Trump Says Iran Ceasefire Proposal Not Good Enough

Israeli military says it killed leader of Quds Force undercover unit

Israel’s military said Monday it killed the leader of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s undercover unit in its expeditionary Quds Force.

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, a military spokesman, confirmed the killing of Asghar Bakeri in a briefing to reporters.

He said Bakeri had planned attacks on Israeli and American targets as well as operations in Israel, Syria and Lebanon.  — AP

Israeli strike kills anti-Hezbollah politician in Lebanon

The hilly Christian town of Ain Saadeh, east of Beirut, was in shock Monday after an Israeli missile crashed into an apartment building, killing an anti-Hezbollah politician, his wife and another woman.

Israel said it targeted a Hezbollah militant, but the third-story apartment was empty.

The strike blew out the walls and windows of the floor below, killing Pierre Mouawad, an official in the Lebanese Forces, a Christian political party opposed to the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, and his wife, Flavia Mouawad. — AP

UN watchdog confirms strikes close to Bushehr nuclear facility

The United Nations nuclear watchdog on Monday confirmed recent strikes struck close to Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, with one hitting just 75 meters (82 yards) from the facility’s perimeter.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a social media post that its own analysis showed the plant was not damaged as of Sunday.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi called for ceasing such attacks, which cause “a very real danger to nuclear safety.”

Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization has reported four attacks close to the facility since the war started Feb. 28. The last strike Saturday killed a security guard and damaged a support building, the organization said.

The Bushehr nuclear power plant uses low-enriched uranium from Russia, along with Russian technicians, to supply about 1,000 megawatts of power for Iran.  — AP

Israel says it attacked South Pars plant at Asaluyeh

Israel’s defense minister said Monday that Israel attacked the South Pars petrochemical plant at Asaluyeh.

Israel Katz made the announcement in a statement after Iran said the facility had been attacked.

Katz said Israel had “just carried out a powerful strike on the largest petrochemical facility in Iran, located in Asaluyeh, a central target responsible for about 50% of the country’s petrochemical production.”

An Israeli attack in March on South Pars facilities sparked major Iranian attacks targeting oil and gas infrastructure across the Gulf Arab states.

When asked about the South Pars strike, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, Israel’s military spokesperson, said only that there would be “no immunity” for Iran as talks progress.

The White House did not immediately respond when asked about the South Pars strike Monday morning. — AP

Iranian media says attacks target South Pars natural gas field

Attacks targeted facilities Monday at Iran’s South Pars natural gas field, Iranian media outlets reported.

The semiofficial Fars news agency and the judicary’s Mizan news agency both reported the attack, blaming the U.S. and Israel.

Neither country immediately claimed any attack at Asaluyeh in Iran’s southern Bushehr province.

Iran condemned the first Israeli strike on South Pars in March, with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warning of “uncontrollable consequences” that “could engulf the entire world.” The attack on South Pars saw Iran increasingly target Gulf Arab oil and natural gas sites.

U.S. President Donald Trump has warned of possible attacks on power plants and bridges this week if the Strait of Hormuz is not opened.

After Israel’s earlier attack, Trump said Israel would not attack South Pars again, but warned on social media that if Iran continued striking Qatar’s energy infrastructure, the United States would retaliate and “massively blow up the entirety” of the field.

Iran shares the South Pars field with Qatar, which refers to its part of the massive offshore field as the North Field.

The field is the world’s largest gas field and sits under the waters of the Persian Gulf.  — AP

Airstrikes on Iran kill more than 25 as new ceasefire proposal is shared

DUBAI, UAE: Israel and the United States carried out a wave of attacks on Iran on Monday, killing more than 25 people, and Iran responded with missile fire on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbors. U.S. President Donald Trump’s deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz loomed as mediators circulated a new ceasefire proposal.

Explosions rang out in Tehran and low-flying jets could be heard for hours as the capital was pounded. Thick black smoke rose near the city’s Azadi Square after one airstrike hit the grounds of the Sharif University of Technology.

Among those killed in one of the attacks on Tehran was the head of intelligence for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi, according to Iranian state media and Israel's defense minister.

Iranian missiles hit the northern Israeli city of Haifa, where three people were found dead in the rubble of a residential building, and searchers looked for one more.

Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia all activated their air defenses to intercept incoming Iranian missiles and drones, as Tehran kept up the pressure on its Gulf neighbors. Iran's regular attacks on regional energy infrastructure and its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz , through which a fifth of the world's oil is shipped in peacetime, has sent global energy prices soaring .

Under pressure at home as consumers are growing increasingly concerned, Trump gave Tehran a deadline that expires Monday night Washington time, saying if no deal was reached to reopen the strait, the U.S. would hit Iran's power plants and other infrastructure targets and set the country “back to the stone ages.”

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” he threatened in a social media post, adding that if Iran did not open the strait “you'll be living in Hell.”

In an effort to stop the fighting, Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators have sent Iran and the U.S. a proposal calling for a 45-day ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to give time to try and find a way to end the war, two Mideast officials have told The Associated Press.

Iran and the U.S. have not responded to the proposal, sent late Sunday night to both Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, the officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private negotiations.

Trump's deadline to open Hormuz strait looms but no signs of Tehran backing off Trump has at times demanded that Iran reopen the strait or face a significant escalation in bombing from the U.S. while at other times said it was not up to Washington to force the waterway open or even that the war could end without it being reopened.

He has also given multiple deadlines to Iran on the issue, and after the threat he posted Sunday he later posted a single line saying “Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time!” It was not clear whether that meant he had extended the deadline another day.

Tehran has shown no signs of backing down from its stranglehold on shipping through the strait, which was fully open before Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran on Feb. 28 to start the war .

Following Trump’s expletive-laced posts on Easter Sunday, Iran’s parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf called the threats of targeting Iran’s infrastructure “reckless.”

“You won’t gain anything through war crimes,” Qalibaf wrote on X. “The only real solution is respecting the rights of the Iranian people and ending this dangerous game.”

Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose to $109 in early Monday spot trading, some 50% higher than it was when the war started.

Iran has let some vessels through the strait since the war began, but none belonging to the U.S., Israel or countries perceived as helping them. Some have paid Iran for passage and the overall flow of traffic is down more than 90% over the same period last year.

Airstrikes kill more than 25 across Iran

One of Monday's morning airstrikes targeted Tehran's Sharif University of Technology, where Iranian media reported damage to the buildings as well as a natural gas distribution site next to the campus.

It wasn’t immediately clear what had been targeted on the grounds of the university, which is empty of students as the war has forced all schools into the country into online classes. However, multiple countries over the years have sanctioned the university for its work with the military, particularly on Iran’s ballistic missile program, which is controlled by the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

Following the confirmation that the Guard's intelligence chief had been killed in one strike, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed to keep targeting top-ranking Iranian officials. “Iran’s leaders live with a sense of being targeted," Katz said. "We will continue to hunt them down one by one.”

A strike near Eslamshar, southwest of Tehran, killed at least 15 people, authorities said. Five others were killed when a residential area in the city of Qom was hit, and six more were killed in strikes on other cities, the state-run IRAN daily newspaper reported.

Three more people were killed when an airstrike hit a home in Tehran, Iranian state television reported.

War's death toll in the thousands More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but its government has not updated the toll for days.

In Lebanon, which Israel has invaded by ground, more than 1,400 people have been killed and more than 1 million people have been displaced . Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there while targeting Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while at least 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.  — AP

US-Israeli strikes kill Iran Guards intelligence chief: Guards

TEHRAN: US-Israeli strikes killed on Monday the intelligence chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the Guards said.

"Major General Majid Khademi, the powerful and educated head of the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was martyred in the criminal terrorist attack by the American-Zionist enemy... at dawn today," said the Guards in a post on their Telegram channel.  — AFP

Iran and US receive draft proposal for war ceasefire

Iran and the United States have received a draft proposal that calls for a 45-day ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz as a possible way to end the war, two Mideast officials told The Associated Press.

South Korea plans to send ships and special envoys to Saudi Arabia

South Korea plans to send at least five ships to Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu port in the coming weeks to establish new oil transport routes in the Red Sea.

1 person wounded in UAE after missile interception

In the United Arab Emirates’ capital of Abu Dhabi, authorities said a Ghanaian man suffered wounds from shrapnel after the interception of an Iranian missile over the city’s Musaffah neighborhood.