By Nandita Bose
DUBAI/WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) - Donald Trump said Iran had informed him it was in a "state of collapse" and was figuring out its leadership situation, as efforts to end the conflict appeared at an impasse on Tuesday with the U.S. president unhappy at the latest plans from Tehran.
Iran's most recent proposal on resolving the two-month war would set aside discussion of its nuclear programme until the conflict was concluded and disputes over shipping from the Gulf resolved.
Trump wants nuclear issues dealt with from the outset, a U.S. official briefed on Trump's Monday meeting with his advisers said.
In a post on Truth Social on Tuesday Trump said: "Iran has just informed us that they are in a 'State of Collapse'. They want us to 'Open the Hormuz Strait,' as soon as possible, as they try to figure out their leadership situation (Which I believe they will be able to do!). Thank you for your attention to this matter!".
It was not clear from Trump's social media post how Iran might have communicated that message.
GULF LEADERS MEET IN SAUDI ARABIA
Meanwhile, Gulf leaders met in person in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for the first time since their states became a front in the Iran war. A Gulf official said the meeting aimed to craft a response to the thousands of Iranian missile and drone attacks they faced since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28.
Attacks have subsided since a ceasefire on April 8, though Gulf capitals remain wary of resumed conflict.
Iran's previous nuclear deal with the United States and other powers in 2015 sharply curtailed its nuclear programme, which it has long maintained is for peaceful, civilian purposes. But that deal fell apart when Trump unilaterally withdrew in his first term in office.
Hopes of reviving peace efforts in a conflict that has killed thousands, thrown energy markets into turmoil and disrupted global trade routes, have receded since Trump last weekend scrapped a visit by his special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to mediator Pakistan.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi shuttled in and out of Islamabad twice during the weekend. He also visited Oman and on Monday went to Russia, where he met President Vladimir Putin and received words of support from a longstanding ally.
OIL PRICES RISE AGAIN
With the warring sides still seemingly far apart, oil prices resumed their upward march, with Brent crude rising 3% to $111.40 a barrel, a three-week high. [O/R]
The World Bank forecast energy prices would surge by 24% in 2026 to their highest level since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago, if the most acute disruptions caused by the Iran war end in May.
The United Arab Emirates said on Tuesday it was quitting OPEC and OPEC+, dealing a heavy blow to the oil exporting groups and their de facto leader, Saudi Arabia.
At least six tankers loaded with Iranian oil have been forced back to Iran by the U.S. blockade in recent days, ship-tracking data showed, underscoring the war's impact on traffic.
Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani told state media on Tuesday, however, that Iran had prepared for maritime blockade scenarios as early as the U.S. 2024 presidential election and made necessary arrangements so that "there is nothing to worry about".
She added Tehran was using northern, eastern and western trade corridors that did not rely on Gulf ports to neutralise the blockade's effects.
Reza Rostami of the Iran Chamber of Commerce told Shargh newspaper that private sector operators were using four Caspian Sea ports, and rail links via Turkey and Turkmenistan. Iran was also in talks with Oman and Pakistan to channel goods through their ports, he added.
Between 125 and 140 ships usually crossed in and out of the Strait of Hormuz daily before the war, but only seven have done so in the past day, according to Kpler ship-tracking data and satellite analysis from SynMax, and none of them were carrying oil bound for the global market.
UNDER PRESSURE TO END THE WAR
With his approval ratings falling, Trump faces domestic pressure to end a war for which he has given the U.S. public shifting rationales.
Senior Iranian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the proposal carried by Araqchi to Islamabad over the weekend envisioned talks in stages, with the nuclear issue to be set aside at the start.
A first step would require ending the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and providing guarantees that the U.S. cannot start it up again. Then negotiators would resolve the U.S. Navy's blockade of Iran's trade by sea and the fate of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran aims to reopen under its control.
Only then would talks look at other issues, including the longstanding dispute over Iran's nuclear programme, with Iran still seeking some kind of U.S. acknowledgment of its right to enrich uranium.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Jonathan Allen, Alexandra Hudson; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Alex Richardson)
