Iran has submitted a new peace proposal to Washington, according to US news site Axios: reopen the Strait of Hormuz to end the war that started on 28 February, and treat nuclear talks as a separate, later track. The plan is to be examined in Washington on Monday at a meeting between Donald Trump and his closest national-security advisers. The Strait of Hormuz remains paralysed by a dual Iranian-American blockade — under normal conditions, roughly 20 per cent of world oil moves through it.
The tactical picture is hardening. US Naval Forces Central Command says it turned back 38 ships from Iranian ports overnight. Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Saint Petersburg on Monday morning to meet Vladimir Putin, framing Iran's Gulf neighbours as Tehran's "priority". Trump, for his part, cancelled on Saturday the planned trip to Pakistan by son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff, telling Fox News: "We have all the cards in our hand."
Markets are reacting. In early Asian trading on Monday, Brent rose 2.28 per cent to $107.73, US WTI 2.21 per cent to $96.48. Gold fell 0.2 per cent to $4,700 an ounce. Germany's GfK consumer climate indicator collapsed to -33.3 for May (down 5.2 points on the month), its lowest since February 2023, pulled down by the war. Source: Les Echos, 27 April 2026, Claude Fouquet.