Al Jazeera

By Zaid Sabah and Danai Nesta Kupemba

    US President Donald Trump has said the ceasefire with Iran is “on life support” after rejecting Tehran’s latest proposal to end the conflict, calling it “totally unacceptable”.

    Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, said the US has made “unreasonable demands” to end the war, while the country’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, says Tehran is ready to respond to “any aggression”, which will leave the US “surprised”.

    The European Union has agreed to impose new sanctions on Israeli settlers for violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the move “will not succeed”.

    The death toll in Gaza from Israel’s genocidal war has risen to 72,740, while Lebanon reports that Israeli attacks have killed 2,869 people across the country since March 2.

    Visit our live tracker for the latest casualty figures from across the region.

    Kaja Kallas, the EU foreign policy chief, said that “violence and extremism carry consequences”, with the sanctions focused on asset freezes and travel bans for the Israeli settlers.

Displaced once, now Lebanese choose to stay in south Lebanon despite Israeli attacks

Reporting from Tyre, southern Lebanon

    People here are definitely taking into account the significant escalation they’ve seen over the past week.

    The death toll has risen exponentially in just a matter of days and the attacks continue to intensify.

    The people are concerned that this is going to continue. But they are not going to be leaving the south.

    Most of the people that we have spoken to were already displaced. They spent most of the beginning of this war, about six weeks, outside of their homes, outside of the south – many went to Beirut and other parts of the country.

    When the ceasefire started around three weeks ago, most of them returned.

    And the people who have come back are saying they’re not going to be leaving again even though there are obvious risks and dangers.

Trump reported to be mulling military options as Iran negotiations stall

    Trump is reportedly becoming more exasperated with Tehran’s approach to peace talks, leading some advisers to suggest that a return to large-scale military action is being weighed more heavily than in previous weeks.

    According to a report in US media, citing sources close to the negotiations, Trump’s frustration stems from the ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and what he views as fractured leadership in Iran.

    Trump believes these internal rifts are hindering the Iranian government’s ability to offer the significant concessions required to move forward with the nuclear negotiations, according to the report.

    US President Donald Trump said the ceasefire with Iran is on “life support” with a 1 percent chance of survival.

    That was after he called the latest peace proposal from Tehran “a piece of garbage”.

Oil prices edge higher as fragile US-Iran diplomacy fuels supply fears

    Crude oil prices climbed in early Asian trading on Tuesday as the outlook for a diplomatic resolution to the US-Iran war remained uncertain, with Washington and Tehran trading threats after Trump derided Iran’s latest peace proposal.

    Brent crude futures edged up by 30 cents, or 0.29 percent, to reach $104.51 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose by 31 cents, or 0.32 percent, to hit $98.38 by 00:02 GMT.

    The gains followed a significant surge on Monday, when both major oil benchmarks closed nearly 2.8 percent higher as traders weighed the impact of the ongoing hostilities on energy exports.

Australia imposes new Iranian sanctions, travel bans

    Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong has announced new sanctions on seven Iranian individuals and four entities, due to Tehran’s “ongoing brutal oppression of its people and destabilisation of the region”.

    Wong said in a statement that the Iranian “regime massacred thousands of its own citizens and carried out mass arrests of peaceful protesters”.

    “The seven individuals and four entities sanctioned today include senior officials and entities involved in these horrific acts, including violence against women and children,” she said.

    Wong said the sanctions also target “Iran’s shadow banking system that allow it to fund terrorist proxies such as Hamas, support its ballistic missile program, and other destabilising actions”.

    The new sanctions come after both the UK and the US placed new sanctions on Iranian individuals and entities on Monday.

    The US said it was part of its plan to ensure Iran is deprived of “funding for its weapons programs, terrorist proxies, and nuclear ambitions.”

Israel threatens residents to flee Lebanese town targeted for attack

    The Israeli military has issued a threat to residents of the Lebanese town of Sohmor to flee their homes or remain and expose “their lives to danger”.

    In a post on social media, the Israeli military said the order was an “urgent warning to residents” to leave the town in the Bekaa Valley and move to “a distance of no less than 1,000 metres (0.6 miles) to open areas”.

    The order is just the latest from Israel’s military, which has for months forcibly displaced the Lebanese population amid its attacks, particularly in the south of the country. Israeli attacks have killed at least 2,869 people since March 2.

    Lebanon’s Social Affairs Ministry has reported that more than 1.1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced by Israel’s invasion and attacks, according to the UN.

Israeli military medics training on donated US bodies

    A US university is selling dead bodies that were donated for scientific research and education to the US Navy.

    And some of those bodies are being used to train Israeli military surgical teams in Los Angeles – all without the donors’ consent.

    AJ+’s Dena Takruri investigates what’s been happening at two universities, the University of Southern California and the University of California, San Diego, which are involved in the Israeli military training programme.

US government to loan 53 million barrels of crude to counter oil spikes

    Reuters reports that the Trump administration is providing 53.3 million barrels of crude oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve to energy firms under a global pact to steady markets rattled by the war on Iran and mitigate supply constraints.

    The move comes after nine energy corporations, including Exxon Mobil, Trafigura and Marathon Petroleum, tapped into just 58 percent of the 92.5 million barrels that the Department of Energy (DOE) made available in a similar loan last month.

    The latest loan offer is part of the DOE’s broader strategy to discharge 172 million barrels from the country’s strategic reserve to mitigate the impact of the war.

US senator says Democrats to launch another vote to stop Trump’s war

    Senator Chuck Schumer has blasted Trump for dragging Americans into an “illegal, costly war without any goals or without any endgame” and said Democrats will launch another vote to try to stop it.

    “The best way to lower costs and end this chaos is to end this illegal war: Democrats are forcing a seventh vote on our War Powers Resolution this week to withdraw US troops from hostilities with Iran,” Schumer said.

    “If Republicans vote against our resolution, they will continue to bear the blame for Trump’s war,” he said in a post on X.

    The War Powers Resolution is designed to prevent presidents from waging war without congressional approval after 60 days of conflict.

    Democrats have attempted several times to pass the resolution, but as they are the minority in Congress, most votes have been split along party lines.