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yesterday and said his deadline was final.

“They made a proposal, and it’s a significant proposal. It’s a significant step. It’s not good enough,” Trump told reporters at an annual White House Easter event, referring to Iran.

Iran responded to US and Israeli attacks in February by effectively closing Hormuz, a conduit for about a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas supply. The waterway’s stranglehold on the global economy has proved a powerful Iranian bargaining chip.

The Pakistani-brokered framework for ending the war emerged from intense overnight contacts and proposes an immediate ceasefire, followed by talks on a broader peace settlement to be concluded within 15 to 20 days, a source aware of the proposals said yesterday.

Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, was in contact “all night long” with US Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, the source said.

However, the prospect of a deal looks slim.

“The entire country could be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump said as he brushed off concerns that hitting Iran’s power facilities and bridges -- a tactic that Russia has also used in its invasion of Ukraine -- would be a war crime.

“I’m not worried about it,” Trump said when asked what he would say to those who allege that striking energy facilities would breach the laws of war. “You know the war crime? The war crime is allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

Asked again about the issue, he said Iran’s leaders were “animals” who had killed tens of thousands of protesters.

He also argued that Iranians were willing to suffer for their freedom, saying the United States had intercepted communications urging them to “please keep bombing.”

Trump also said that if it were up to him, he would seize Iran’s oil, but that “unfortunately, the American people would like to see us come home” and end the war.

“I’d keep the oil, and I would make plenty of money,” Trump said, adding that Americans who opposed the Iran war were “foolish.”

In a post laden with expletives on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump threatened further strikes on Iranian energy and transport infrastructure if Iran failed to make a deal and reopen the Strait by his deadline.

Amid the war of words, fresh aerial strikes were reported across the region yesterday.

Iranian state media said the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence chief, Majid Khademi, has died. Israel claimed responsibility for his death.

A US-Israeli attack hit the data centre at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, damaging infrastructure underpinning the country’s national artificial intelligence platform and thousands of other services, Fars News Agency said on Sunday.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, in a statement issued yesterday, threatened to destroy Iran’s infrastructure and hunt down its leaders “one by one”. The Israeli military also said they had targeted Iran’s air force through a series of strikes on the Bahram, Mehrabad, and Azmayesh airports over the previous night.

Iran yesterday said two of its petrochemical complexes were attacked.

Emergency and firefighting teams brought a blaze under control at the South Pars complex in Asaluyeh, Iran’s National Petrochemical Company said. No casualties were reported.

An Israeli attack in mid-March on the South Pars gas field that Iran shares with Qatar prompted an escalation in the war, with Iran striking energy targets across the Middle East.