Trump calls Iran's latest response to proposal 'TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE'
The Iranian response was sent via Pakistan on Sunday, state media said.
President Donald Trump announced "major combat operations" against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israeli strikes targeting military, government and infrastructure sites.
Following the announcement of a two-week ceasefire, initial U.S.-Iran talks in Pakistan in April failed to reach a peace deal.
Trump later announced the open-ended extension of the ceasefire and the continuation of a U.S. blockade until negotiations are concluded "one way or the other."
Key Headlines
- Trump says US has Iran's enriched uranium 'surveilled'
- 3 more ships 'redirected' by US blockade, CENTCOM says
- Iran sends response to latest US peace proposal, state media says
- UAE intercepts 2 drones 'coming from Iran,' Defense Ministry says
- Bulk carrier ship struck by 'unknown projectile' off Qatari coast, UKMTO says
Iran will attack any US forces in Strait of Hormuz, commander says
Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi, the commander of Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said in a statement carried by state media on Monday that "any foreign armed force, especially the invading U.S. army, if they intend to approach and enter the Strait of Hormuz, will be subjected to attack."
"We will maintain the security of the Strait of Hormuz with all our might and manage it powerfully," Abdollahi said. The commander said that "all commercial ships and tankers" should "refrain from any action to transit without coordination with the armed forces stationed in the Strait of Hormuz so that their security is not endangered."
The warning came after U.S. Central Command said it would on Monday begin the "Project Freedom" operation "to restore freedom of navigation for commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz." President Donald Trump announced the mission on Sunday.
-ABC News' Joe Simonetti
US Strait of Hormuz mission will violate ceasefire, Iran official says
Ebrahim Azizi, the chairman of the Iranian parliament's national security committee, warned on Sunday that the planned U.S. mission to escort commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz will be considered "a violation of the ceasefire" by Tehran.
"The Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf will not be managed by Trump's delusional posts," Azizi said, as quoted by the semi-official Fars News Agency.
-ABC News' Will Gretsky
Trump says Iran negotiations are going 'very well'
While exiting Air Force One in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, President Donald Trump briefly responded to a shouted question from reporters asking him how negotiations with Iran were going.
"Very well," Trump said. The president did not answer any additional questions.
-ABC News' Isabella Murray
'Project Freedom' to extend defensive umbrella over shipping, official says
U.S. Central Command posted a statement to X on Sunday confirming that its forces will begin supporting "Project Freedom" in the Strait of Hormuz at the direction of President Donald Trump, beginning on Monday.
"Our support for this defensive mission is essential to regional security and the global economy as we also maintain the naval blockade," Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, said in the statement.
The mission is intended "to restore freedom of navigation for commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz," CENTCOM said.
The U.S. military role will be to extend a U.S. defensive umbrella over ships seeking to leave or enter the Strait of Hormuz, a U.S. official told ABC News. Project Freedom is not about providing escorts to ships, the official said.
"U.S. military support to Project Freedom will include guided-missile destroyers, over 100 land and sea-based aircraft, multi-domain unmanned platforms and 15,000 service members," CENTCOM said in its statement.
-ABC News' Lauren Minore and Luis Martinez