WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump lashed out on Monday (Apr 6) at NATO allies who did not support the United States in the war in Iran and reiterated his desire to annex Greenland.

Trump's remarks came ahead of a visit by the defence alliance's chief Mark Rutte scheduled for later this week.

"Look, we went to NATO," Trump recalled. "I didn't ask very strongly, I just said, 'Hey, if you want to help, great.'"

"'No, no, no, we will not help,'" Trump said he was told, while not saying who he spoke to.

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Trump went on to say that NATO members had "actually gone out of their way not to help".

The alliance, Trump said, "is a paper tiger" that Russian President Vladimir "Putin's not afraid of".

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who Trump called "a great person", is expected in Washington this week. 

On Wednesday, he will hold talks with Trump, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Alliance said on Friday.

The remarks mark the latest dust-up between Trump and the alliance.

Trump has made no secret of his desire to annex Greenland - controlled by NATO ally Denmark - which has been strongly resisted by the alliance.

Discussing his displeasure with NATO, Trump said: "It all began with - if you want to know the truth - Greenland."

"We want Greenland," Trump said. "They don't want to give it to us. And I said, 'bye, bye'."

Trump also criticised other traditional non-NATO allies including South Korea, Australia, and Japan for not assisting with the Iran war.

Trump praised Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates for their support during the conflict.

WASHINGTON: In Washington, planning for a war with Iran always started with the same stubborn reality: It would be hard to fight and even harder to win. The country is vast and mountainous. Much of its military infrastructure is buried in caves and bunkers. Any serious plan to neutralise Iran’s nuclear ambitions or topple the regime quickly arrived at the same conclusion - that success required ground forces and would result in American casualties.

Then came machine learning and artificial intelligence, and with them, the seductive idea that America might finally be able to fight a major adversary indefinitely without sending its citizens into the line of fire.

The promise is not mere fantasy. AI, fused with increasingly precise weapons and blanket surveillance, has transformed what the US military can do from a distance. The accuracy and speed with which American forces can now find and destroy enemies with potentially fewer US and civilian casualties are a major advance in the nuts and bolts of warfare. 

As Admiral Brad Cooper, the commander of US Central Command who is leading the war with Iran, said on Mar 11, AI tools can turn targeting processes that “used to take hours and sometimes even days into seconds”.

Yet for all the increased speed and accuracy of AI-assisted targeting, the war is showing that the physical world still imposes major barriers to victory. The scale and dispersion of Iranian drones are more than AI alone can overcome. Short-range missiles, especially on mobile launchers, can survive even in a world of constant blanket surveillance.

If planners had dreams of a final victory for remote-controlled warfare, in Iran they have awakened to a harder reality.

CHANGES IN TECHNOLOGY

The changes technology has brought to warfare in a single generation are genuinely striking. 

On one occasion several years before Sep 11, 2001, for example, the United States used satellite-phone data to target Osama bin Laden at a camp he was expected to visit in eastern Afghanistan, as Lawrence Wright reported in his book The Looming Tower. By the time the Tomahawk missiles were fired, however, bin Laden had made new plans; in the end, he never appeared at the site the United States struck.

Today, as missiles and drones take off toward Iran, real-time satellite and drone footage of their targets allows them to adjust course and speed based on live inputs.

AI is also delivering better battlefield intelligence from a distance than soldiers deployed in the field could have done just a few years ago. Right now, US drones are blanketing Iran, collecting video and images and intercepting signals, transmitting all of them to warships in the Persian Gulf. That data can be cross-referenced with people via their phone numbers, the transcripts of their communications and the places they recently visited. All of this informs strike decisions.

In remote areas of Iran, where missiles and drones are hidden in underground bunkers, AI can study changes to the soil, thermal signatures, the appearance of new construction and vehicular patterns in search of possible launch sites. When Iranian fighters exit bunkers to fire missiles or drones, surveillance drones can identify them as a threat, sending a signal to nearby ships or planes to fire before the munition is launched.

These capabilities have been discussed in public, including last year by Vice Admiral Frank Whitworth, then chief of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and during the current Iran conflict by Cameron Stanley, the Pentagon’s chief digital and artificial intelligence officer.

Used to create detailed AI-generated targeting packages, these capabilities could have given decision makers the impression of a low-risk, quick-turn war with Iran. The further into the conflict the United States gets, however, the more it seems that hope has been a mirage.

LIMITS OF AI-WARFARE

Iran is larger than France, Germany, Britain and Italy combined, and drones are hard to find even when you know where to look. Their launch does not emit a detectable explosion like a missile, and they are smaller and easier to conceal. Iran’s Shahed drones can even be launched from the back of a pickup truck. There are simply too many trucks in Iran, spread across too large an area, for automated surveillance and precision strikes to find and destroy every target before it takes flight.

Short-range ballistic missiles have also proved harder to counter than the long-range ones that dominated Israel’s and Iran’s 12-day war last year. Most of the missiles that Iran has fired this year have been short-range weapons aimed at Gulf countries. These are more mobile and smaller, with shorter flight paths, which means that the United States has less time to collect data and respond. Short-range missiles are also easier to disperse and so, like drones, are harder to track down and strike.

For all the advantages of AI-enabled targeting, it has not eliminated civilian casualties. The Pentagon has attributed the mistaken targeting of a school in southern Iran, where at least 175 people died, most of them children, to outdated intelligence. A government investigation is underway, but the episode shows that AI has not solved the fundamental challenge of preventing civilian deaths in a dense, contested environment.

That shortcoming is especially worrying now, as the administration considers deploying ground forces into Iran. The limits of AI warfare will most likely only become clearer if troops fight Iranian adversaries up close. 

One thing is already clear: AI’s impressive capabilities have made it easier to start a war, but they have not yet been enough to win one.

Marc Gustafson was the former chief of intelligence at the White House, head of the Situation Room and a CIA officer. He is currently a senior director of analysis at Eurasia Group. Justin Kosslyn was a director of product management at Google and is a special adviser at Eurasia Group. This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

OXFORD, Mississippi: NASA has just reset its Artemis programme, marking a clear strategic shift: space exploration is moving away from a race to achieve milestones and toward a system built on repeated operations, a sustained presence and lunar infrastructure that could become part of the technology networks we rely on here on Earth.

That shift is reflected in newly announced plans to invest billions of dollars in building a long-term lunar base, with habitats, power systems and surface infrastructure designed to support ongoing human activity. The message? Humans have already normalised travel to space. The next step is normalising living beyond Earth.

Artemis is NASA’s plan to return people to the Moon with the goal of staying. Unlike the short Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s, it consists of increasingly complex missions: flying around the Moon, landing on its surface and eventually establishing a base near the lunar south pole. The programme aims to create a reliable way for humans to live and work there, develop technologies useful on Earth and prepare for the journey to Mars.

Rather than moving straight from the Artemis II crewed lunar flyby to a surface landing, the new road map adds an intermediate mission in 2027. Astronauts will test docking, life-support systems and communications with commercial lunar landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin, but in low Earth orbit, the region roughly 160 to 2,000km above Earth’s surface, where rescue remains possible.

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The first landing near the lunar south pole is now targeted for 2028. This timeline may sound delayed, but in reality, it has been deliberately reset to prioritise building reliable systems that can operate long into the future over speed.

As a professor of air and space law, I’ve been watching these developments closely. The United States is still in a race – particularly with China – but it is choosing to compete on its own terms. Rather than chasing the fastest possible landing, NASA is focused on building a system that can support repeated missions and a lasting human presence.

FROM SPRINT TO SYSTEM

The original Artemis plan aimed to leap quickly from test flights to a crewed landing while simultaneously developing new rockets, spacecraft and landing systems. That approach carried risk. 

Artemis I, an uncrewed mission, flew successfully in 2022. After a few delays, Artemis II launched on Wednesday (Apr 1). But the further jump to a safe and reliable landing remains significant.

NASA’s new road map slows the transition deliberately. Instead of stand-alone milestones, NASA is now building a sequence of repeatable steps to gain hands-on experience.

This change includes a substantial new investment, with a multiphase plan for a lunar base with habitats, power systems and the surface infrastructure needed for a long-term human presence on the Moon. Consistent launch cadence and repeatable operations are how teams develop the expertise needed for safe, reliable spaceflight and eventually for traveling to Mars.

This shift is reflected in the decision to pause the planned lunar Gateway station, a small space station intended to orbit the Moon, and prioritise infrastructure on the lunar surface itself, where astronauts will live, work and build over time.

The new changes also emphasise a shifting role for commercial companies. SpaceX’s and Blue Origin’s lunar landers are integrated into the mission architecture.

The 2027 test mission, for example, will practise docking between crewed spacecraft and new commercial lunar landers in low Earth orbit. NASA is coordinating a network of public and private partners rather than running a single government-run Apollo-like programme.

This method spreads risk across partners, lowers costs and speeds development, though success now depends on multiple players working reliably together.

LAW FOLLOWS ACTIVITY

NASA’s road map is not just about lowering technical risk. It is also about shaping the future environment of lunar activity.

International space law, including the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, sets out broad principles to guide space activities, like avoiding harmful interference with others’ activities. But those rules only gain real meaning through repeated, coordinated activity, especially on the lunar surface, where desirable landing sites are limited.

Countries and companies that maintain a sustained presence on the Moon will shape the practical expectations everyone will share while living and working on the Moon. One-off demonstrations, like lunar landings, don’t shape lunar activity like continued operations would.

WHY THIS MATTERS – EVEN IF YOU NEVER GO TO SPACE

It would be easy to see these changes as purely technical, but they are not. 

The structure of a space programme shapes what technologies are developed, how industries grow and which countries influence how space is used. Technologies developed for sustained lunar activity, including life-support systems, energy storage and advanced communications, have found applications on Earth, from medicine to disaster response.

There are economic effects as well. The Artemis programme supports jobs across the United States and among its international partners. It helps build industries that extend far beyond NASA itself.

And there is a strategic dimension. As more countries and companies operate in space, the question is no longer just who arrives first, but who helps define how activity is carried out. Over time, that presence will likely become part of the infrastructure that supports daily life on Earth.

Communications, navigation, supply chains and scientific data already depend on space-based systems. As activity expands to the Moon, facilities there, from energy systems to communications relay systems that transmit data and signals back to Earth, will become integrated into those networks. 

What is built on the Moon will not sit apart from life on Earth, but increasingly function as an extension of it.

The Moon is becoming a place where infrastructure, industry and rules and expectations for how humans operate there are already beginning to take shape. NASA’s updated plan signals that the United States intends to be present there consistently.

The updates to the Artemis programme are a statement about how the US intends to engage in the next phase of space exploration. Rather than pursuing a single dramatic landing, the US is committing to the steady, repeatable work of building a lasting foothold on the Moon, and redefining humanity’s relationship with space itself.

Michelle LD Hanlon is Professor of Air and Space Law, University of Mississippi. This commentary first appeared on The Conversation.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 165.21 points, or 0.36 per cent, to 46,669.88, the S&P 500 gained 29.33 points, or 0.45 per cent, to 6,612.02 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 117.16 points, or 0.54 per cent, to 21,996.34.

Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, communication services notched the largest percentage gains, while utilities were the biggest laggards.

Travel/leisure stocks , aerospace & defence and homebuilders were clear outperformers.

Shares of Soleno Therapeutics jumped 32.3 per cent after Neurocrine Biosciences agreed to acquire the rare-disease drugmaker for US$2.9 billion in cash.

Rising bitcoin prices helped US-listed shares of cryptocurrency-linked firms Coinbase and Strategy advance 1.9 per cent and 6.6 per cent, respectively.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.93-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 88 new highs and 54 new lows on the NYSE.

On the Nasdaq, 2,918 stocks rose and 1,788 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.63-to-1 ratio.

The S&P 500 posted seven new 52-week highs and two new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 61 new highs and 70 new lows.

Volume on US exchanges was 14.78 billion shares, compared with the 19.51 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

MOSCOW: Ukrainian drones attacked the Caspian Pipeline Consortium's marine terminal in southern Russia early Monday (Apr 6), damaging a mooring point and setting four oil tanks ablaze, the Russian defence ministry said.

The CPC pipeline handles around 1 per cent of the world's oil supplies, as well as around 80 per cent of Kazakhstan's oil exports.

The Ukrainian army said it had attacked a different terminal in the port of Novorossiysk, without mentioning the Caspian Pipeline Consortium.

The CPC did not immediately comment.

During the night, Ukraine "deliberately attacked facilities of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium international oil transportation company," the Russian defence ministry said.

"As a result of the Ukrainian drone strikes, the pipeline of a single mooring point, as well as a loading and unloading terminal, were damaged, and four oil product storage tanks caught fire," the ministry added.

It accused Ukraine of attempting to "destabilise the global hydrocarbon market and cut off oil supplies to European consumers".

The Russian defence ministry did not provide any immediate visual evidence of the strikes.

The Ukrainian army said it had struck the Sheskharis oil terminal, a key Russian oil hub in the port of Novorossiysk - near where the CPC is located - but did not mention the CPC itself.

"Direct hits on the target and a large-scale fire on the territory of the terminal were recorded," it said on Telegram.

Ukraine has targeted the CPC multiple times throughout the four-year war, including a naval drone strike last November that led to a temporary halt in the terminal's operations.

Among the CPC's shareholders are US oil majors Chevron and ExxonMobil.

The United States told Ukraine to stop targeting American interests at the port following those attacks last year, according to US media reports.

The attacks have also drawn frustration from Kazakhstan, which transports the bulk of its oil exports through the CPC.

The Ukrainian military says the strikes help drain the energy revenues Moscow uses to fund the war and are a justified response to Russia's missile and drone attacks.

Ukraine recently conveyed a proposal for a ceasefire on striking energy targets to Russia via the United States, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his evening address on Monday.

"If Russia is ready to stop striking our energy sector, we will be ready to respond in kind," he said.

Earlier on Monday, an Israeli airstrike killed one Palestinian and wounded a child as they traveled on a motorbike in Gaza City, medics said.

Medics said that Israeli forces killed another Palestinian when they opened fire on a vehicle in central Gaza, taking Monday's death toll to at least 12.

The Israeli military said they fired at the "unmarked vehicle", which continued to accelerate toward troops despite "warning shots".

The World Health Organization's chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said a contractor in Gaza was killed during a security incident, prompting the organisation to suspend medical evacuations from Gaza via Rafah to Egypt until further notice.

The Israeli military said two local employees of WHO were injured and that the incident was under review. WHO said that two of its staff members were present but were not injured in the incident.

The Palestinian group Hamas, which has run Gaza since 2007, and Israel have traded blame over violations of the ceasefire that kicked off in October.

The Gaza health ministry says Israeli fire has killed at least 700 people since the ceasefire began. Israel says four soldiers have been killed by militants in Gaza over the same period.

Hamas has continued to resist relinquishing its weapons, a major obstacle in talks to implement the next steps in US President Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan for Gaza.

On Sunday, Hamas' armed wing said that discussing the group's disarmament before Israel fully implements the first phase of Trump's plan was an attempt to continue what it called a genocide against the Palestinian people.

Hamas' Oct 7, 2023, attacks on Israel killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's ensuing two-year campaign killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Gazan health authorities.

The offensive spread famine, reduced most of the strip to rubble, and displaced the majority of its population.

TEHRAN: Israel struck Iran's largest petrochemical complex on Monday (Apr 6), as the Islamic Republic defied threats from US President Donald Trump to devastate civilian infrastructure if it does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Several explosions were heard at the South Pars Petrochemical complex in Assaluyeh, Iranian news agency Fars reported.

The site accounted for about 50 per cent of Iran's petrochemical production, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said.

Companies that provide electricity, water and oxygen to Assaluyeh were attacked, but the Pars petrochemical company has not been damaged, reported Tasnim, another local news agency. 

It added that the electricity supply to all Assaluyeh petrochemicals units had been cut.

Israel carried out a similar strike on the Mahshahr Petrochemical Special Zone in southwest Khuzestan province on Saturday, a local Iranian official said, adding that five people were killed.

"At this point, the two facilities, which together account for roughly 85 per cent of Iran's petrochemical exports, have been taken out of operation and are no longer functioning," Katz said.

"This represents a severe economic blow amounting to tens of billions of dollars to the Iranian regime."

The National Petrochemical Company said Monday that a fire at its Pars site was contained and that no injuries had been reported, according to a statement carried by state media.

"The situation is currently under control, and technical aspects, as well as the extent of the damage, are under investigation," the statement said.

Later Monday, local authorities said strikes hit another petrochemical complex in Marvdasht further north, Fars news agency reported, adding that a fire there had been contained.

South Pars is the Iranian side of the world’s largest offshore natural gas field.

Located in the Persian Gulf, the reservoir is shared by Iran and Qatar. It holds an estimated 51 trillion cubic metres of usable gas - enough to supply the world’s needs for 13 years.

An Israeli attack in March on South Pars facilities sparked major Iranian attacks targeting oil and gas infrastructure across the Gulf Arab states, including strikes on Qatar's huge Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas facility.

Asked how the latest attack would affect reported talks aimed at bringing an end to the Middle East war, Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said "the war is ongoing as talks are going".

"We've seen Iran use a strategy of stalling and using negotiations to create time for them," he added.

"Iran is attacking us. We're attacking them. If there is a ceasefire and our political echelon decides to direct us, we'll be quick to act."

In recent days, Israel has targeted key industrial sectors as part of the ongoing military campaign against Iran.

On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli strikes had destroyed around 70 per cent of Iran's steel production capacity, significantly undermining Tehran's ability to manufacture weapons.

Steel is a strategically important material used in industrial and military production, including for missiles, drones and ships.

Katz said he and Netanyahu had ordered the military "to continue striking with full force Iran's national infrastructure".

Iran has also targeted industrial sites in Israel, including a refinery in the northern city of Haifa.

A DEAL?

While the violence continued to spiral, reports surfaced of a potential push to halt the fighting.

Citing US, Israeli and regional sources, US news website Axios said a deal mediated by Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey for a 45-day ceasefire to allow for negotiations on a more permanent peace was under discussion.

The White House said Trump has yet to approve any draft deal to end fighting, following media reports on the ceasefire proposal.

A 45-day ceasefire is "one of many ideas, and president of the US (Trump) has not signed off on it", a White House official told AFP, ahead of a press conference by Trump at 5pm GMT (Tuesday, 1am, Singapore time) at which he is due to address the conflict. 

Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty had on Sunday confirmed he was engaging in talks with governments across the region, as well as US envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

"Views and proposals were exchanged on ways to de-escalate the military situation in the region given the delicate juncture it is currently facing," a statement from his ministry said.

Trump told Fox News that Iran was "close" to making a deal, but Tehran has repeatedly denied it is engaged in any negotiations with the US or Israel.

European Council chief Antonio Costa, one of the EU's top officials, called in an X post for a "diplomatic solution".

"Any targeting of civilian infrastructure, namely energy facilities, is illegal and unacceptable," Costa said.

TEHRAN: Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they are completing preparations to enforce new operating conditions in the Strait of Hormuz, which has been all but shut since the war with the United States and Israel began.

"The IRGC naval force is completing operational preparations for the Iranian authorities' #declared_plan for the new Persian Gulf order," the Guards naval forces said in a post on X on Sunday (Apr 5). 

They warned conditions in the strait "will never return to its former status, especially for the US and Israel". 

Their statement came after US President Donald Trump renewed threats to strike Iran's power plants and bridges if the vital shipping route is not reopened.

Iran has allowed only limited traffic through the waterway since the war began on Feb 28, disrupting the flow of roughly 20 per cent of global oil and gas.

Oman's state news agency said on Sunday that Iran and Oman had held talks on easing passage through the strait, which remains effectively closed due to the conflict. 

Iranian lawmakers have in recent weeks proposed imposing tolls and taxes on vessels passing through the waterway.

HOUSTON: The Artemis astronauts entered the final phase of their run-up to a lunar loop on Monday (Apr 5), a tipping point of sorts that means the Moon's gravity is now having a stronger pull on the spacecraft than Earth's.

The Orion capsule will now whip around the Moon, setting the crew up to travel farther from our home planet than any human before.

The astronauts entered what NASA calls the lunar sphere of influence about 4.42am GMT (12.42pm, Singapore time) on Monday and will soon record the first lunar flyby since 1972.

As they entered the Moon's gravitational influence, the crew was about 39,000 miles (63,000km) from the Moon and about 232,000 miles from Earth, a NASA official said on the agency's livestream of the event.

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The historic occasion comes alongside a constellation of firsts for the crew of three Americans and one Canadian. Victor Glover will go down in the books as the first person of colour to ever fly around the Moon, and Christina Koch will be the first woman.

Canadian Jeremy Hansen, meanwhile, will become the first non-American to accomplish the feat.

Those three, along with mission commander Reid Wiseman, will spend much of their lunar flyby documenting the Moon.

"FAR SIDE OF THE MOON"

The astronauts have already started seeing features of the celestial body never before viewed with a naked human eye.

In the wee hours of Sunday, NASA published an image taken by the Artemis crew that showed a distant Moon with the Orientale basin visible.

"This mission marks the first time the entire basin has been seen with human eyes," the US space agency said.

The massive crater, which resembles a bullseye, had been photographed before by orbiting cameras.

Koch, speaking to Canadian children live from space, said the crew was most excited to see the basin - sometimes known as the Moon's "Grand Canyon".

"It's very distinctive and no human eyes previously had seen this crater until today, really, when we were privileged enough to see it," Koch said during the question-and-answer session hosted by the Canadian Space Agency.

Near the end of their flyby, the astronauts will witness a solar eclipse, when the Sun will be behind the Moon and hidden from view aside from its outermost atmosphere, the solar corona.

The four astronauts will also spend some time testing their "Orion crew survival system" spacesuits.

The orange suits protect the crewmembers during launch and reentry, but are also available for emergency use - they can provide up to six days of breathable air.

The astronauts are the first to ever wear the OCSS suits in space, and will test their functions, including how quickly they can put them on and pressurise them.

While the four astronauts will not touch down on the lunar surface, they are expected to break the record for the farthest distance from Earth during their pass around the Moon.

Over the next day, "they will be on the far side of the Moon, they will eclipse that record, and we're going to learn an awful lot about the spacecraft", NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said Sunday during a televised interview with CNN.

The information will be "pretty paramount to set up for subsequent missions like Artemis 3 in 2027 and, of course, the lunar landing itself on Artemis 4 in 2028", he added.

NASA said the Artemis crew has completed a manual piloting demonstration and reviewed their lunar flyby plan, including reviewing the surface features they must analyse and photograph during their time circling the Moon.

"We're focusing very much on the ecosystem, the life support system of the spacecraft," Isaacman told CNN.

"This is the first time astronauts have ever flown on this spacecraft before," he said. "That's what we're most interested in getting data from."

TEHRAN: Israeli strikes killed the intelligence chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, as the Islamic Republic on Monday (Apr 6) defied threats from US President Donald Trump to devastate civilian infrastructure if it does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The warring sides kept up their barrage of strikes, with Iranian missiles and drones targeting Israel, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, and Israeli strikes hitting Iran and swathes of Lebanon where it is battling Tehran-backed Hezbollah.

Iran said that "much more devastating" attacks would come if Trump followed through on his vow to hit civilian targets.

The American leader had in social media posts Sunday threatened to destroy Iran's civilian infrastructure if Tehran does not bow to his demand to reopen the Gulf to shipping by "Tuesday, 8pm Eastern Time!" (8am, Wednesday, Singapore time)

Iran has all but blocked the Strait of Hormuz, a vital energy chokepoint, sending oil and gas prices soaring and pushing countries around the world to enact measures to contain the fallout.

In a stark, expletive-laden post on Sunday, Trump demanded: "Open the F*****' Strait, you crazy b*******, or you'll be living in Hell."

Tehran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi responded to Trump by saying that the US leader had "publicly threatened to commit war crimes" by menacing bridges and power plants.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said the strait "will never return to its former status, especially for the US and Israel".

The Guards posted on Telegram Monday that their intelligence chief Majid Khademi had been killed "at dawn" in US-Israeli strikes.

Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said his country's military had been behind the strike, saying that it had been a response to Iran's attacks on civilian areas in Israel.

Katz called Khademi "one of the direct perpetrators of these war crimes and one of the top three officials in the organisation", and said of Iran's leaders: "We will continue to hunt them one by one."

Majid Khademi, who became the latest key figure killed in air strikes, took over in 2025 after Israeli air strikes killed his predecessor.

He spent decades in intelligence and counter-espionage roles while rising through Iran’s security apparatus.

Before his appointment, Khademi headed the Guards' Intelligence Protection Organisation, charged with internal surveillance and counter-intelligence, and held senior roles in Iran’s defence ministry.

The IRGC intelligence arm is one of Iran’s most powerful security bodies, with a central role in domestic surveillance to counter foreign influence, and often operating in parallel with the civilian intelligence ministry.

A DEAL?

Prices for US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate were down 2.2 per cent at US$109.16 around 9.15am GMT (5.15pm, Singapore time) on Monday, as reports surfaced of a potential halt to the fighting.

Citing US, Israeli and regional sources, US news website Axios said a deal mediated by Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey for a 45-day ceasefire to allow for negotiations on a more permanent peace was under discussion.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty had on Sunday confirmed he was engaging in talks with governments across the region, as well as US envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi.

"Views and proposals were exchanged on ways to de-escalate the military situation in the region given the delicate juncture it is currently facing," a statement from the ministry said.

Trump told Fox News Iran was "close" to making a deal, but Iran has repeatedly denied it was engaged in any negotiations with the United States and Israel.

"REGION GOING TO BURN"

The war, which erupted on Feb 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has engulfed the Middle East and strained the global economy.

A worldwide oil squeeze was making itself felt, with Indonesia on Monday announcing an increase in an aviation fuel surcharge from 10 per cent to 38 per cent.

In an attack on Trump, Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, posted on social media that "our whole region is going to burn because you insist on following (Israel Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu's commands".

In Tehran, many residents seemed outwardly indifferent to Trump's invective, with young Iranians exercising, flying kites and holding picnics in a large park in the city's west Sunday.

Trump is due to give details on the rescue of an airman whose fighter jet was shot down by Iran in a press conference later Monday.

Gulf nations reported a wave of fresh strikes from Sunday to Monday, with Kuwait saying six were hurt in an attack on a residential area.

The United Arab Emirates also said on Monday that its air defences were responding to a missile and drone attack, and that one person was injured in an industrial area of Abu Dhabi.

The Israeli military and medics said a missile fired from Iran hit a residential building in the northern city of Haifa.

Firefighters said two people had been killed and two more were missing under the rubble.

"CHOOSE PEACE"

In Iran, local media reported several attacks on residential areas over Tehran Monday, while the state broadcaster said that gas outages hit parts of the capital after a strike on a university.

Israel's army said early Monday it had completed a wave of strikes against "regime targets" in Tehran.

On another front, Lebanon has increasingly been dragged into the conflict since Iran-backed Hezbollah resumed targeting Israel.

Israel has struck back and pushed forces into southern Lebanon, with the army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir visiting there Sunday and pledging to intensify strikes against Hezbollah.

UN peacekeepers in Lebanon have warned that attacks by Israel and Hezbollah near its positions "could potentially draw return fire."

The Israeli military and medics said a missile fired from Iran hit a residential building in the northern city of Haifa, wounding four people.

The war cast a shadow over Easter celebrations, with Pope Leo XIV using his first Easter blessing as pontiff to urge leaders to "choose peace".