Iran's new supreme leader rejects de-escalation proposals

TEHRAN, March 17 (Reuters): Iran's new supreme leader has rejected de-escalation proposals conveyed to Tehran by intermediaries, demanding Israel and the United States first be "brought to their knees", a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei had held his first foreign policy session since being named supreme leader, and had taken a stance for revenge against the U.S. and Israel that was "very tough and serious", the official said, without clarifying whether the leader attended in person or remotely.
The senior official, who asked not to be identified, said two intermediary countries had conveyed proposals to Iran's Foreign Ministry for "reducing tensions or ceasefire with the United States". The official did not give further details of the proposals or the intermediaries.
The supreme leader had responded that it was not "the right time for peace until the United States and Israel are brought to their knees, accept defeat, and pay compensation."
The supreme leader has the final say in all matters of state in the Islamic Republic. No new images have been released of him since his selection over a week ago by a clerical assembly to replace his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Some Iranian officials have said he was lightly injured in the strikes that killed his father. U.S. officials have suggested he suffered severe injuries.
The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is in its third week with at least 2,000 people dead and no end in sight. The Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed off, with U.S. allies rebuffing U.S. President Donald Trump's request for help to reopen the critical waterway, raising energy prices and fears of inflation.
In his first public message since selected, which was read out by a state TV broadcaster last week, the new supreme leader said the Strait of Hormuz should remain closed as a tool of pressure on "Iran's enemies".
Three sources told Reuters on March 14 that Trump's administration had rebuffed efforts by Middle Eastern allies to start diplomatic negotiations aimed at ending the Iran war.

Iran war may push 45m people into
acute hunger by June, WFP says
Tens of millions more people will face acute hunger if the Iran war continues through to June, according to analysis from the World Food Programme released on Tuesday.
The U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran that began on February 26 have choked up key humanitarian aid routes, delaying life-saving shipments to some of the world's worst crises.
An extra 45 million are projected to be pushed into acute hunger because of rises in food, oil and shipping costs, pushing the global tally above its current record level of 319 million, Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme Carl Skau told reporters in Geneva.
"This would take global hunger levels to an all-time record and it's a terrible, terrible prospect," he said. "Already, before this war, we were in a perfect storm where hunger has never been as severe as now, in terms of numbers and how deep that hunger is," he added.
Skau said its shipping costs are up 18% since the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran began on February 28 and that some have had to be rerouted. The extra costs come on top of deep spending cuts by the WFP, as donors focus more on defence, he added.