APPLENEWS - STORY ADD
Iran live updates: Rubio dismisses Iran peace proposal, stresses nuclear issue
Rubio said Iran would not be allowed to charge Strait of Hormuz tolls.
President Donald Trump announced "major combat operations" against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israeli strikes targeting military, government and infrastructure sites.
Following the announcement of a two-week ceasefire, initial U.S.-Iran talks in Pakistan earlier this month failed to reach a peace deal.
Trump later announced the open-ended extension of the ceasefire and the continuation of the blockade until Iran's proposal is submitted and discussions are concluded "one way or the other."
Key Headlines
US achieved none of its goals in Iran, Araghchi says
Speaking to a reporter in St. Petersburg during his visit to Russia, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the U.S. had achieved none of its goals and was therefore asking for negotiations -- a request Araghchi said Iran is "considering."
Regarding bilateral Iranian-Russian relations, Araghchi said the two countries are "strategic partners" and that cooperation between them would continue.
-ABC News' Somayeh Malekian and Joe Simonetti
CENTCOM says it intercepted vessel trying to reach Iran on Sunday
U.S. Central Command said in a post to X on Monday that the guided-missile destroyer USS Rafael Peralta intercepted the M/T Stream vessel "after it attempted to sail to an Iranian port" on Sunday.
Satellite images show ships seized by Iran at anchor in Strait of Hormuz
Iran relocated two seized cargo vessels -- the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas -- to anchor positions close to Hormuz Island in the northern part of the Strait of Hormuz close to the Iranian coastline, according to satellite imagery taken on April 27.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced the seizure of the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas in the eastern part of the Strait of Hormuz last week, accusing the vessels of "attempting to secretly exit the Strait of Hormuz" without coordination with Tehran.
The satellite images were captured by the European Union's Copernicus Sentinel 2 satellite.
-ABC News' Victoria Beaule
Bessent predicts that Iranian oil pumping 'will soon collapse'
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a post to X on Monday that Iran's oil industry is "creaking" under the pressure of the U.S. naval blockade, predicting that the country's ability to pump oil "will soon collapse."
"While the surviving IRGC Leaders are trapped like drowning rats in a sewage pipe, Iran's creaking oil industry is starting to shut in production thanks to the U.S. BLOCKADE," Bessent wrote.
"Pumping will soon collapse. GASOLINE SHORTAGES IN IRAN NEXT!" he added.