US, Iran far from Hormuz deal as Trump says 'clock is ticking'

The U.S. and Iran remained far apart on a deal to end weeks of war and reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, as a drone attack sparked a fire at a United Arab Emirates nuclear plant, spotlighting the risks of a fragile ceasefire.

President Donald Trump made clear his patience is 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 U.S. had set five main conditions for a peace deal, including the removal of uranium used by Iran’s nuclear program to the U.S., that Washington pays none of the compensation Tehran is demanding and unfreezes less than a quarter of Iran’s suspended assets. Fars didn’t give a source for the information, and the U.S. hasn’t publicly commented on such stipulations.

Meanwhile, the semi-official Mehr news agency said Washington offered “no tangible concessions” while seeking “to obtain concessions that it failed to obtain during the war, which will lead to an impasse in the negotiations.”

Sunday’s drone attack in the UAE sparked a blaze in an electrical generator outside the inner perimeter of the Barakah power plant and had no impact on radiological safety, Abu Dhabi’s media office said in a statement. Authorities were working to extinguish the conflagration, which didn’t cause any injury, it said.

The drone that hit the power plant was one of three fired from west of the emirate, the UAE defense ministry said in a social media post. The other two were intercepted. The UAE said it was investigating the source of the attack.

Iranian threats on shipping in the Persian Gulf have brought the region’s energy exports to a near-standstill, sending global prices soaring and giving Tehran significant leverage in talks with the U.S.

The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran that began Feb. 28 has claimed thousands of lives, mainly in the Islamic Republic. Retaliatory attacks by Tehran targeted U.S. 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, briefing his cabinet about the Iran crisis, said he would speak to Trump later on Sunday for an update on the China visit. A member of Netanyahu’s security cabinet, Zev Elkin, said the country was poised to resume strikes on Iran should Trump decide to do so.

"We have targets that we want to hit, of course,” Elkin told Kan radio. “The current situation, with the U.S. blockade continuing, would also be good for Israel, because it’s wreaking major damage upon the Iranian economy on a daily basis.”

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 this weekend authorities were working on a formal law and framework to allow passage for some vessels.

The U.S. 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.

On his way back from Asia, Trump told reporters he had discussed potentially lifting sanctions on Chinese oil companies that buy Iranian crude with the Chinese leader. The Treasury Department has escalated the penalties in recent weeks as the U.S. tries to pressure Tehran on talks, while Beijing has ordered its companies to ignore the sanctions.

“I’m going to make a decision over the next few days,” Trump said aboard Air Force One when asked if he’d consider lifting the sanctions. “We did talk about that.”

Trump said that three Chinese tankers that went through Hormuz loaded with Iranian oil this week did so because the U.S. allowed it, in an interview with Fox News. Iranian state TV had previously said over 30 ships were allowed passage through the strait since Wednesday night, citing an official from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ navy.

The White House faces a conundrum: How to reopen the strait, lower global energy prices and wind down an increasingly unpopular conflict that has caused the biggest oil supply disruption in history ahead of midterm elections in November?

Brent crude has jumped about 50% since the start of the war, with traders fearing a fresh escalation in hostilities between the U.S. and Iran after Trump’s visit to China failed to yield any concrete progress on a plan to restart the Strait of Hormuz.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi arrived in Tehran on Saturday, where he met his Iranian counterpart. The two discussed bilateral relations and the prospects for resuming U.S.-Iran peace negotiations, for which Pakistan has been the main mediator, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Iran’s highly enriched uranium, which has been in an unknown location since a U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign in June last year, remains one of many obstacles to a peace agreement.

Israeli security cabinet member Elkin said the enriched uranium was not out of reach. “One could certainly get to it, if there’s a willingness,” he said.

Here’s more related to the war:

—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.

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(With assistance from Dan Williams.)

The U.S. and Iran seemed far apart on a deal to end weeks of war and reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, as a drone attack sparked a fire at a United Arab Emirates nuclear plant, spotlighting the risks of a fragile ceasefire.

Sunday’s drone attack comes just days after U.S. President Donald Trump returned from a two-day summit in Beijing with China’s Xi Jinping, an ally of Iran. Both agreed that the strait — via which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquified natural gas once flowed — should be open for transit but made no apparent progress toward that goal.

The blaze broke out in an electrical generator outside the inner perimeter of the UAE’s Barakah power plant and had no impact on radiological safety, Abu Dhabi’s media office said in a statement. Authorities are working to extinguish the conflagration, which didn’t cause any injury, it said.

The U.S. and China, the world’s two largest economies, sought to emphasize points of agreement on the Middle East conflict during Trump’s meetings with Xi this week, even as they occupy opposing sides.

“I’m going to make a decision over the next few days,” Trump said aboard Air Force One when asked if he’d consider lifting the sanctions. “We did talk about that.”

Iran’s highly enriched uranium, which has been in an unknown location since a U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign in June last year, remains one of many obstacles to a peace agreement.

Israeli security cabinet member Elkin said the enriched uranium was not out of reach. “One could certainly get to it, if there’s a willingness,” he said.

Here’s more related to the war:

—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.

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(With assistance from Dan Williams.)

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