By Parisa Hafezi, Alexander Cornwell and Kanishka Singh
DUBAI/TEL AVIV/WASHINGTON, March 26 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran was desperate for a deal to end nearly four weeks of fighting, contradicting the Iranian foreign minister who said Tehran was reviewing a U.S. proposal but had no intention of holding talks to wind down the war.
The conflicting statements came as the economic and humanitarian toll of the war mounted, with fuel shortages spreading worldwide, sending companies and countries scrambling to contain the fallout.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said while there had been no dialogue or negotiation with the U.S., various messages had been exchanged through intermediaries.
“Messages being conveyed through our friendly countries and us responding by stating our positions or issuing the necessary warnings is not called negotiation or dialogue,” Araqchi said in a state television interview on Wednesday.
Trump, speaking later on Wednesday at an event in Washington, said Iranian leaders “are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they’re afraid to say it because they will be killed by their own people. They’re also afraid they’ll be killed by us”.
MAXIMALIST POSITIONS
Even if they happen, any negotiations would likely prove very difficult, given the maximalist positions laid out by both sides.
A 15-point U.S. proposal to end the conflict, sent to Iran via Pakistan, includes demands ranging from dismantling Iran’s nuclear programme and curbing its missiles to effectively handing over control of the Strait of Hormuz, according to sources and reports.
But Iran has hardened its stance since the war began, demanding guarantees against future military action, compensation for losses, and formal control of the Strait, Iranian sources say. It also told intermediaries that Lebanon must be included in any ceasefire deal, regional sources said.
Trump has not identified who the U.S. is negotiating with in Iran, with many high-ranking officials among the thousands of people killed across the Middle East since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Iran has since launched strikes against Israel, U.S. bases and Gulf states.
WAVES OF MISSILES
On Thursday, Iran launched multiple waves of missiles at Israel, triggering air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and other areas and injuring at least five people.
In Iran, strikes hit a residential zone in the southern city of Bandar Abbas and a village on the outskirts of the southern city of Shiraz, where two teenage brothers were killed, Iran’s Tasnim news agency said. A university building in Isfahan was reported to have been hit.
Israel’s military said it had completed a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting infrastructure in Iran.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on the first day of the conflict by an Israeli strike and was replaced by his son Mojtaba, who has been wounded in strikes and not been seen in any photograph or video clip since his appointment.
Israel took Iran’s foreign minister Araqchi and parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf off its hit-list after Pakistan asked Washington not to target them, a Pakistani source with knowledge of the discussion told Reuters on Thursday.
“The Israelis had their… coordinates and wanted to take them out, we told the U.S. if they are also eliminated then there is no one else to talk to, hence the U.S. asked the Israelis to back off,” the source said.
An Iranian embassy official in Islamabad said talks in Islamabad were still on the table and Pakistan was the preferred venue for Tehran, although nothing had been finalised.
A senior Israeli defence official said Israel was sceptical Iran would agree to terms proposed by the U.S., and that Israel was concerned U.S. negotiators might make concessions. Israel also wants any agreement to preserve its option to conduct pre-emptive strikes, a second source said.
IMPACTS OF CONFLICT SPREAD FAR AND WIDE
The fallout from the conflict, which has caused the worst energy shock in history, has spread far beyond the region.
With the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, effectively closed, businesses from airlines to supermarkets and used-car dealers are grappling with challenges including rising costs, weakening demand and disrupted supply chains.
Some governments are weighing support measures last used during the COVID pandemic. Farmers are struggling to source diesel for their tractors and tens of millions more people will face acute hunger if the war continues into June, the World Food Programme estimates.
Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of Abu Dhabi state oil company ADNOC, described Iran’s restriction of passage through the Strait of Hormuz as “economic terrorism”.
“When Iran holds Hormuz hostage, every nation pays the ransom, at the gas pump, at the grocery store, at the pharmacy,” Al Jaber said in a speech in the U.S. on Wednesday. “No country can be allowed to destabilize the global economy in this way. Not now. Not ever.”
STOCK RALLY FADES, OIL PRICES RESUME RISE
Hopes of a resolution to the conflict that had boosted global stock markets in the previous session dimmed on Thursday, with oil prices resuming their surge. [MKTS/GLOB]
“Optimism regarding a ceasefire has faded,” said Tsuyoshi Ueno, senior economist at NLI Research Institute.
With stock markets weak, gas prices high and his approval ratings at an all-time low, Trump has strong incentives to find a solution before the conflict escalates further beyond his control, and ahead of November mid-term elections for Congress.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted March 20-23 found 61% of Americans disapproving of U.S. military strikes in Iran, while 35% approved.
Exchanges of missiles and drones across the Gulf continued on Thursday.
In Abu Dhabi, two people were killed and three others injured by debris from an intercepted ballistic missile, the government said.
Admiral Brad Cooper, head of U.S. forces in the Middle East, told reporters that Iran’s drone and missile launch rates were down more than 90%.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Lincoln Feast and Aidan Lewis; Editing by Michael Perry and Gareth Jones)
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