Iran responds to Trump's 15-point peace plan with a list of its own demands, US bases closed and new toll for Strait of Hormuz shipping!
Washington sent Tehran the plan - modelled on Trump's Gaza deal - to end the crisis in the Middle East, highlighting the White House's eagerness to find an offramp from the war as it wrestles with its economic fallout.
The ongoing shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz, which carries about one-fifth of the world's gas and crude supply, has proved disastrous for global energy and trade flows, pushing Brent crude prices to their highest levels in nearly four years - at one point reaching nearly $120 a barrel.
It is unclear how widely the plan, delivered via Pakistan, had been shared among Iranian officials, with the regime sternly denying a peace process is taking place following comments from Trump that Tehran wants a deal ‘so badly’.
Public statements aside, Iran has let the Trump administration know it has a high-bar for re-entering a ceasefire deal, including the closure of all American bases in the Gulf and reparations for attacks on the country.
According to the Wall Street Journal, other demands include a new order for the Strait of Hormuz, that would allow Tehran to collect fees from ships that transit the Persian Gulf channel, as Egypt does now with the Suez Canal.
The regime wants it to be guaranteed that the conflict wouldn’t restart and an end to Israel’s attacks on the Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah.
It has also demanded a lifting of all sanctions on Iran, and for the country to retain its missile programme, with no negotiations to limit it.
According to the Journal, a US official called the demands 'ridiculous and unrealistic'.
Smoke and flames rise at the site of airstrikes on an oil depot in Tehran on March 7
The ongoing shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz, which carries about one-fifth of the world's gas and crude supply, has proved disastrous for global energy and trade flows
Rocket trails are seen in the sky above the Israeli coastal city of Netanya amid a fresh barrage of Iranian missile attacks on March 25
The posturing will make reaching a resolution with the Islamic Republic harder than before Trump started the war, Arab and US officials said.
While the US President claimed on Tuesday that Tehran gave Washington a ‘very big present worth a tremendous amount of money’, an Iranian military spokesman insisted that the US is 'negotiating with itself', adding: 'Someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you.'
Israel and the US have pummelled Iran’s ballistic missiles, launchers and production facilities, as well as its nuclear programme in the bombing campaign that began on February 28, with leaders vowing never to allow the regime to possess a nuclear weapon.
In terms of Washington's demands on Iran, Israel's Channel 12 reported that the 15-point plan includes the pledge that nuclear facilities at Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow must be taken out of use and destroyed.
It also calls for transparency and oversight by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over activities in Tehran, as well as the promise that the regime will abandon the use of armed proxies in the region, and stop its funding and arming of regional allies.
Iran would have to dismantle its existing nuclear capabilities that have already been accumulated, and commit to never striving to achieve nuclear weapons again.
Under the plan, all enriched material must be handed over to the IAEA, and no nuclear material will be enriched on Iranian soil.
Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz will remain open and constitute a 'free maritime zone'.
The question of Iranian missiles will be subject to future decision-making, but the weapons would be limited in quantity and range, only deployed for self-defence purposes.
In return, Tehran would receive American assistance in developing a civilian nuclear project in Bushehr for electricity production.
All sanctions on the country would be abolished, as well as the threat of renewing sanctions
Massive explosions over Tel Aviv as Iran launches surgical missile strike, February 28
Middle East envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are working on a framework involving 'the declaration of a monthlong ceasefire period, during which the sides would negotiate,' sources told Israel's Channel 12.
Pakistan delivered the plan to Iranian officials with a 24-hour deadline to respond, Haaretz reported.
Israel and Iran continued to exchange strikes last night, with the IDF saying it had attacked two key sites used to develop long-range naval cruise missiles in the capital Tehran.
In Lebanon, Israeli strikes killed at least six people in the southern Sidon area on Wednesday, with the health ministry saying four people died in an 'Israeli enemy raid' on the town of Adloun, and another two in an apartment in the Mieh Mieh refugee camp.
It comes as the chief executive of Shell said that Europe risks fuel shortages as soon as next month if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, with the global oil and gas squeeze already forcing parts of Asia to cut energy consumption - producing a 'ripple effect' that will soon spread west.
With fuel shortages looming, Wael Sawan warned that European governments may need to urgently curb energy demand - a measure not taken since the 2022 crisis amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Moreover, the boss of the world's largest asset manager has said that the world faces a 'stark and steep recession' with years of $150-a-barrel oil prices alongside 'profound economic implications' due to the Iran war.
BlackRock boss Larry Fink claimed it was too early to determine the outcome of the conflict, but told the BBC there were two possible scenarios.
If the conflict ends soon, then oil prices could return to their pre-conflict level at around $70.
But If the war is drawn out, or if there is a cessation and 'yet Iran remains a threat, a threat to trade, a threat to the Strait of Hormuz, a threat to this peaceful coexistence of the GCC region, then I would argue that we could have years of above $100 closer to $150 oil which has profound implications in the economy'.
While Trump may want to de-escalate the conflict to stabilise energy prices, prices are still hovering at $100 as markets grow increasingly unconvinced the war will end soon.
'We will have global recession,' Fink claimed, when asked what would happen if oil stays at $150 a barrel as the Middle East crisis deepens.
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