Iran rejects latest ceasefire proposal as Trump's deadline approaches

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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran on Monday rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wants a permanent end to the war, while President Donald Trump appeared to widen his threat from civilian targets to the whole Islamic Republic and his ultimatum ticked closer.

“The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump told a news conference at the White House. He has called his Tuesday 8 p.m. deadline for Iran to make a deal final.

The U.S. stepped up threats against Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz or face a barrage of attacks on civilian targets. “Today will be the largest volume of strikes since day one,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. “Tomorrow, even more than today.”

Israel piled on pressure by attacking a major gas field that is Iran’s biggest source of domestic energy.

Tehran conveyed its 10-point response through Pakistan, a key mediator, including proposals on reconstruction and the lifting of sanctions, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said.

“We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again," Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press. He said Iran no longer trusts the Trump administration after the U.S. bombed the Islamic Republic twice during previous rounds of talks.

And yet a regional official involved in talks said efforts had not collapsed. “We are still talking to both sides,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.

Iranian and Omani officials were working on a mechanism for administrating the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped in peacetime. Iran’s grip on it has shaken the world economy. Tehran has refused to let U.S. and Israeli vessels through after they started the war on Feb. 28.

Israel struck a key petrochemical plant in the South Pars natural gas field and killed two paramilitary Revolutionary Guard commanders, including its intelligence chief.

The gas field attack aimed at eliminating a major source of revenue for Iran, Israel said. The field, the world’s largest, is shared with Qatar. It is critical to electricity production for Iran's 93 million population, but the strike appeared to be separate from Trump’s threats.

An earlier Israeli attack on the field in March prompted Iran to target energy infrastructure in other Middle East countries, a major escalation.

Trump has warned Iran that the U.S. could set the country “back to the stone ages," including targeting power plants and bridges.

Earlier Monday, Trump addressed an Easter event on the White House lawn and suggested that future attacks could go further. "If I had my choice, what would I like to do? Take the oil,” he said, suggesting it could be done easily, but “unfortunately the American people would like to see us come home.”

Asked if Tuesday at 8 p.m. Washington time was his final deadline, Trump replied simply, “Yeah."

Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators had sent Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff a proposal calling for the ceasefire and the strait's reopening, two Mideast officials told the AP. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private negotiations.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei earlier told journalists that “negotiations are entirely incompatible with ultimatums, crimes and threats of war crimes.”

Former Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayatir urged Arab countries to discourage Trump from striking power plants, warning the entire region would go “dark” if that happens.

“Any attack on civilian infrastructure is a violation of international law and a very clear one,” United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric later told journalists.

Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose to $109 in early Monday spot trading, about 50% higher than when the war started, then wavered. U.S. stocks mostly held steady.

Explosions boomed in Tehran, and low-flying jets could be heard for hours.

The head of intelligence for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi, was killed, according to Iranian state media and Israel’s defense minister. Israel said it also killed the leader of the Revolutionary Guard’s undercover unit in its expeditionary Quds Force, Asghar Bakeri.

“We will continue to hunt them down one by one,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said of top officials.

New Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who still has not been seen or heard in public, issued a rare statement expressing condolences over the death of the Revolutionary Guard’s intelligence chief.

Israeli strikes have killed dozens of top Iranian leaders, including Khamenei’s father.

Israel’s military also said it struck three Tehran airports overnight — Bahram, Mehrabad and Azmayesh — hitting dozens of helicopters and aircraft it said belonged to the Iranian Air Force.

A Tehran resident said “constantly there is the sound of bombs, air defenses, drones," speaking on condition of anonymity for her safety. Another resident said he takes sleeping pills to get through nightly bombardments, and said people worry about power, gas and water cuts. “Stop this war,” he said.

Separately, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia activated air defenses to intercept Iranian missiles and drones. Tehran has kept up pressure on Gulf neighbors.

In Israel, Iranian missiles hit the northern city of Haifa, where four people from one family were found dead in the rubble of a residential building.

Smoke rose near Tehran’s Azadi Square after an airstrike hit the grounds of the Sharif University of Technology. Multiple countries have sanctioned the university for its work with the military, particularly on Iran’s ballistic missile program.

Authorities and Iranian state media reported at least 29 people killed across the country by strikes.

In Lebanon, where Israel has launched air attacks and a ground invasion that it says target the Iran-linked Hezbollah militia, an airstrike hit an apartment in Ain Saadeh, a predominately Christian town east of Beirut. It killed an official in the Lebanese Forces, a Christian political party strongly opposed to Hezbollah, his wife and another woman.

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but the government has not updated the toll for days.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.

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Weissert reported from Washington and Magdy from Cairo. Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Isabel DeBre in Ain Saadeh, Lebanon, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Amir-Hussein Radjy in Cairo and Josh Boak and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this story.