The US and Iran remained far apart on a deal to end weeks of war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, with President Donald Trump expressing renewed frustration with Tehran as a selloff in global bonds heightened concern about the conflict’s economic fallout.
Trump signaled his patience was wearing thin, posting on social media Sunday that “For Iran, the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!”
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said the US had set five main conditions for a peace deal, including transferring uranium tied to Iran’s nuclear program to the US, providing no reparations to Tehran and unfreezing less than a quarter of Iran’s frozen assets. Fars cited no source, and the US hasn’t publicly commented on the reported terms.
Meanwhile, the semi-official Mehr news agency said Washington offered “no tangible concessions” while seeking demands it failed to secure during the war, a stance the agency said was leading to an impasse in negotiations.
A drone attack sparked a fire at a United Arab Emirates nuclear plant, underscoring the fragility of the ceasefire. It was one of three launched from west of the emirate, the UAE defense ministry said in a social media post, adding that the other two were intercepted.
A global bond rout intensified as the US and Iran remained at loggerheads over a deal to end the conflict. Treasuries declined across the curve, with the 30-year yield rising to the highest in almost three years on investor fears of accelerating inflation. Japan’s 10-year yield jumped 10 basis points on Monday to levels last seen in 1996, while bonds also dropped in Australia and New Zealand.
The latest market turmoil followed sharp declines in stocks and bonds Friday as fears grew that disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz would keep oil prices elevated. Markets now see a US Federal Reserve interest-rate hike by March as almost certain, underscoring how the Iran war has upended expectations since late February, when investors were pricing in two quarter-point cuts in 2026.
Brent rose 2 percent to over $111 a barrel, after adding almost 8 percent last week. Brent has jumped about 50 percent since the start of the war.
Make a Deal
Trump met Saturday with Vice President JD Vance, White House envoy Steve Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe to discuss the war, Axios reported. He is expected to meet again with his national security team Tuesday.
“We want to make a deal,” Trump told Axios, adding he’s waiting for an updated Iranian proposal. “They are not where we want them to be. They will have to get there or they will be hit badly, and they don’t want that.”
Since the ceasefire began on April 8, Trump has repeatedly threatened to resume the bombing campaign that began on Feb. 28.
Iranian threats to shipping in the Persian Gulf have brought the region’s energy exports to a near standstill, sending prices soaring and giving Tehran leverage in talks with the US.
The US-Israeli war on Iran has claimed thousands of lives, mainly in the Islamic Republic. Retaliatory attacks by Tehran targeted US allies across the Gulf, including the UAE, which has carried out intermittent strikes on Iran in response, Bloomberg has reported.
In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet he would speak with Trump later Sunday following the US president’s visit to China. Security Cabinet member Zev Elkin said Israel was prepared to resume strikes on Iran if Trump chose to do so.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said his country is committed to a diplomatic resolution to the conflict. Several energy shipments have managed to clear the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks, and an Iranian official said authorities were drafting rules to allow passage for some vessels.
The US and China, the world’s two largest economies, sought to emphasize points of agreement on the Middle East conflict when Trump met last week with China’s Xi Jinping, an ally of Iran.
Returning from Asia, Trump told reporters he discussed potentially lifting sanctions on Chinese oil companies that buy Iranian crude with Xi. The Treasury Department has escalated the penalties in recent weeks as the US tries to pressure Tehran on talks, while Beijing has ordered its companies to ignore the sanctions.
Trump said in an interview with Fox News that three Chinese tankers carrying Iranian oil through Hormuz during the week of his visit to Beijing did so because the US allowed it. Iranian state TV had previously said more than 30 ships were allowed passage through the strait since Wednesday night, citing an official from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ navy.
Here’s more related to the war:
- Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to visit China on Tuesday and Wednesday, where he is expected to discuss the Iran war with Xi.
- Sunday’s drone attack in the UAE sparked a fire in an electrical generator outside the inner perimeter of the Barakah power plant but had no impact on radiological safety, Abu Dhabi’s media office said. No injuries were reported.
- Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi arrived in Tehran on Saturday and met his Iranian counterpart. The two discussed bilateral relations and the prospects for resuming US-Iran peace negotiations, for which Pakistan has been the main mediator, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
- Israel’s economy slumped in the first quarter of the year when the fallout of the war with Iran imposed security-related shutdowns on businesses for more than a month.
- Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf was named Iran’s special envoy for China affairs, according to Fars.
