"TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!"
A race against time.
“News Items is the first thing I read every morning.” — Jack Leslie, former chairman of Weber Shandwick and Adjunct Professor, Georgetown Global Health Institute.
1. Axios:
President Trump told Axios in a short phone call yesterday that he would reject Iran’s response to the latest draft agreement to end the war. The U.S. waited 10 days for the Iranian response, which came on Sunday. The White House hoped Iran’s positions would show further progress toward a deal, but Trump’s initial reaction signals the opposite. “I don’t like their letter. It’s inappropriate. I don’t like their response,” Trump said, declining to go into further details about what was in the response…..In a post on Truth Social shortly after the call, Trump called the Iranian response “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” Iranian state media reported the Iranian response focused on ending the war and enshrining guarantees it won’t resume, before anything else. (Source: axios.com)
2. Oil surged after US President Donald Trump rejected Iran’s latest response to his proposal to end the war in the Middle East, prolonging the effective closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude futures advanced as much as 4.6% to $105.99 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate traded near $100. The near-closure of Hormuz since the start of the war at the end of February has choked off supplies of crude, natural gas and fuels to global customers, driving up energy prices and raising inflation fears. The International Energy Agency says the conflict is causing the biggest supply shock in history. (Source: bloomberg.com)
3. Benjamin Netanyahu has said the war with Iran will continue as long as the country has a stockpile of highly enriched uranium (HEU), which could be used to make nuclear warheads. “It’s not over, because there’s still nuclear material – enriched uranium – that has to be taken out of Iran. There are still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled,” the Israeli prime minister told the CBS program ‘60 Minutes’. Asked how the HEU should be removed, Netanyahu said: “You go in and you take it out,” adding that the best way would be to enter Iran to secure the fissile material as part of an agreement. He said that President Trump had told him he wants “to go in there”. (Source: theguardian.com. A full transcript of the ‘60 Minutes’ interview is here.)
4. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would like to end US financial support for Israel’s military over the next decade. “I want to draw down the American support for Israel to zero,” he said in an interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes that aired Sunday. “We’ve come of age.” He added, “I think that it’s time that we weaned ourselves from the remaining military support and go from aid to partnership.” The US currently provides Israel with $3.8 billion a year in military assistance under a 10-year agreement originally negotiated by the Obama administration that lasts through 2028. (Source: bloomberg.com)
5. Gallup Poll (2/27/2026):
Forty-one percent of Americans now say they sympathize more with the Palestinians in the Middle East situation, while 36% sympathize more with the Israelis. The five-percentage-point difference is not statistically significant, but it contrasts with a clear lead for the Israelis only a year ago (46% vs. 33%) and larger leads over the prior 24 years.
