US President Donald Trump has announced that he will pause attacks on Iran’s energy plants for 10 days at Tehran’s request and said talks with Iran were going “very well,” although an Iranian official dismissed a US proposal for ending the conflict as “one-sided and unfair.”
The war has killed thousands of people, spread to neighbouring nations and hit the global economy with soaring energy prices since the US and Israel launched strikes on February 28.
On Thursday, Trump threatened during a cabinet meeting at the White House to increase pressure on Iran if it did not make a deal, before later posting on social media that he would pause attacks on Iranian energy plants for 10 days until April 6 2026 (0000 GMT on April 7).
“Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media, and others, they are going very well,” he added in his Truth Social post.
He later told Fox News’ “The Five” programme that the Iranians had asked for a seven-day pause. There was no immediate reaction from Tehran.
Iran has not asked for a 10-day pause on strikes on its energy plants, the Wall Street Journal cited peace talk mediators as saying.
Drone speedboats
The war has massively disrupted shipping, sending crude oil prices up around 40 percent and causing a spike of some two-thirds in shipments of liquefied natural gas to Asia. Prices of nitrogen-based fertilisers, critical to food production, have risen by around 50 percent.
Despite Trump’s upbeat assessment, Iran continued to retaliate against US and Israeli strikes by hitting Israel and US bases; it also struck Gulf states and effectively blocked Middle East fuel exports via the Strait of Hormuz.
The United States has deployed uncrewed drone speedboats for patrols as part of its operations against Iran, the Pentagon said, the first time Washington has confirmed using such vessels in an active conflict.
Trump said the US would become Iran’s “worst nightmare” if it did not comply with US demands, which include opening the strait and ending Tehran’s nuclear programme.
He said taking control of Iran’s oil was an option, but gave no details.
The Iranian official said that a 15-point US proposal, conveyed to Tehran by Pakistan, was reviewed in detail on Wednesday by senior Iranian officials and the representative of Iran’s supreme leader.
While they felt it served only US and Israeli interests, diplomacy had not ended, the official said.