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• President claims US in talks with ‘more reasonable regime’
• Tehran describes Washington’s peace proposals as ‘unrealistic’
• Israel and Iran continue to trade missiles
• Iranian parliament body okays Hormuz toll plan
• Oil refinery in Israel’s Haifa hit by debris; Iran says Tel Aviv behind attack on Kuwait desalination plant
• Egyptian president asks American counterpart to ‘help stop war’
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump warned on Monday that Iran’s energy plants and oil wells on Kharg Island, including its main oil terminal in the Persian Gulf, as well as all its desalination plants would be obliterated if it did not open the Strait of Hormuz, after Tehran described Washington’s peace proposals as “unrealistic” and fired waves of missiles at Israel.
Trump said in a social media post that the US was in talks with a “more reasonable regime” to end the war in Iran, but also issued the new warning.
“Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island,” Trump wrote.
Trump also threatened to attack the desalination plants that supply clean water in Iran.
His social media post came after Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the US peace proposals that Tehran had received via intermediaries including Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, were “unrealistic, illogical and excessive”.
“Our position is clear. We are under military aggression. Therefore, all our efforts and strength are focused on defending ourselves,” he told a press conference.
Baghaei said Iran’s parliament was reviewing a possible exit from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Iran also confirmed the death of Revolutionary Guards Navy Commander Alireza Tangsiri.
The Iranians have effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway which normally carries about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.
Toll plan
Iranian state media reported that a parliamentary commission had approved plans to impose tolls on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Citing a member of the parliament’s security commission, state TV said the plan involved, among other things, “financial arrangements and rial toll systems” and “implementing the sovereign role of Iran”, as well as cooperation with Oman on the other side of the Strait.
It also included the “prohibition of Americans and the Zionist regime from passing through”, as well as a ban on other countries imposing sanctions on Iran.
‘Trump prefers diplomacy’
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced hope for working with elements within Iran’s government, saying the US privately had received positive messages.
Rubio said there were internal “fractures” inside the Islamic republic and that the US hopes figures with “power to deliver” take charge. “We are hopeful that that’s the case,” Rubio told ABC News.
“There are clearly people there talking to us in ways that previous people in charge in Iran have not spoken to us in the past, some of the things they’re willing to do,” he said.
In a separate interview with Al Jazeera, Rubio said there were “messages and some direct talks going on between some inside of Iran and the US”.
The communication is “primarily through intermediaries, but there’s been some conversation,” he told the Qatar-based news channel. “I think the president always prefers diplomacy,” he added.
“We are well on our way, or ahead of schedule … Then we’ll be confronted with this issue of the Strait of Hormuz, and it’ll be up to Iran to decide,” he continued.
“If they choose to try to block the strait, then they will have to face real consequences, not just from the United States, but from regional countries and from the world.”
The White House also said that talks with Iran were continuing and progressing well, adding that what Tehran says publicly differs from what it tells US officials in private.
“Despite all of the public posturing you hear from the regime and false reporting, talks are continuing and going well. What is said publicly is, of course, much different than what’s being communicated to us privately,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. She added that Trump wanted to reach a deal with Tehran before an April 6 deadline he set last week after extending an earlier deadline he had set for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, thousands of soldiers from the US Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division have started arriving in the Middle East, two US officials told Reuters on Monday, as President Trump weighs his next steps in the war against Iran.
The paratroopers, based out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, add to the thousands of additional sailors, Marines and Special Operations forces sent to the region. Over the weekend, about 2,500 Marines arrived in the Middle East.
Exchangingmissiles
Israel and Iran exchanged more missile fire on Monday as an air strike by Tel Aviv killed at least three people in the Gaza Strip, local health officials said.
Medics said three people were killed and two others wounded when an Israeli plane fired a missile at a group of Palestinians near the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, health officials said Israeli forces had shot and killed a 22-year-old man near the city of Hebron. They added that soldiers took the body away.
Palestinian security sources identified the dead man as Ramzi Awawada and accused Israeli soldiers of leaving him to bleed to death and preventing rescuers from reaching him.
Separately, Israeli military said that forces operating near the city of Tulkarm fired at a Palestinian who accelerated his vehicle toward them, posing a threat to their safety, and “neutralised him”.
Haifa strike
An industrial building and a fuel storage tank near the main base of Israel’s navy in the northern city of Haifa were hit by debris from an intercepted missile, Israel’s fire service said. Hezbollah later said it had targeted the naval base.
Kuwait said an Indian national was killed in an “Iranian” attack on a power and desalination plant in the country. However, in a statement on Iranian state television on Monday, Iran’s military accused Israel of launching the attack “under the pretext of accusing the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
Turkiye’s defence ministry said a ballistic missile launched from Iran entered Turkish airspace before being shot down by Nato.Spain’s left-wing government has closed Spanish airspace to US planes carrying out missions against Iran in addition to denying Washington use of its bases, the defence minister said.
On the diplomatic front, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose country is playing a role in mediating indirect talks between the US and Iran, appealed directly to Trump to find an offramp.
“Please, help us to stop the war, you are capable of it,” Sisi told a press conference with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides in Cairo.
Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2026
