Iran war live: Trump threatens action if Tehran fails to comply with deal

Iran war: Trump threatens fresh strikes if Iran breaches uranium cap

Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

President Donald Trump warned Tehran of immediate retaliation after Iranian officials signalled they would breach the 60% uranium enrichment ceiling agreed in last month’s cease-fire deal.

The White House said Trump delivered the threat during a 45-minute call with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday night, the first direct contact between the two leaders since US air strikes hit Bushehr and Natanz on March 22.

The confrontation has revived fears of a wider regional war only three weeks after both sides agreed to halt attacks and allow Chinese-mediated talks on a permanent nuclear compact. Under the March 15 truce, Iran pledged to keep enrichment below 60% and to ship out all stock above that level by May 1. In exchange Washington froze a second round of planned strikes on Iranian ports and energy facilities.

Washington’s European allies urged restraint. “We need the deal to hold,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters in Berlin. “Any miscalculation will set the entire region on fire.” France’s Foreign Ministry summoned Iran’s ambassador in Paris on Monday morning to demand clarification on enrichment levels.

Oil traders responded to the rhetoric by pushing Brent crude up 4.2% to $91.30 a barrel, its highest close since October. The price spike erased last week’s relief rally that followed the cease-fire announcement.

Iranian state television said Atomic Energy Organisation chief Mohammad Eslami ordered engineers to “prepare for rapid expansion of centrifuge cascades” after what Tehran called “blatant US bad faith” over sanctions relief. The broadcast claimed Iran had already stockpiled 87kg of 60% uranium, enough, if enriched further, for a single warhead according to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s definition.

Pentagon spokesperson Admiral John Kirby said US forces across the Gulf had been placed on 48-hour notice to resume offensive operations if enrichment activity increased. “We have target packages ready,” Kirby told reporters on Monday. “The president was clear that any move towards 90% purity will be met with kinetic force.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backed Trump’s stance while hinting Israel could act alone if necessary. “The Jewish state will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu wrote on X. “Period.” Israeli jets struck Iranian-linked sites in Syria on April 2 and again on April 6, killing 14 people according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

China’s Foreign Ministry appealed for calm. “All parties should cherish the hard-won momentum for dialogue,” spokesperson Lin Jian said. Beijing brokered the March cease-fire after secret talks in Muscat between Iranian and US delegations, but diplomats say Chinese leverage has receded as Washington shifts to a tougher posture.

The rial plunged to 690,000 against the dollar on the unofficial market, a fresh record. Iranian bankers told the semi-official Fars agency that dollar demand had doubled since Sunday evening amid panic buying of gold and hard currency.

Background

Iran began expanding its nuclear programme after Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018 and re-imposed sweeping sanctions. Enrichment levels stayed below 3.67% under the JCPOA but climbed steadily after the US exit, reaching 20% in early 2021 and 60% by early 2023, according to periodic IAEA reports.

The current crisis erupted on March 15 when a suspected Israeli drone attack killed two Revolutionary Guards at the Natanz enrichment plant hours before talks were due to resume in Oman. Tehran retaliated by firing 95 ballistic missiles at US bases in Iraq and Syria, killing 3 American contractors and wounding 47 service members, the Pentagon said. Trump authorised retaliatory air strikes on Iranian radar and missile sites, the first US attack on Iranian soil since 1988.

What’s Next

IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi is expected in Tehran on Wednesday to seek real-time surveillance footage of enrichment halls. European diplomats said that if Iran refuses to allow monitoring or exceeds the 60% cap, they will support snap-back of all pre-2015 UN sanctions when the Security Council meets on April 18.

Oil markets will watch US naval movements through the Strait of Hormuz. The carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is due to arrive from the western Pacific on Friday, joining two destroyers already shadowing Iranian fast-attack craft. Analysts warn that if Iran mines the narrow waterway, prices could spike above $120 a barrel within days.

The risk remains that either side miscalculates before the May 1 enrichment deadline. Iranian hard-liners are pressing for full 90% weapons-grade enrichment, while Trump faces domestic pressure to appear tougher than he did during his first term. One stray drone or cyberattack could shatter the fragile cease-fire and reopen a war both capitals claim they do not want.