Iran said Monday it had demanded the
release of its frozen assets and the end of a US blockade of its ports, after
President Donald Trump angrily rejected Tehran’s terms for starting
negotiations to halt the Middle East war.
The sharp exchange of messages raised the spectre of a return to open
conflict in the Gulf, sent oil prices soaring and dashed hopes that a deal
could be quickly negotiated to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial
shipping.
Trump reacted with fury after Iran responded to the latest US proposal for
peace talks with a counteroffer he deemed, in a brief social media post,
“TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE”.
The exchange unnerved global energy markets, with crude prices rising by more
than four percent before dropping back slightly in afternoon London trading
and a top executive warning the crisis could last for years.
“The energy supply shock that began in the first quarter is the largest the
world has ever experienced,” the CEO and president of Saudi oil giant Aramco,
Amin Nasser, told investors.
“If the Strait of Hormuz opens today, it will still take months for the
market to rebalance, and if its opening is delayed by a few more weeks, then
normalisation will last into 2027,” he said.
– Hunger and starvation –
Aside from energy — in peacetime a fifth of the world’s oil and LNG exports
pass through Hormuz — the world also faces a shortage of fertiliser, much of
which comes from Gulf ports, and hence food for tens of millions of people.
“We have a few weeks ahead of us to prevent what will likely be a massive
humanitarian crisis,” Jorge Moreira da Silva, executive director of the
United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), told AFP.
“We may witness a crisis that will force 45 million more people into hunger
and starvation.”
Trump did not say what had offended him in Iran’s response, but Tehran’s
foreign ministry said it had called for an end to the US naval blockade and
to the war “across the region” — implying a halt to Israel’s strikes
targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Crucially, ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told reporters, Iran demanded
the “release of assets belonging to the Iranian people, which have for years
been unjustly trapped in foreign banks”.
This would be not just a return to the status quo before the United States
and Israel launched the war on February 28 but a victory for the Islamic
government’s long-standing campaign against its economic isolation.
“We did not demand any concessions. The only thing we demanded was Iran’s
legitimate rights,” Baqaei said.
An end to international sanctions would also diminish Washington’s leverage
over Tehran as it tries to secure a lasting end to Iran’s nuclear enrichment.
The US, Israel and their allies have long accused Iran of seeking an atomic
bomb, an accusation Tehran has repeatedly denied.
– ‘It’s not over’ –
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted the conflict would not end
until Iran’s nuclear facilities are destroyed.
“It’s not over, because there’s still nuclear material — enriched uranium —
that has to be taken out of Iran,” he told US broadcaster CBS’s 60 Minutes.
“There’s still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled,” he said.
The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said Iran’s
counter-proposal had included the possibility of diluting some of its highly
enriched uranium, with the rest transferred to a third country.
Iran had sought guarantees that the transferred uranium would be returned if
negotiations failed or Washington abandoned the agreement, sources told the
Journal.
Trump is expected to press China’s President Xi Jinping — a major buyer of
Iranian oil — on the Iran issue when he visits Beijing on Thursday,
according to a senior US official.
– ‘Restraint over’ –
The lack of a path to a resolution has focused concern on the Strait of
Hormuz, where Iran is restricting maritime traffic and setting up a payment
mechanism to charge tolls for crossing ships.
US officials have stressed it would be “unacceptable” for Tehran to control
the international waterway.
The US Navy is also blockading Iran’s ports, at times firing on ship to
disable them or boarding and diverting them.
In a social media post on Sunday, the spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s
national security commission warned Washington: “Our restraint is over as of
today.”
“Any attack on our vessels will trigger a strong and decisive Iranian
response against American ships and bases,” Ebrahim Rezaei said.
