he headed to China this week to meet with President Xi Jinping, who is eager to see an end to the conflict in Iran, Beijing’s closest partner in the Middle East.

Ms. Mohammadi spent 10 days in that hospital, before being transferred to another hospital in Tehran on Sunday, the Narges Mohammadi Foundation said.

Mostafa Nili, a lawyer for Ms. Mohammadi, said on social media on Sunday that she had been transferred to Tehran “following an order halting her sentence for medical treatment.”

The statement from the foundation called for “her unconditional freedom and the dismissal of all charges.”

“Narges Mohammadi’s life hangs in the balance,” said her husband, Taghi Rahmani, according to the foundation’s statement. “Narges must never be returned to the conditions that broke her health.”

Earlier this month, Mr. Rahmani said Ms. Mohammadi suffers from chronic heart problems and had suffered rough treatment in prison, including beatings by prison guards.

Ms. Mohammadi received the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all,” while serving a 10-year prison sentence on charges of threatening national security. Ms. Mohammadi was arrested again in December after she delivered a speech critical of the government while on a yearlong furlough from prison because of her health. In February, an Iranian court sentenced her to an additional seven and a half years in jail for her opposition to the government.

In a report accompanying an excerpt from Ms. Mohammadi’s upcoming memoir published by The Guardian on Sunday, Ms. Mohammadi was reported as saying there was “no hardship worse than illness combined with imprisonment.”

“Authoritarian regimes do not always need an executioner’s rope. Sometimes, they simply wait for the human body to fail,” she wrote.

Mr. Baghaei’s said that Iran had made “generous” and “reasonable and responsible” requests. But Iran’s own state broadcaster recounted a series of uncompromising conditions on Monday.

According to Iranian state media, Iran had called for the U.S. to pay “war damages” to Tehran and recognize Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz. Both are likely non-starters for the United States, which has called for an end to Iran’s grip over the strait, a critical passage for oil and gas.

Mr. Trump had initially conditioned the ongoing temporary cease-fire with Iran, which began last month, on free transit for ships through the strait. But Iran still insists that any ships that traverse the Persian Gulf waterway do so in coordination with its forces, and Mr. Trump has repeatedly pulled back from his threats to attack Iran in protest.

Last week, Mr. Trump announced a U.S. military effort to free ships trapped in the maritime bottleneck by the war, dubbed “Project Freedom.” But roughly a day later, the effort was abruptly suspended to allow for further negotiations and has not resumed.

The Iranian counterproposal also demanded that the U.S. end its punishing economic sanctions against Iran, Iranian state media said. Analysts said that it was unlikely unless U.S. officials received major concessions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange, compromises which Iran has so far ruled out.

Iranian officials are facing pressure at home to reach a deal. Before the war, U.S.-led sanctions had squeezed Iran’s currency, the rial, igniting demonstrations that quickly spiraled into a mass movement calling for the ouster of the Islamic Republic. Iranian security forces violently quelled the protests, killing thousands.

Since the war, Iran’s economic position has only grown more dire amid U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iranian industry, as well as a government-imposed internet blackout. An Iranian government official, Gholamhossein Mohammadi, estimated that the war has caused the loss of one million jobs, “and the direct and indirect unemployment of two million people,” in comments reported by the news outlet Tasnim.

But Iran experts say the Iranian approach reflects a newly emboldened leadership that believes it survived a concerted effort by the United States and Israel to oust it.

“One thing is clear: the Iranian regime’s reply reflects the mind-set of a leadership that believes it survived the war and won, not that it lost it,” Danny Citrinowicz, a former senior Israeli military intelligence officer who worked on Iran, wrote on social media. “As a result, its demands remain high and its willingness to compromise is extremely limited.

Both Mr. Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel have demanded control of Iran’s stockpiles of enriched uranium, which they fear could form the basis for a nuclear weapon. Iran has offered varying solutions to the problem, but, at least publicly, has ruled out U.S. control of the material.

Mr. Baghaei sidestepped the impasse over Iran’s nuclear ambitions on Monday, saying merely that Iranian officials would “discuss that when the time comes.”

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Leo Sands contributed reporting.

Oil ticks up.

• The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, rose roughly 2 percent on Monday, trading at around $103 a barrel.

• West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, moved 1.5 percent higher, trading at around $97 a barrel.

Stocks tick down.

• The S&P 500 declined about 0.1 percent when stocks opened for trading in the United States on Monday, after notching its sixth straight week of gains on Friday.

• Stocks in Asia, where countries import vast quantities of oil and gas, were mixed. South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI Index rose more than 4 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell less than 1 percent.

• In Europe, stocks were little changed. The Stoxx 600, a broad index that tracks the region’s largest companies, and the DAX in Germany were flat.

Gasoline prices slip.

• Gas prices held steady on Monday at a national average of $4.52 for a gallon of regular, according to the AAA motor club. Despite prices inching down since Friday, drivers were still paying about 52 percent more per gallon since the war began.

• Gas prices don’t move in lock step with crude, usually trailing increases or drops by a few days.

• The average price of diesel fell a penny to $5.64 on Monday, up 50 percent since the start of the war.

• As gas prices remain elevated in the United States, Chris Wright, the energy secretary, said on Sunday that the Trump administration would be open to pausing the federal gas tax, which accounts for 18.4 cents of the per gallon price of gasoline.

What they are saying: “Markets remain on a knife edge.”

• The absence of any meaningful movement in peace talks over the last month suggests that the United States prefers reaching a deal, analysts at Deutsche Bank wrote in a note. But, they added, the uncertainty over who holds negotiating authority in Iran may be complicating progress.

• “It remains an unusual conflict with little action now for a month,” the analysts wrote. “In simple terms though, as long as the Strait of Hormuz stays closed, markets remain on a knife edge.”