Israel and Iran exchanged airstrikes on Wednesday, as Iran’s military rejected President Donald Trump’s claim that the US was in negotiations to\u00a0end\u00a0the war, which has roiled energy and financial markets, saying the US is negotiating with itself.<\/p>\n
Read:\u00a0Iran denies talks with US as Trump claims ‘major points of agreement’<\/p>\n
The rejection \u200bof negotiations by the unified command of the Iranian Armed Forces, which is dominated by the hardline elite Revolutionary Guards, comes amid reports that the US has sent a 15-point \u200cplan for discussion to Tehran.<\/p>\n
“Has the level of your inner struggle reached the stage of you (Trump) negotiating with yourself?” the top spokesperson for Iran’s joint military command, Ebrahim Zolfaqari, said on Iranian state TV.<\/p>\n
“People like us can never get along with people like you.”<\/p>\n
“As we have always said… no one like us will make a deal with you. Not now. Not ever.”<\/p>\n
Iran’s leadership has previously said it can not negotiate with the US as it has attacked the country twice during high-level negotiations in \u200bthe past two years.<\/p>\n
Four weeks into the war that has killed thousands of Middle Eastern civilians, because of Israeli-US attacks and Iranian retaliation, created the worst energy shock in history and sparked global inflation fears, there was no let-up in airstrikes from \u200bIsrael on Wednesday, nor retaliation from Iran.<\/p>\n
The Israeli Defence Forces said in a Telegram post that it had launched a wave of strikes targeting infrastructure across Tehran. The semi-official Iranian SNN \u2060News Agency said the strikes hit a residential area in the city, with rescuers searching the rubble.<\/p>\n
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia said they had repelled fresh drone attacks, without stating where they originated. Drones targeted a fuel tank \u200bat Kuwait International Airport, causing a fire but no casualties, Kuwait’s Civil Aviation Authority said.<\/p>\n
Emergency personnel respond at a site following Iranian missile barrages in Tel Aviv. PHOTO: REUTERS<\/p>\n
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it had launched a new wave of attacks against locations in Israel, including Tel Aviv and Kiryat Shmona, as \u200bwell as US bases in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain, Iranian state media reported.<\/p>\n
Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday the US was in “negotiations” with “the right people” in Iran to end the war, adding the Iranians wanted to reach a deal very badly.<\/p>\n
Stocks\u00a0rose and oil prices fell on Wednesday on reports the US is seeking a month-long ceasefire and had sent a 15-point plan to Iran for discussion, raising hopes for a resumption of oil exports out of the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n
15-point plan sent to Iran<\/p>\n
The\u00a0New York Times\u00a0reported on Tuesday that Washington sent Iran a 15-point plan to end the war in the Middle East. Israel’s\u00a0Channel 12, quoting three sources, said the US was seeking a \u200bmonth-long ceasefire to discuss the 15-point plan.<\/p>\n
A source familiar with the matter confirmed that the US had sent a plan to Iran but provided no further details.<\/p>\n
The Israeli media outlet said the plan would include the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear \u200cprogramme, ceasing support \u2060for proxy groups, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and the reopening of the\u00a0Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Read more:\u00a0Trump sends Iran peace plan as Strait of Hormuz reopens to \u2018non-hostile\u2019 ships<\/p>\n
The US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28 after saying they had failed to make enough headway in talks aimed at ending Iran’s nuclear programme, although mediator Oman said significant progress had been made. The US struck Iran’s nuclear facilities in\u00a0June\u00a02025.<\/p>\n
Since the start of “Operation Epic Fury” by the US in February, Iran has defended itself by striking US bases inside Gulf countries, Gulf energy infrastructure after its own infrastructure was hit, and effectively closed the\u00a0Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas.<\/p>\n
Iranian state TV said the strike in Dimona, home to a nuclear facility, was retaliation for an earlier attack on its Natanz nuclear site. PHOTO: AFP<\/p>\n
Iran\u00a0has told the United Nations Security Council and the International Maritime Organisation that\u00a0“non-hostile vessels”\u00a0\u200bmay transit the Strait of Hormuz if they coordinate \u200bwith Iranian authorities, according to a note seen \u2060by Reuters on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The effective closure of the waterway, where 20% of the world’s oil and gas normally transits, has created the worst energy supply shock in history, sent fuel prices soaring, and disrupted global aviation.<\/p>\n
Asia is at the frontline of the fuel crisis, buying more than 80% of the crude that transits the Strait of \u200bHormuz, and\u00a0governments\u00a0there are scrambling to respond to fuel shortages with policies such as enforced work-from-home and stimulus measures enforced during the COVID pandemic era. Some \u200bcountries have declared public holidays \u2060and closed schools<\/p>\n
The International Energy Agency has agreed to a record release of around 400 million barrels of oil from strategic stockpiles to deal with the crisis, and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi asked IEA chief Fatih Birol for an additional release of oil when they met on Wednesday, Jiji Press reported.<\/p>\n
Pakistan offers to hold US-Iran talks<\/p>\n
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday he was willing to host talks between the US and Iran on ending the war, \u2060a day after \u200bTrump postponed threats to bomb Iranian power plants after what he called “productive” talks.<\/p>\n
Also read:\u00a0Pakistan offers to host Iran-US talks<\/p>\n
Pakistan has long-standing ties to neighbouring Iran’s Islamic Republic and \u200bhas been building a relationship with Trump.<\/p>\n
Despite reports of negotiations, the Pentagon is expected to send\u00a0thousands\u00a0from the US Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday, adding to a massive US military \u200bbuildup.<\/p>\n
The forces will add to the 50,000 US troops already in the region and accelerate Washington’s massive US military buildup there, fuelling fears of a longer conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israel and Iran exchanged airstrikes on Wednesday, as Iran’s military rejected President Donald Trump’s claim that the US was in negotiations to\u00a0end\u00a0the war, which has roiled energy and financial markets, saying the US is negotiating with itself. Read:\u00a0Iran denies talks with US as Trump claims ‘major points of agreement’ The rejection \u200bof negotiations by the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2705,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions\/2705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}