WASHINGTON, (AP):- Iran on Monday rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wants a permanent end to the war. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said Tehran conveyed its response through Pakistan, a key mediator. “We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo, told the AP on Monday.
The response comes as U.S. President Donald Trump’s deadline — Tuesday night Washington time — for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz looms. Trump warned the U.S. would otherwise hit Iran’s power plants and other infrastructure targets. Iran’s parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf called the threats “reckless.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday that Israel attacked the South Pars petrochemical plant at Asaluyeh in Iran. He made the announcement after Iran said the facility had been attacked. An Israeli attack on South Pars facilities in March sparked major Iranian attacks targeting oil and gas infrastructure across the Gulf Arab states.
The head of intelligence for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi, was killed, according to Iranian state media. Israel claimed it was responsible for the killing Monday. Israel’s military said it also killed the leader of the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s undercover unit in its expeditionary Quds Force, Asghar Bakeri.
Israel and the United States carried out a wave of attacks on Iran on Monday, killing more than 25 people. Iran responded with missile fire on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbors.