Iran has rejected a proposed truce in its war with the United States and Israel, state media reported Monday, despite the stark threat by US president Donald Trump to destroy its vital infrastructure.

Trump had given Iran until 0000 GMT Wednesday to open the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that is crucial to global oil and gas flows, or else face strikes on bridges and power plants.

‘Iran has conveyed to Pakistan its response to the American proposal to end the war,’ the news agency IRNA said, without revealing what the offer contained.

Iran has remained defiant, with an army spokesman saying that the Islamic republic would keep fighting ‘as long as political leaders deem it appropriate’.

‘We can continue the war as long as the political authorities see fit,’ Mohammad Akraminia told ISNA news agency, adding that ‘the enemy must definitely regret it because, after this war, we need to reach a point of security and not witness another war’.

Trump said the United States has studied a proposal for a 45-day ceasefire in the Iran war, a move he called a ‘very significant step’ in the conflict.

‘It’s a significant proposal, it’s a significant step. It’s not good enough, but it’s a very significant step,’ Trump told reporters at the White House, adding that intermediaries ‘are negotiating now.’

In a stark, expletive-laden social media post on Sunday, Trump demanded: ‘Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.’

Israeli strikes hit Iran’s largest petrochemical complex Monday, as the Islamic republic defied threats from Trump to devastate civilian infrastructure if it does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Strikes by Israel killed senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commanders, while Iran hit back across the region with drones and missiles, warning of ‘much more devastating’ attacks should Trump follow through on his threat.

Iran virtual blockade of Hormuz has sent oil and gas prices soaring and pushed countries around the world to enact measures to contain the fallout.

The Revolutionary Guards said they are completing preparations to enforce new operating conditions in the Strait of Hormuz, which has been all but shut since the war with the United States and Israel began.

‘The IRGC naval force is completing operational preparations for the Iranian authorities’ #declared_plan for the new Persian Gulf order,’ the Guards naval forces said in a post on X Sunday.

They warned conditions in the strait ‘will never return to its former status, especially for the US and Israel.’

On Monday, Israel said it had struck Iran’s largest petrochemical facility in Assaluyeh on Iran’s Gulf coast, where local media reported multiple explosions.

Iran’s National Petrochemical Company said it was assessing the damage after a fire was brought under control at the plant, state media reported.

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said it accounted for about 50 per cent of Iranian petrochemical production worth ‘tens of billions of dollars’.

Iranian media reported ‘minor damage’ after a second complex near Shiraz in central Iran was also hit.

Meanwhile International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi warned against further strikes near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant, saying one recent impact hit just 75 metres from the perimeter.

Iran’s Guards posted on Telegram Monday that their intelligence chief Majid Khademi had been killed at dawn in US-Israeli strikes.

‘We will reach anyone who seeks to harm us,’ Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, after Katz confirmed the country’s military was behind the strike.

Israel’s military also said it had killed Asghar Bagheri, commander of the Guards’ Quds Force special operations unit, on Sunday.

Bagheri ‘was involved in attacks targeting Israeli and American individuals worldwide,’ a military statement said.

While the violence continued to spiral, reports signalled a potential push to halt the fighting.

Citing US, Israeli and regional sources, US news website Axios said a deal mediated by Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey for a 45-day ceasefire to allow for negotiations on a more permanent peace was under discussion.

Egypt’s foreign minister Badr Abdelatty had on Sunday confirmed he was engaging in talks with governments across the region as well as US envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.

Iran has repeatedly denied it is engaged in any negotiations with the US or Israel.

The war, which erupted on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has engulfed the Middle East and roiled the global economy.

The worldwide oil squeeze has hit aviation, with Indonesia on Monday saying it would increase a jet fuel surcharge and low-cost carrier Air Asia X announcing ticket price hikes of up to 40 per cent.

South Korea will send ships to fetch oil from Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port of Yanbu, avoiding Hormuz altogether, a ruling party MP said, while Taiwan’s government said it too would take the Red Sea route.

Gulf nations allied with the US have also been sucked into the war. From Sunday to Monday they reported a wave of fresh strikes, with Kuwait saying six were hurt in an attack on a residential area.

The UAE said Monday its air defences were responding to a missile and drone attack, and that one person was injured in an industrial area of Abu Dhabi.

Iran has continued to launch attacks at Israel, where the military and medics said four bodies were recovered from a residential building in the northern city of Haifa that was struck by a missile.

Iranian media reported several attacks on residential areas of Tehran, while the state broadcaster said gas outages hit parts of the capital after a strike on a university.

On another front, Lebanon has increasingly been dragged into the war since the Iran-backed group Hezbollah targeted Israel on March 2.

Israel has struck back and invaded parts of southern Lebanon, with army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir visiting troops there Sunday and pledging to intensify strikes.

AFP journalists saw a large plume of smoke rising over Beirut’s southern suburbs on Monday after an Israeli strike that the army said targeted Hezbollah.

Yemen’s Houthis said on Monday that they had launched an attack targeting Israel alongside their backer Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

The group, along with ‘the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps... and the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, launched a barrage of cruise missiles and drones targeting several vital and military sites belonging to the Israeli enemy’, military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement.