Trump claims Iran tells him it’s in ‘state of collapse’

DUBAI/WASHINGTON: Efforts to end the Iran conflict were at an impasse on Tuesday with US President Donald Trump unhappy with the latest proposal from Tehran, which he said had informed the US it was in a “state of collapse” and figuring out its leadership situation.

Iran’s most recent offer for resolving the two-month war would set aside discussion of its nuclear programme until the conflict was concluded and shipping disputes resolved.

But Trump wants nuclear issues dealt with from the outset, a US official briefed on Trump’s Monday meeting with his advisers said. In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, Trump said: “Iran has just informed us that they are in a ‘State of Collapse’. They want us to ‘Open the Hormuz Strait,’ as soon as possible, as they try to figure out their leadership situation (Which I believe they will be able to do!).” It was unclear from his post how Iran might have communicated that message and there was no immediate response from Tehran to Trump’s latest comments.

Earlier, an Iranian army spokesperson told state media the Islamic Republic did not consider the war over.

Iran has largely blocked all shipping apart from its own from the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for global energy supplies, since the war began on February 28. This month, the US began blockading Iranian ships.

Iran’s guards take greater role

Hopes of reviving peace efforts in a conflict that has killed thousands, thrown energy markets into turmoil and disrupted global trade routes have receded since Trump last weekend scrapped a visit by his special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to mediator Pakistan. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi shuttled in and out of Islamabad twice during the weekend.

Since several senior Iranian political and military figures were killed in US-Israeli strikes, Iran no longer has a single, undisputed clerical arbiter at the pinnacle of power, which may be hardening Tehran’s negotiating stance.

The killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war, and the elevation of his wounded son, Mojtaba, to replace him as supreme leader, has handed more power to hardline commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian officials and analysts say.