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The US and Iran remain divided on a ceasefire proposal exchanged ahead of President Donald Trump's deadline for Iran to open the strait of Hormuz or face a major attack.
The proposal for a ceasefire is "significant" but "not good enough", Trump told reporters on Monday. Over the weekend, Trump said that if Iran does not open the strait of Hormuz by 8pm ET on Tuesday, the US would launch a major attack on power plants and bridges in Iran.
"They don't want to cry — as the expression goes — uncle, but they will," Trump said Monday ahead of a press conference scheduled for 1 pm ET. "If they don't, they'll have no bridges, they'll have no power plants, they'll have no anything."
Trump's deadline to reopen the strait of Hormuz will not change how Iran defends itself from attack, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei said on Monday. Iran will not agree to a ceasefire because that would only provide a "pause" for the US and Israel to refresh their military forces and equipment so they could attack again.
"No intelligent person would accept such a thing," Baqaei said. "Our demand is for an end to the imposed war, along with assurances that this vicious cycle will not be repeated."
Trump has repeatedly pushed back the timing of his threat to destroy power plants in Iran, most recently over the weekend when he said the attack would take place on Tuesday, rather than on Monday. Iran has threatened to respond to any attacks on its power infrastructure with a corresponding attack on neighboring countries that are hosting US military infrastructure.
Attacks on Mideast Gulf energy infrastructure continued over the weekend. A vessel was attacked off the UAE, the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said.
The Ice front-month June Brent contract traded as low as $107.03/bl on Monday, down by 1.5pc from its settlement on 2 April but had rebounded to $108.89/bl as of 12:36pm ET.

