Trump: Iran desperate to reach a deal, Iranian leaders afraid to say they are negotiating because their own people would kill them

US President Donald Trump said Iran was desperate to reach a deal to end nearly four weeks of fighting, contradicting a statement by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who said his country was considering the US proposal but had no intention of holding talks to defuse the conflict, Reuters reported.

The conflicting statements come as the economic and humanitarian consequences of the war grow, while fuel shortages spread around the world, forcing companies and states to try to contain the consequences.

Aragchi said that, although there was no dialogue or negotiations with the US, various messages were exchanged through intermediaries.

"The messages conveyed to us by friendly countries, to which we respond by expressing our positions or issuing the necessary warnings, cannot be called negotiations or dialogue," Aragchi said in an interview with state television on Wednesday.

Trump, speaking later Wednesday at an event in Washington, said Iranian leaders "are negotiating along the way and they want very much to make a deal, but they're afraid to say it because their own people would kill them. They're also afraid that we would kill them."

Trump did not specify who the US was negotiating with in Iran, while many high-ranking officials were among the thousands of people killed across the Middle East since the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Iran has since carried out attacks on Israel, US bases and Gulf states.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on the first day of the conflict in an Israeli strike and was replaced by his son Mojtaba, who was wounded in the attacks and has not appeared in any photos or videos since his appointment, according to Reuters.

The consequences of the conflict spread further and wider

The consequences of the conflict, which caused the worst energy shock in history, have long since spread far beyond the region.

With the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas passes, virtually closed, businesses from airlines to supermarkets and used car dealers are facing rising costs, weakening demand and disrupted supply chains. Some governments are considering support measures last used during the Covid pandemic.

Farmers and fishermen are struggling to get diesel for their tractors, and tens of millions of people will face acute hunger if the war lasts until June, the World Food Program estimates, Reuters reports.

Sultan Al Jaber, chief executive of Abu Dhabi's state-owned oil company ADNOC, described Iran's restriction of passage through the Strait of Hormuz as "economic terrorism."

"When Iran holds Hormuz hostage, every country pays the ransom - at the gas station, in the grocery store, in the pharmacy. No country must be allowed to destabilize the global economy in this way. Not now. Never," Al Jaber said in a speech in the US on Wednesday.

The 15-point US proposal to end the conflict, delivered to Iran via Pakistan, calls for reopening the strait, removing Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, curbing its ballistic missile program and cutting off funding for regional allies, according to three Israeli cabinet sources familiar with the plan.

The White House did not want to reveal the details of its proposal.

A senior Israeli defense official said Israel was skeptical that Iran would agree to the terms and was concerned that American negotiators might make concessions. Israel also wants any agreement to preserve the ability to launch preemptive strikes, another source said.

In addition, Iran has told mediators that Lebanon must be included in any ceasefire agreement with the US and Israel, six regional sources familiar with Iran's position said.

Stock market growth slows, oil prices rise again

Hopes for a resolution to the conflict, which had boosted global stock markets the previous day, faded today, while oil prices continued to rise.

"Optimism about the ceasefire has waned," said Tsuyoshi Ueno, senior economist at Japan's NLI Research Institute.

With weak stock markets, high fuel prices and record low voter support, Trump has a strong incentive to find a solution before the conflict spirals further out of control and ahead of the November midterm elections for Congress.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted from March 20 to 23 found that 61 percent of Americans disapprove of US military strikes in Iran, while 35 percent support them.

The exchange of missiles and drones across the Gulf continued today, Reuters reports.

The Israeli military said it had ended a broad wave of strikes targeting infrastructure in several areas across Iran, following another wave of attacks on Wednesday. It later said it had spotted rockets launched from Iran towards Israel.

Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of Central Command, which leads US forces in the Middle East, said the US had struck more than 10.000 targets inside Iran and was on track to limit Iran's ability to project power beyond its borders.

Cooper said in a video address on Wednesday that 92 percent of Iran's largest warships had been destroyed and that drone and missile launch rates had been reduced by more than 90 percent. The United States and Israel had damaged or destroyed two-thirds of Iran's missile, drone and naval production facilities and shipyards, Cooper said.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, plans to send thousands of airborne troops to the Gulf to give Trump more options for ordering a ground attack, sources told Reuters, with two contingents of Marines already on the way. The first unit of Marines, on a large amphibious assault ship, could arrive by the end of the month.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Wednesday that "the world is staring down the barrel of a wider war" in the region.

"It's time to stop climbing the escalation ladder - and start climbing the diplomatic ladder," he said at UN headquarters in New York.