Iran rejects latest ceasefire proposal as Trump's deadline approaches

(AP) — Iran on Monday rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wants a permanent end to the war in the Middle East. The United States President Donald Trump appeared to widen his threat from civilian targets to the whole Islamic Republic and his ultimatum ticked closer.

“The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump told a news conference at the White House on Monday. He has called his Tuesday 8 p.m. (9 p.m. Jamaica time) deadline for Iran to make a deal final.

The US stepped up threats against Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz or face a barrage of attacks on civilian targets. “Today will be the largest volume of strikes since day one,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. “Tomorrow, even more than today.”

Israel piled on pressure by attacking a major gas field that is Iran’s biggest source of domestic energy.

Tehran conveyed its 10-point response through Pakistan, a key mediator, including proposals on reconstruction and the lifting of sanctions, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said.

“We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again," Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press. He said Iran no longer trusts the Trump administration after the US bombed the Islamic Republic twice during previous rounds of talks.

And yet a regional official involved in talks said efforts had not collapsed. “We are still talking to both sides,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.

Iranian and Omani officials were working on a mechanism for administrating the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped in peacetime. Iran’s grip on it has shaken the world economy. Tehran has refused to let US and Israeli vessels through after they started the war on February 28.

Israel struck a key petrochemical plant in the South Pars natural gas field and killed two paramilitary Revolutionary Guard commanders, including its intelligence chief.

The gas field attack aimed at eliminating a major source of revenue for Iran, Israel said. The field, the world’s largest, is shared with Qatar. It is critical to electricity production for Iran's 93 million population, but the strike appeared to be separate from Trump’s threats.

An earlier Israeli attack on the field in March prompted Iran to target energy infrastructure in other Middle East countries, a major escalation.

Trump has warned Iran that the US could set the country “back to the stone ages," including targeting power plants and bridges.

Earlier Monday, Trump addressed an Easter event on the White House lawn and suggested that future attacks could go further. "If I had my choice, what would I like to do? Take the oil,” he said, suggesting it could be done easily, but “unfortunately the American people would like to see us come home.”

Asked if Tuesday at 8 p.m. Washington time was his final deadline, Trump replied simply, “Yeah."

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but the government has not updated the toll for days.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 US service members have been killed.

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