LIVE | Trump claims Iranian regime is in 'state of collapse'

US President Donald Trump lashed out at German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the Iran war Tuesday, after comments by Merz that Tehran is "humiliating" Washington at the negotiating table.

"The Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz, thinks it's OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. He doesn't know what he's talking about!" Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network.

The Israeli military claimed to have discovered two two kilometer-long Hezbollah tunnels used by elite units of the pro-Iranian group on the Lebanon-Israel border.

These tunnels were "built over about a decade"and were connected to projectile launchers "aimed at Israeli territory," the army said in a statement.

The U.S. Navy boarded a merchant ship in the Arabian Sea on suspicion that it was attempting to violate the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, the military reported.

The United Arab Emirates will withdraw from the OPEC and OPEC+ oil cartels to focus on "national interests," in a bombshell announcement, as energy prices soar over the Middle East war.

The UAE, one of the world's top oil producers which has previously chafed at OPEC production quotas, will pull out on Friday, a statement reported by the official WAM news agency said.

President Trump said on Truth Social that Iran is in a "state of collapse" on Tuesday after Tehran urged the U.S.  to end its blockade on Iranian ports.

"Iran has just informed us that they are in a 'State of Collapse.' They want us to 'Open the Hormuz Strait,' as soon as possible, as they try to figure out their leadership situation (Which I believe they will be able to do!)," Trump wrote.

Israel's foreign minister said Tuesday that his country does not intend to seize territory in Lebanon even if the army carries out operations against the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement.

"Israel has no territorial ambitions in Lebanon. Our presence in the areas neighboring our northern border has only one purpose: to protect our citizens," Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in a joint press conference with his Serbian counterpart, Marko Djuric.

"No country would want to live like that, with a gun pointed at your head," he said.

Iran has banned steel exports, the Fars news agency reported Tuesday, after the country's two largest steelmakers announced in early April that they were forced to halt operations following Israeli-American attacks.

The directive on this ban has already been published, according to the customs administration cited by the agency, indicating April 26 as the effective date.

A new Iranian proposal to end the war is under consideration, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said following reports that Iran submitted the initiative through Pakistani mediators.

Secretary of State, Marco Rubio stated on Fox News that the Iranian proposal "is better than we thought they were going to present," though he insisted that any agreement must prevent Tehran from eventually making an atomic bomb.

However, White House sources told Reuters that the president "did not seem enthusiastic" about the written proposal that arrived via Pakistan.

Oil prices continued their climb on Tuesday as they awaited Donald Trump's response to an Iranian proposal that would reportedly reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the war.

North Sea Brent crude, the international market benchmark, was above $110 (111.5) per barrel, while its U.S. equivalent, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), broke the $100 barrier (100.3).

The head of Mossad, Israel's foreign secret service, David Barnea, hailed the successes of his agents and called the operations carried out in Iran and Lebanon "revolutionary."

The Qatari government warned of the risk of a "frozen conflict" without resolution in the Gulf region following a three-week ceasefire and as U.S. and Iranian blockades over the Strait of Hormuz continue, affecting the global economy.

The shelling of an Iranian school on the first day of the Middle East war killed 155 people, including 120 children, according to a downwardly revised toll released Tuesday by state-run IRIB television.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abas Araqchi had told the U.N. in late March that "more than 175 students and teachers" had been "slaughtered in cold blood" in the Feb. 28 attack.

"There are still two main threats coming from Hezbollah: The 122 mm rockets and the drones. This calls for a combination of operational and technological actions," Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Earlier, his defense minister, Israel Katz, claimed that Hezbollah would lead Lebanon to catastrophe, following the pro-Iranian movement leader's opposition to direct negotiations between Beirut and Israel.

Since the outbreak of war in the Middle East, the world has "understood Iran's true might" and "it has become clear that the Islamic republic is a stable, robust and powerful system," Iranian Foreign Minister Abas Araqchi, said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russia will do "everything" in its power to ensure that "peace is achieved as soon as possible," the Russian leader was quoted as saying by Russian state media. Putin said that Moscow plans to "continue its strategic relationship" with Tehran, and praised the "courage" and "heroism" of the Iranian people fighting for "their independence."