President Trump on Monday renewed his threat to begin “completely obliterating” Iranian power plants and oil production facilities if the country’s leaders did not agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz “immediately.”
Mr. Trump has sought to pressure Iran to yield to his demands and end its chokehold over the strait, a vital shipping route for oil and natural gas, by alternating threats of destruction with unverified claims of diplomatic breakthroughs. Iran has denied holding substantive talks with the United States and has rejected the Trump administration’s conditions as unreasonable.
The mixed messages led to another nervous day for energy and stock markets: The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, briefly rose to $116 a barrel on Monday before falling back to around $114 a barrel, and the S&P 500 closed down about 0.4 percent.
Here’s what else happened in the war:
Iran: The foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, said that Iran had received proposals for talks with the United States through intermediaries, including Pakistan, but maintained that Iran had held no negotiations — and would not do so while the military campaign continues. The war has fractured the Iranian government, complicating its ability to make decisions, according to officials familiar with U.S. and Western intelligence assessments. Still, a parliamentary committee backed a proposal to impose tolls on ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz, which is treated under maritime law as an international waterway where ships are guaranteed passage.
Lebanon: The Israeli military said it had destroyed more than 100 high-rise buildings in the area of the capital, Beirut, used by the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Two U.N. peacekeepers were killed when their convoy was “struck by an explosion of undetermined origin” in southern Lebanon. An Israeli strike on a Lebanese army checkpoint in the country’s south killed one soldier and injured several others, the Lebanese military said in a statement. More than 1,200 people in Lebanon have been killed in the nearly monthlong conflict, and more than a million others have been displaced, according to Lebanese authorities.
Persian Gulf: The Abu Dhabi campus of New York University has closed until further notice after Iran warned on Saturday that American universities with outposts in the Gulf were “legitimate targets” in retaliation for strikes on Iranian universities during the war.
Israel: An oil refinery in the northern city of Haifa was struck during an Iranian missile attack on Monday morning, according to Israel’s fire and rescue service, and falling shrapnel hit a large fuel container fuel, igniting a fire. There were no reports of casualties.
Turkey: NATO air defenses shot down a ballistic missile fired from Iran that had entered Turkish airspace, Turkey’s defense ministry said in a social media post. It was the fourth time that the military alliance, of which Turkey is a member, has reported intercepting an Iranian missile in or near Turkey’s skies since the start of the war in Iran.
United States: Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said the president “would be quite interested in calling” on Arab countries to help pay for the costs associated with the Iran war. “Certainly it’s an idea that I know that he has and something that I think you’ll hear more from him on,” she said.


