any new US strikes or permit more foreign warships in the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran's long-awaited answer came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- whose forces launched the war on Iran along with the US military on February 28 -- insisted the conflict wasn't over until Iran's enriched uranium was removed and its nuclear facilities dismantled. But Tehran publicly maintained its defiant line, despite the behind-the-scenes diplomacy.

"We will never bow down to the enemy, and if there is talk of dialogue or negotiation, it does not mean surrender or retreat," Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on X Sunday. According to state broadcaster IRIB, Tehran's response to the US plan, passed to Pakistani mediators, focuses on ending the war "on all fronts, especially Lebanon" -- where Israel has kept up its fight with Iran-backed Hezbollah -- as well as on "ensuring shipping security". It offered little in the way of detail, though the US proposal had reportedly focused on extending the truce in the Gulf to allow for talks on a final settlement of the conflict and on Iran's contested nuclear programme.

Netanyahu said in an interview to be aired in full later Sunday that Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium must be removed before the war can be considered finished. "It's not over, because there's still nuclear material -- enriched uranium -- that has to be taken out of Iran. There's still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled," Netanyahu told CBS's "60 Minutes". He added that US President Donald Trump was on the same page regarding the need to take away the uranium, though the president said in a recent interview that the US could remove it "whenever we want", and that it was "very well surveilled" where it is now. Trump did not mention the Iranian response in a lengthy Truth Social post on Sunday, but accused Iran of "laughing at" the United States and "playing games" with it for decades. "They will be laughing no longer!" he added, without further explanation. Trump is expected to press President Xi Jinping of China -- a major buyer of Iranian oil -- on Iran when he visits Beijing next week, a senior US administration official said. (Bssnews)