Iran rejects latest ceasefire proposal as Trump deadline nears

Iran's state-run IRNA intelligence federal agency says Tehran has rejected the modish ceasefire proposition and wants a lasting end to the war.

The report comes shortly before U.S. President Donald Trump's deadline for Tehran to open the Strait of Hormuz or see its power plants and bridges attacked.

Late Sunday, Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators circulated a new 45-day ceasefire proposal, in hopes the window would provide enough time for talks to reach a permanent ceasefire amid Trump’s Tuesday deadline for Tehran to reopen the strait.

IRNA said Iran had conveyed its response to the U.S. Through Pakistan.

"We won't merely accept a ceasefire," Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press on Monday. "We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won't be attacked again."

On the Strait of Hormuz, Ferdousi Pour said Iranian and Omani officials were working on a mechanism for administrating the shipping chokepoint.

Israel's defence minister said Monday that the country has attacked the South Pars petrochemical plant at Asaluyeh in southern Iran, amid a war that began when the U.S. And Israel struck Iran on Feb. 28.

Israel Katz made the announcement after Iran said the facility had been attacked, saying Israel had "just carried out a powerful strike on the largest petrochemical facility in Iran, located in Asaluyeh, a central target responsible for about 50 per cent of the country's petrochemical production."

The gas field shared with Qatar is the world's largest and sits under the Persian Gulf. Iran's semi-official Fars news agency and the judicary's Mizan news agency reported the attack and blamed the U.S. And Israel.

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The U.S. Did not immediately comment, though Trump was set to speak to journalists at the White House on Monday afternoon, his first public appearance since Wednesday.

An Israeli attack in March on South Pars facilities sparked major Iranian attacks targeting oil and gas infrastructure across the Gulf Arab states.

Also on Monday, Israel and the United States carried out a wave of attacks, leaving more than 25 people dead, and Iran responded with missile fire on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbours.

Among those killed in one of the attacks on Tehran was the head of intelligence for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Maj.-Gen. Majid Khademi, according to Iranian state media and Katz.

Israel's military said Monday it also killed the leader of the IRGC's undercover unit in its expeditionary Quds Force.

In a briefing to reporters, Lt.-Col. Nadav Shoshani, a military spokesperson, confirmed the killing of Asghar Bakeri. He said Bakeri had planned attacks on Israeli and U.S. Targets, and on operations in Israel, Syria and Lebanon.

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"The Revolutionary Guard are shooting at civilians and we are eliminating the leaders of the terrorists," Katz said. "Iran's leaders live with a sense of being targeted. We will continue to hunt them down one by one."

Katz added Israel had "severely damaged" Iran's steel and petrochemical industries.

"We will continue to crush the Iranian national infrastructure and lead to the erosion and collapse of the terrorist regime, and its capabilities to promote terror and fire at the state of Israel."

Four people were found dead at the site of a missile strike in Haifa, in northern Israel, according to Israel's military. They had been trapped under rubble and were found after hours of overnight rescue efforts, the military said.

António Costa, president of the European Council, called for diplomacy to be given a chance, writing on social media platform X that “any targeting of civilian infrastructure, namely energy facilities, is illegal and unacceptable.”

“Escalation will not achieve a ceasefire and peace,” he said Monday. “Only negotiations will, namely the ongoing efforts led by regional partners.”

On Sunday, Trump stepped up his threat to hit Iran's critical infrastructure hard if the country's government doesn't reopen the Strait of Hormuz by his deadline.

The U.S. President punctuated his threat with profanity in a social media post, saying Tuesday will be "Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran."

The war has led to the death of thousands, shaken global markets, cut off key shipping routes and spiked fuel prices. Both sides have threatened and hit civilian targets, bringing warnings of possible war crimes from the United Nations and international law experts.

The UN's nuclear watchdog on Monday confirmed recent strikes hit close to Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, with one hitting just 75 metres from the facility's perimeter.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a social media post that its own analysis showed the plant was not damaged as of Sunday.

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Rafael Grossi, the IAEA's director general, called for ceasing such attacks, which cause "a very real danger to nuclear safety."

Iran's Atomic Energy Organization has reported four attacks close to the facility since the war started. The last strike Saturday killed a security guard and damaged a support building, the organization said.

The Bushehr nuclear power plant uses low-enriched uranium from Russia, along with Russian technicians, to supply about 1,000 megawatts of power for Iran.

Also on Monday, an Iranian drone attack damaged a telecommunications building in Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, the state-run WAM news agency reported.

The attack targeted a building of the state-funded du telecom company.

No one was injured, WAM reported, quoting officials in Fujairah.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) said there are no signs North Korea is providing Iran with weapons or other war-related supplies.

The spy agency's officials told lawmakers Monday that North Korea may be taking a cautious approach to preserve the possibility of dialogue with the Trump administration, according to two lawmakers who attended the closed-door briefing.

North Korea's Foreign Affairs Ministry has condemned the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran as illegal, but the NIS said Pyongyang has not sent an official condolence message over the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's late supreme leader.

In recent years, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has embraced the idea of a "new Cold War" and attempted to expand co-operation with countries confronting the U.S., including an economic delegation sent to Iran in April 2024.

South Korea plans to send at least five ships to Saudi Arabia's Yanbu port in the coming weeks to establish new oil transport routes in the Red Sea.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources said Monday the ships will be deployed in phases beginning in mid-April and the number of vessels could increase depending on contracts with Saudi partners.

Officials did not disclose the companies involved, but said some domestic refiners may use non-Korean shipping firms.

South Korea also plans to send special envoys to Saudi Arabia, Oman and Algeria to step up diplomatic efforts to secure alternative fuel supplies, ruling party lawmaker Ahn Do-geol said.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry did not immediately reveal when the envoys would be sent.

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