Trump rejects Iran's counteroffer to end war, insists on 'complete victory'
Why this matters: local context for readers following news across Pakistan and the region.
President Donald Trump on Monday said the ceasefire in the Middle East war was on “life support,” rejecting Iran’s latest counteroffer, which it said had included demands for the release of frozen assets and the end of a US blockade. The president’s reaction to Iran’s position — itself a response to a US proposal — sent oil prices soaring and dashed hopes that a deal could be quickly negotiated to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping. After slamming the response as “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE”, Trump insisted the US would see a “complete victory” over Iran, adding that the truce, which has largely halted fighting in the Gulf for over a month, was on its last legs. “The ceasefire is on massive life support, where the doctor walks in and says, ‘Sir, your loved one has approximately a one per cent chance of living,’” he told reporters on Monday. The developments unnerved global energy markets already thrown into chaos by the war and the overlapping blockades imposed by Iran and the US in the Strait of Hormuz — a vital conduit for oil and gas shipments. “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, the world also faces a shortage of fertiliser, much of which comes from Gulf ports, and hence food for tens of millions of people. Jorge Moreira da Silva, executive director of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), told AFP there were just a few weeks left to avert a potentially “massive humanitarian crisis”. “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 minis