By Nandita Bose
DUBAI/WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) - Efforts to end the Iran conflict were at an impasse on Tuesday with U.S. President Donald Trump unhappy at the latest plans from Tehran, which he said had informed the U.S. it was in a "state of collapse" and figuring out its leadership situation.
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 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 his post how Iran might have communicated that message and there was no immediate response from Tehran to Trump's latest comments.
Earlier, an Iranian army spokesperson told state media that the Islamic Republic did not consider the war to be over.
Iran has largely blocked all shipping apart from its own from the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for global energy supplies, since the war began on February 28. This month, the United States began blockading Iranian ships.
IRAN'S GUARDS TAKE GREATER ROLE
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.
Since several senior Iranian political and military figures were killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes, Iran no longer has a single, undisputed clerical arbiter at the pinnacle of power, which may be hardening Tehran's negotiating stance.
The killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war, and the elevation of his wounded son, Mojtaba, to replace him as supreme leader, has handed more power to hardline commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian officials and analysts say.
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.
That would bear echoes of Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with the United States and other powers which had sharply curtailed Tehran's nuclear programme.
Trump unilaterally withdrew from that accord in his first term in office. Now, with his approval ratings falling, he faces domestic pressure to end a war for which he has given the U.S. public shifting rationales.
OIL PRICES RISE AGAIN
With the warring sides still seemingly far apart, oil prices resumed their upward march, with Brent crude rising 3% to around $111.60 a barrel. [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, meanwhile, said it was quitting OPEC and OPEC+, exposing discord among Gulf nations over Iran.
Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser for the UAE president, had criticised the Arab and Gulf response to the Iranian attacks on Monday in a session at the Gulf Influencers Forum.
Market analysts said operating outside the producer group would allow the UAE to leverage its position as a supplier of some of the world's lowest-cost and lowest-carbon barrels - once the Strait of Hormuz reopens.
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 Tehran was using northern, eastern and western trade corridors that did not rely on Gulf ports to neutralise the blockade's effects.
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.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Jonathan Allen, Alexandra Hudson and Alex Richardson; Editing by Jon Boyle)
