US President warns truce remains fragile amid Strait of Hormuz tensions, insists any deal with Iran must end its pursuit of nuclear weapons<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump on Monday said the monthlong ceasefire between the United States and Iran was on \u201cmassive life support\u201d, describing the truce as \u201cunbelievably weak\u201d amid continuing tensions and exchanges in the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said the ceasefire technically remained in effect but warned that it was increasingly fragile as both sides continued hostile actions at sea.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say the ceasefire is on massive life support,\u201d CNN quoted Trump as saying.<\/p>\n
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The remarks came as Washington and Tehran remained deadlocked over Iran\u2019s nuclear programme, with Trump reiterating that any agreement would require Iran to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a plan \u2014 you know, it\u2019s a very simple plan, I don\u2019t know why you don\u2019t say it like it is, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,\u201d Trump told reporters.<\/p>\n
The US president also rejected Iran\u2019s latest counterproposal aimed at ending the conflict, calling it \u201ca stupid proposal\u201d and \u201csimply unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I have a great plan \u2014 but the plan is they cannot have a nuclear weapon,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd they didn\u2019t say that in their letter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump said Iran had earlier agreed to allow the US to remove its stockpile of enriched uranium but later backed away from the understanding.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey did two days ago,\u201d Trump said. \u201cBut they changed their mind, because they didn\u2019t put it in the paper.\u201d<\/p>\n
Referring to uranium stored beneath nuclear facilities targeted by US strikes last year, Trump said Iran had initially told Washington that the US would have to retrieve the material itself.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThey told me, number one, you\u2019re getting it, but you\u2019re going to have to take it out,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThe site was so obliterated that there\u2019s only one or two countries in the world that could get it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that Iran had identified China as the only other country capable of carrying out such an operation.<\/p>\n
Despite earlier discussions, Trump said Iran\u2019s latest submission omitted any reference to handing over the enriched uranium stockpile.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just can\u2019t get there,\u201d he said. \u201cThey agree with us and then they take it back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump also sharply criticised the Iranian leadership, accusing it of repeatedly changing positions during negotiations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re very dishonorable people, the leadership. They just change their mind. I\u2019ve had that in business many times. These people, you make a deal, and then they send you a document that takes five days to get there when it should\u2019ve been there in 20 minutes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Trump also claimed divisions existed within the Iranian leadership, distinguishing between what he called \u201cmoderates\u201d seeking a settlement and \u201clunatics\u201d pushing for continued confrontation.<\/p>\n
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\u201cYou have the moderates, and you have the lunatics. And I think the moderates are more respected. The lunatics want to fight till the end,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe moderates are dying to make a deal. And then you have the lunatics, and I guess they\u2019re a little bit afraid of the lunatics,\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n
With inputs from agencies<\/p>\n
First Published:
\nMay 11, 2026, 23:02 IST<\/p>\n
Home<\/a>World<\/a>Trump says Iran ceasefire on \u2018massive life support\u2019, rejects Tehran\u2019s ‘stupid proposal’End of Article<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President warns truce remains fragile amid Strait of Hormuz tensions, insists any deal with Iran must end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[38,13949,34,16070,2107,816,37452,101,69,32828,2429,146],"class_list":{"0":"post-108822","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tehran","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-enriched-uranium","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-iran-ceasefire","12":"tag-iran-nuclear-programme","13":"tag-middle-east-conflict","14":"tag-oval-office-remarks","15":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","16":"tag-tehran","17":"tag-tehran-proposal","18":"tag-us-foreign-policy","19":"tag-us-iran-tensions"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116557240661673654","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}