U.S.-Iran War Stalls as Trump Rejects Tehran Offer; Hormuz Energy Risk Mounts

Now in its second month, the U.S.-Iran conflict shows no imminent path to resolution after President Trump declared Iran's ceasefire response 'totally unacceptable,' while Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu publicly stated the war is 'not over.' A Qatari tanker was reported sailing toward the Strait of Hormuz amid fresh clashes in the area, raising acute concerns about global energy transit security. The Kremlin separately noted that U.S.-brokered peace talks in a different theater — Ukraine — remain on pause, compressing Washington's diplomatic bandwidth. Nepal, a landlocked energy-import-dependent nation, has already adopted a two-day weekend in response to supply disruptions traced to the Iran conflict, illustrating downstream economic knock-on effects reaching South Asia.