Live updates: Iran defiant as Trump warns ‘entire country’ could be taken out if no deal reached by Tuesday

Iran defies Trump’s Tuesday ultimatum as president threatens to ‘wipe out’ Tehran nuclear sites

Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

Tehran rejected a U.S. ultimatum on Sunday as President Donald Trump warned the “entire country” could be destroyed if Iran refuses a nuclear deal by Tuesday.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s office posted a statement on state TV that Iran “will never surrender to bullying” hours after Trump posted on Truth Social that the military option was “ready and loaded.”

The exchange pushed the two nations to their most dangerous confrontation since Trump ordered the 2020 drone strike that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. Oil prices spiked 8 percent in early Asian trading, while European diplomats cancelled weekend leave and Capitol Hill staffers circulated summaries of the 2015 nuclear accord.

Khamenei said Iran prefers negotiations but “if they choose force, we have shown the power to respond,” referencing the April 1, 2024 missile barrage that closed Israel’s Nevatim airbase for 72 hours. His remarks were carried simultaneously on all domestic channels and translated into Arabic and English on Telegram channels linked to the Revolutionary Guard.

Trump’s Tuesday deadline brought a rare Sunday Pentagon briefing chaired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. A senior official told reporters the Navy has moved two Ohio-class submarines into the Strait of Hormuz, each carrying up to 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles. Satellite imagery released by Planet Labs shows additional B-2 stealth bombers arriving at Al Udeid airbase in Qatar on Saturday night. The Iranian navy responded by deploying fast-attack craft around Kharg Island, the terminal for 90 percent of the country’s oil exports.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Trump’s tough tone, telling his cabinet by encrypted video that “we support any action to prevent a nuclear Iran.” Britain’s Keir Starmer urged both sides to “step back immediately,” according to a Downing Street statement that also called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting. French President Emmanuel Macron dispatched his top Middle East envoy to Muscat, the usual back-channel venue, while China summoned the Iranian ambassador in Beijing to press for restraint.

Energy markets delivered the sharpest reaction. Brent crude futures jumped to $94.60 a barrel, up from $87 at Friday’s close, after shipping giant MSC rerouted four supertankers away from the Persian Gulf. Analysts at Goldman Sachs wrote to clients that a sustained blockade could push gasoline prices above $5 a gallon in the United States ahead of summer driving season. German utilities activated emergency protocols as Russia warned any disruption would “punish Europe first.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent previewed fresh sanctions due Monday morning covering Iran’s central bank, the National Iranian Oil Company and 25 shipping firms accused of smuggling crude to China. The package would cut off their access to the global Swift network and freeze any dollar assets held overseas. Iranian officials have survived previous rounds by selling discounted oil to Beijing through front companies registered in the United Arab Emirates, yet traders in Singapore told GlobalBeat that Chinese state banks are already refusing letters of credit for new cargoes.

Iran’s atomic chief Mohammad Eslami confirmed technicians have begun enriching uranium to 90 percent purity, weapons grade, at the fortified Fordow site buried under a mountain northeast of Qom. Stockpile data leaked to the International Atomic Energy Agency shows Tehran now possesses 165 kg of material enriched to at least 60 percent, enough for three bombs if further refined. The 2015 deal capped enrichment at 3.67 percent and limited the stockpile to 300 kg of that lower-grade material. Prime Minister Mohammad-Reza Aref told lawmakers the country would also restart production of uranium metal, a key component for warheads.

Background

The United States and Iran have been locked in nuclear negotiations since 2006, when Tehran’s clandestine enrichment program was exposed. President Barack Obama led six world powers to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2015, lifting sanctions in exchange for strict enrichment limits and intrusive inspections. Trump unilaterally abandoned the accord in May 2018, calling it “the worst deal ever,” and imposed “maximum pressure” sanctions that choked Iran’s oil exports. Tehran responded by steadily violating the agreement’s caps, first surpassing enrichment limits, then installing advanced centrifuges, and finally restricting inspector access after scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in November 2020.

Efforts to revive the deal under President Joe Biden collapsed in August 2022 when Iran demanded guarantees that future U.S. administrations could not again quit the accord. Since then the Revolutionary Guard has enriched uranium at record pace while supplying Russia with Shahed drones used to attack Ukraine. European diplomats estimate Tehran’s “break-out time” to a single bomb has shortened from 12 months under the original agreement to less than 10 days today.

What’s Next

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas will host crisis talks with Britain, France and Germany in Brussels on Monday ahead of the UN Security Council session later that evening. Tehran’s negotiating team, led by veteran diplomat Abbas Araghchi, arrives in Muscat Monday night to meet Omani mediators, though sources doubt any proposal can bridge the gap by Trump’s Tuesday deadline. White House aides say Trump intends to address the nation from the Oval Office at 9 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday to announce either a diplomatic breakthrough or authorization of limited strikes.