Ceasefire ‘unbelievably weak’ and on life support, Trump says
When asked about the state of the ceasefire, Donald Trump said it “unbelievably weak”.
“I would say the ceasefire is on massive life support, where the doctor walks in and says, ‘Sir, your loved one has approximately a 1% chance of living’,” Trump said.
Key events
UAE has been secretly carrying out attacks on Iran, WSJ reports
The United Arab Emirates has carried out military strikes on Iran, people familiar with the matter have told the Wall Street Journal, “casting the Gulf monarchy as an active combatant in a war in which it has been Iran’s biggest target”.
Per the WSJ’s report, “the strikes, which the UAE hasn’t publicly acknowledged, have included an attack on a refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf, the people familiar with the matter said. That attack took place in early April around the time President Trump was announcing a cease-fire in the war after a five-week air campaign and sparked a large fire and knocked much of its capacity off line for months.”
Iran said at the time that the refinery had been struck in an “enemy attack” and launched a barrage of missile and drone strikes against the UAE and Kuwait in response.
The UAE has been the target of more than 2,800 Iranian drones and missiles, far more than any country, including Israel.
“It’s significant to have a Gulf Arab country as a warring party that struck Iran directly,” Dina Esfandiary, Middle East analyst and author of a book on the rise of the UAE, told the Wall Street Journal. “Tehran will now aim to further drive a wedge between the UAE and other Gulf Arabs who are trying to mediate an end to the war.”
UN calls for ‘genuine ceasefire’ as Israel’s assault on Lebanon intensifies
United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher has called for a “genuine ceasefire” as Israel continues its relentless assault on Lebanon.
Highlighting the numbers of civilians killed and displaced in the ongoing crisis, Fletcher said in a post on X said aid could only go so far if the violence continues:
100 strikes on Lebanon in 24 hours. Civilians killed. Families displaced.
We are doing everything to get support to those who need it. But what people need most is a genuine ceasefire.
Talks between Israel and Lebanon are due to take place on Thursday in Washington, with the US acting as mediator.
Despite a ceasefire announced more than three weeks ago, the Lebanese army reported multiple violations the next day by Israel. Since then Israel has continued to launch air and artillery strikes across southern Lebanon, vast swathes of which it also continues to occupy, and last week bombed Beirut for the first time since the ceasefire. Meanwhile, Hezbollah has ramped up attacks on Israeli military targets.
Since Israel renewed its offensive on 2 March, at least 2,846 people have been killed, including at least 103 medical workers, and more than a million displaced.
‘They will be surprised’: Iran ready to respond to any aggression, parliamentary speaker says
Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has said that his country’s “armed forces are ready to deliver a well-deserved response to any aggression”.
It comes after Donald Trump said the ceasefire with Iran is “on massive life support”, and renewed threats against Tehran if it doesn’t meet his demands.
“Mistaken strategy and mistaken decisions will always lead to mistaken results — the whole world has already figured this out. We are prepared for all options; they will be surprised,” Ghalibaf said in his post on X.
The Qatari foreign minister and his Kuwaiti counterpart spoke on the phone with each other on Monday amid ongoing tensions between the US and Iran.
In a statement released on X, the Qatari foreign ministry said Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani spoke to Kuwaiti foreign minister Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al Ahmad Al Sabah.
Together, the two discussed “developments in the region, particularly those related to the ceasefire between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran, and efforts aimed at de-escalation in a way that contributes to strengthening security and stability in the region.”
“HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs underlined the necessity for all parties to engage in the ongoing mediation efforts, which would open the way for addressing the root causes of the crisis through peaceful means and dialogue, and lead to a sustainable agreement that prevents renewed escalation,” the statement added.
Jennifer Rankin
The EU has agreed sanctions on violent Israeli settlers, ending a years-long deadlock over the issue but still taking only a “baby step” according to one MEP.
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said on Monday: “Violence and extremism carry consequences.”
But there was still no consensus among the 27 member states on more hard-hitting trade sanctions.
France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said the EU was “sanctioning the main Israeli organisations guilty of supporting the extremist and violent colonisation of the West Bank, as well as their leaders”.
“These most serious and intolerable acts must cease without delay,” he wrote on social media.
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Donald Trump is meeting with his national security team on Monday to discuss the way forward in his war against Iran, including the possibility of resuming military action, Axios is reporting citing three US officials.
His vice-president JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, secretary of defense Pete Hegseth, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, CIA director John Ratcliffe and other senior officials are expected to participate, per Axios’s report.
It comes as Trump told reporters in the Oval Office earlier that the ceasefire was “on massive life support” and accused Tehran of reneging on an agreement to allow the US to remove its supply of enriched uranium.
It followed his declaration that the latest Iranian proposal to end the war was “unacceptable” and “garbage”. Iran on Sunday rejected the US’s proposal, which it said “meant Iran’s surrender to Trump’s excessive demands”.
But Trump also said in the Oval Office that he thought a diplomatic solution was still “very possible”. He also told reporters he had a plan to end the war.
However, two US officials told Axios that Trump is leaning toward taking some form of military action against Iran to increase pressure on the regime and force concessions on its nuclear program.
“He will tune them up a bit,” said one US official. “I think we all know where this is going,” said the second.
Today so far
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Donald Trump on Monday said that Iran’s response to the US peace plan was a “stupid proposal” and “a piece of garbage” that he didn’t finish reading. He said he still believes a diplomatic solution is possible and that his “best plan ever” is very simple: “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and they won’t have a nuclear weapon”,” Trump said.
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Trump also described the current ceasefire as “unbelievably weak”. “I would say the ceasefire is on massive life support, where the doctor walks in and says, ‘Sir, your loved one has approximately a 1% chance of living’,” Trump said.
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Iran is ready to support Xi Jinping’s four-point plan for the Gulf region, said Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, Iran’s ambassador to China. The announcement came ahead of Trump’s visit to China this week to meet with Xi.
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EU has adopted sanctions on Israeli settlers, with EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, declaring: “Extremisms and violence carry consequences”. Israel has already condemned the move, with foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar saying on X that it was adopted in “an arbitrary and political manner”.
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The UK has sanctioned 12 individuals and entities linked to Iran, accusing them of involvement in hostile activity including plotting attacks and providing financial services to groups seeking to destabilise the UK and other countries. The measures include asset freezes, travel bans and director disqualification orders.
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The Lebanese health ministry has updated its death toll to 2,869 people killed in Israeli attacks that began on 2 March, Lebanon’s state-run national news agency reports. Many of those killed were women and children and 8,730 have also been injured.
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Two soldiers photographed desecrating a Christian statue in southern Lebanon were sentenced to military prison, the IDF said. The soldier who was photographed sticking a cigarette in the mouth of a statue of Mary, was sentenced to 21 days of military prison, the Associated Press reports. The soldier who photographed the incident was sentenced to 14 days, according to the IDF.
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Iranian authorities on Monday hanged a postgraduate student from a university in Tehran on charges of espionage, with the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan Online website accusing him of collaborating with the CIA and the Mossad. Erfan Shakourzadeh, 29, was a student at Tehran’s prestigious Iran University of Science and Technology and had written a message before his execution rejecting the charges as fabricated, said the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.
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The UK and France will host on Tuesday a multinational meeting of defence ministers to discuss plans to restore trade flows through the strait of Hormuz, the British defence ministry said. The meeting will involve 40 countries and comes one day after Iran threatened to strike British and French warships in the strait if they try to help reopen the strategic waterway.
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Trump’s rejection of Tehran’s response to the US’s peace proposal caused a jump in Brent crude by as much as 4% on Monday to $105.50 a barrel, before easing back slightly.
In the more than two months since fighting began, more than 1.2 million people in southern Lebanon have been forced to flee their homes amid bombings, evacuation orders and demolitions.
The Guardian’s graphics team, alongside William Christou in Beirut, have charted the scope of destruction:
Trump says he still believes the US can negotiate with Iran’s leadership
When asked, Donald Trump said he still felt that the US could reach a peace deal with Iran’s current leadership.
“You have the moderates, you have the lunatics. And I think the moderates are more respected. The lunatics want to fight till the end. It’ll be a very quick fight,” Trump said.
He continued: “Just like our country, we have lunatics too. I call them lunatics, I call them stupid people too. In Iran, they have their moderates who are dying to make a deal and then they have the lunatics.”
When pushed further on whether a diplomatic solution was still possible, Trump responded that “it’s very possible”.
“Look, I’ve had to deal with them four or five times,” he said. “They changed their mind. They’re very dishonourable people, the leadership.”
Ceasefire ‘unbelievably weak’ and on life support, Trump says
When asked about the state of the ceasefire, Donald Trump said it “unbelievably weak”.
“I would say the ceasefire is on massive life support, where the doctor walks in and says, ‘Sir, your loved one has approximately a 1% chance of living’,” Trump said.
Trump calls Iran’s response to US peace proposal ‘stupid’
Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that Iran’s response to the US peace plan was a “stupid proposal” and “a piece of garbage” that he didn’t finish reading.
He said he has the “best plan ever” and it’s very simple: “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and they won’t have a nuclear weapon”.
“If they did have it, the Middle East would be gone. Israel would be gone. And it would hit Europe probably next. We’re doing a service to the world,” Trump said.
Israel’s Iron Dome maker says it has been nearly 99% effective against missiles
Yuval Steinitz, the chairman of the state-owned Iron Dome maker Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd, told a conference on Monday that Israel’s Iron Dome has been nearly 99% effective against missiles from Hamas and Hezbollah militants and has knocked out most missiles from Iran, Reuters reports.
Since the October 2023 Hamas raid on Israel, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon have fired an estimated total of 40,000 rockets at Israel, Steinitz said.
“Iron Dome intercepted most of them with success rates that (are) not 100% but close to 100%. It’s around 98%, even 99%, so it’s not perfect, but almost,” Steinitz said.
Iran has fired about 1,500 ballistic missiles at Israel in two rounds of fighting since 2024 and “only several dozens” were not intercepted, Steinitz said.
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