Closing summary
We’re shutting this live coverage now but you can read a full report here, and below a recap of the latest key developments. Thanks for joining us.
Donald Trump said Iran’s response to the US peace plan was a “stupid proposal” and “a piece of garbage” that he didn’t finish reading it. He still believed a diplomatic solution was possible, he said, but the ceasefire with Iran was “on massive life support”.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said his country’s “armed forces are ready to deliver a well-deserved response to any aggression” and that adversaries “will be surprised”.
Iran is ready to support Xi Jinping’s four-point plan for the Gulf region, Tehran’s ambassador to Beijing said, ahead of Trump’s visit to China this week for talks with the Chinese leader. Will the US president seek Xi’s help in ending the war with Iran? See analysis here.
The EU has adopted sanctions on Israeli settlers, with the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas saying: “Extremisms and violence carry consequences.” Israel has condemned the move.
The UK sanctioned 12 individuals and entities linked to Iran, accusing them of involvement in hostile activity including plotting attacks and providing financial services to groups seeking to destabilise the UK and other countries.
The Lebanese health ministry updated its death toll to 2,869 people killed in Israeli attacks that began on 2 March, Lebanese state-run media said. UN humanitarian agency chief Tom Fletcher called for a “genuine ceasefire” as Israel continues its relentless assault on Lebanon.
Israeli lawmakers approved a bill setting up a special tribunal that would try and have the authority to sentence to death Palestinians convicted of taking part in the 2023 Hamas-led attack that triggered the war in Gaza.
Two soldiers photographed desecrating a Christian statue in southern Lebanon were sentenced to military prison, the IDF said. The soldier who stuck a cigarette in the mouth of a statue of Mary received 21 days while the photographer got 14 days.
Iranian authorities on Monday hanged a postgraduate student from a Tehran university on charges of espionage, with the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan Online website accusing him of collaborating with the CIA and the Mossad. Before his execution Erfan Shakourzadeh, 29, rejected the charges as fabricated, a rights group said.
The United Arab Emirates has carried out military strikes on Iran, the Wall Street Journal has reported sources as saying, “casting the Gulf monarchy as an active combatant in a war in which it has been Iran’s biggest target”.
The UK and France will host a multinational meeting of defence ministers on Tuesday to discuss plans to restore trade flows through the strait of Hormuz, the British defence ministry said. The meeting will involve 40 countries and comes a day after Iran threatened to strike British and French warships if they tried to help reopen the waterway.
Trump’s rejection of Iran’s response to the US peace proposal caused a jump in Brent crude oil by as much as 4% on Monday to $105.50 a barrel, before easing back slightly.
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Mass starvation looms if fertilisers can't pass Hormuz strait, UN warns
Tens of millions of people could face hunger and starvation if fertilisers are not soon allowed through the strait of Hormuz, the head of a UN task force aimed at averting a looming humanitarian crisis has said.
About a third of the world’s fertiliser – crucial to growing food crops – usually passes through the waterway that Iran has effectively shut.
“We have a few weeks ahead of us to prevent what will likely be a massive humanitarian crisis,” Jorge Moreira da Silva, executive director of the UN Office for Project Services and leader of the task force, told Agence France-Presse.
We may witness a crisis that will force 45 million more people into hunger and starvation.”
The World Trade Organisation has said that “fertilisers are the No 1 issue of concern today”. This visual guide explains why:
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