Overnight, shrapnel from Iranian missiles fell near Jordan’s capital, Amman.
The debris landed in an uninhabited area in Marj al-Hamam, southwest of the city, causing no injury or damage, local officials said.
Air raid warnings rang out in Bahrain although there was no reports of impacts.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps earlier said they fired a volley of “precision-guided” missiles and drones at Israel and bases hosting US forces in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain.
Kuwait airport fuel depot hit by Iranian drones
Smoke rises after an attack on a fuel depot at Kuwait International Airport
GETTY IMAGES
An Iranian drone attack targeted a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport, causing a fire to break out at the site, the country’s civil aviation authority confirmed on Wednesday.
Large plumes of smoke were seen rising from the scene on Wednesday.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said on X that the damage is limited to material losses, with no casualties reported.
‘Soldiers will fall victim to Netanyahu’s delusions’
The speaker of Iran’s parliament has warned the US not to test the Islamic republic’s “resolve to defend our land”.
After the United States was reported to be sending more troops to the Middle East, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf posted on X: “We are closely monitoring all US movements in the region, especially troop deployments.
“What the generals have broke, the soldiers can’t fix; instead, they will fall victim to Netanyahu’s delusions,” he added, referring to the Israeli prime minister. “Do not test our resolve to defend our land.”
Pakistan delivers US peace plan to Iran
Pakistan has delivered an American proposal to Iran, a senior Iranian source told Reuters, but the venue of any talks between Tehran and Washington to end the war has yet to be decided.
The source, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, did not disclose details of the proposal and whether it was a 15-point framework proposal to end the war. The source also said Turkey was helping to find ways to end the war and “either Turkey or Pakistan are under consideration as the venue for such talks”.
Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan earlier stated that his country was neither directly nor indirectly negotiating with the US, Iranian state media reported.
Reza Amiri Moghadam was quoted as saying, however, that “friendly countries seek to lay the ground for dialogue between Tehran and Washington, which we hope will be fruitful in ending this imposed war”.
Iran has 400kg of ‘near-military level’ uranium, UN nuclear chief warns
Rafael Grossi, who as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency oversaw inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities in recent years, confirmed that Iran still possessed uranium enriched to 60 per cent, “almost a military level.”
He said at least 400kg of the material, which would need to be enriched to 90 per cent to build a warhead, was underground at the Iranian site at Isfahan, but that there was also some at Natanz.
“Iran produced it, claiming it was material needed for energy and economic development. But 60 per cent is almost a military level. The Iranians say that those who have the right can do it, and that can’t be denied, but it’s a worrying development. No country in the world that doesn’t possess nuclear weapons enriches to this level.”
Asked what had changed since the 2016 Iran nuclear deal, signed with Britain and other countries, but which Trump withdrew from in 2018, Grossi added: “Everything. In recent years, Iran has developed its nuclear programme impressively. […] The end of the agreement is, to some extent, the reason for all these wars.”
US and Iran ‘could hold talks this weekend’
The head of the United Nations’ nuclear monitor has said that “there could be talks this weekend” between the US and Iran, but said that he was not involved in the conversations, unlike previous talks between the two sides before the war.
Rafael Grossi, of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that he imagined that any new talks would be “broader” than those in Geneva which focussed on Iran’s nuclear programme. He told the Corriere Della Sera: “This time, missiles, militias allied to the Islamic Republic, and security guarantees for Iran will also be on the table,” he added.
He said it was “important for Iran to protect the principle of nuclear autonomy. But an agreement on this point is possible. A temporary suspension [of Iran’s enrichment of uranium] could be considered”.
Asked what the best and most viable agreement might entail, Grossi replied: “Peace, first and foremost. […] A diplomatic negotiation is needed; the solution can’t be military. Military pressure has its effects, but Iran still possesses all the capabilities. The nuclear material is still there.”
Spanish PM: Iran war worse than 2003 Iraq invasion
Pedro Sanchez, the Spanish prime minister, warned that the Middle East war presented a “far worse” scenario than the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Sanchez said the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 had failed to achieve its goals and instead made life worse for ordinary people, adding that it led to a sharp increase in fuel and grocery prices, a migration crisis and jihadist attacks in Europe. He warned that the attacks on Iran could have a similar economic impact for millions. “Every bomb that falls in the Middle East eventually hits — as we are already seeing — the wallets of our families,” Sanchez said.
Spain has refused Washington’s requests to use its military bases against Iran, despite President Trump’s threat to sever trade as a result.
Sanchez’s government approved last week a sweeping package worth €5 billion aimed at cushioning the economic impact of the Middle East war, which included reductions on taxes on fuel.
The FTSE 100 rose back above 10,000, gaining 0.9 per cent to 10,058, with shares in gold miners, financial companies and housebuilders rising. The index ended a four-day losing streak on Tuesday. The more UK-biased FTSE 250 rose 1.3 per cent.
Markets in Germany and France were sharply higher. Earlier, Japanese stocks rose 3 per cent, while markets in Australia and South Korea gained 2 per cent, recouping recent losses but not weeks of declines since the conflict broke out. Gold was buoyed by a weaker dollar, rising 2 per cent to $4,563 an ounce.
The oil price fell sharply and stock markets rallied following reports of a 15-point ceasefire proposal sent by President Trump to Iran, fueling hopes for an easing of supply tensions in the region.
Brent crude fell nearly 6 per cent to $94.66 a barrel despite an Iranian military spokesperson mocking the attempts at a ceasefire deal, insisting the US was only negotiating with itself.
• Read in full: Oil price drops sharply and stocks rally on Trump ceasefire bid
UN chief warns over missile strikes near nuclear sites
“States are flirting with unmitigated catastrophe,” the UN human rights chief said on Wednesday, pointing to strikes around Iran and Israel’s nuclear sites.
“Recent missile strikes near nuclear sites in both Israel and Iran underscore the immense danger of further escalation. States are flirting with unmitigated catastrophe,” Volker Turk said in a video statement as the UN Human Rights Council met to discuss Tehran’s attacks across the Gulf.
Two arrested in Golders Green arson attack
Two men have been arrested in connection to the Golders Green arson attack on Jewish community ambulances.
The Metropolitan Police said the men, aged 47 and 45, were arrested on Wednesday morning at addresses in northwest London and central London. Arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life, both men remain in custody at a London police station while officers are carrying out searches at the two addresses.
The arrests are linked to the ongoing investigation into an arson attack at approximately 1.35am on Monday March 23. Four ambulances from Hatzola, a volunteer-led ambulance service operating in the Golders Green area of north London, were set on fire during the incident.
Spanish PM compares Lebanon destruction to Gaza
Iranian missiles above the coastal city of Netanya, Israel
JACK GUEZ/GETTY IMAGES
The Spanish prime minister has said that his Israeli counterpart, Binyamin Netanyahu, “seeks to inflict the same level of damage and destruction” on Lebanon as Israeli forces had wrought on the Gaza Strip.
Pedro Sanchez made the comment before the lower house as he explained his government’s stance against the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Sanchez added that Iran’s new supreme leader was more hardline than his predecessor. “Mojtaba Khamenei is an equally dictatorial and even more bloodthirsty tyrant than his father,” he said.
EU diplomats say Nato chief has put them in ‘awkward situation’
Nato’s secretary-general has riled European capitals by supporting Preisdent Trump’s war with Iran, according to a report.
“He’s doing this to make the whole world safe,” Mark Rutte said on Sunday of Trump’s decision to join Israel in bombing Iran. “It’s only logical that European countries take a couple of weeks to come together,” he added, with reference to the US president’s demand for Nato allies to help escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
However the remarks have caused frustration in several European capitals, according to the Financial Times, quoting unnamed diplomats. “It puts us in a really awkward and uncomfortable spot,” one EU diplomat said. “We want to show willing, but it’s also true that we are not in a position to get involved [in the conflict] in any way.”
Oil falls, stock markets rise on peace talk hopes
Oil has fallen and equity markets have rallied in volatile early trading, after reports that the US had sent a 15-point ceasefire plan to Iran, through Pakistan, late last night.
Brent crude was trading 4 per cent lower at about $96.18 a barrel a short while ago, as Trump claimed peace talks with Iran were making progress. An Iranian military spokesman has since mocked US attempts at a ceasefire deal, insisting the US was only negotiating with itself.
Japanese stocks jumped 3 per cent, while markets in Australia and South Korea rose 2 per cent, recouping recent losses but not weeks of falls since the war broke out. The FTSE 100 is forecast to open higher.
Iranian media mock Trump’s ‘present’ claim
President Trump claimed on Tuesday that Iran’s leadership gave the US a major “present” related to oil and gas and the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump said the gift was “worth a tremendous amount of money”, and a “very significant prize” but added: “I’m not going to tell you what that present is.”
There has been no official Iranian reaction to the remarks but Iranian state media outlets have mocked the claim. The Mehr News Agency jokingly posted footage of Iranian missile strikes on US bases in Iraqi Kurdistan as “the gift we sent Trump”.
Saeed Jalili, an ultraconservative Iranian politician, commented: “He who spoke of regime change and the disintegration of Iran now dreams that someone in Iran will talk to him.”
Esmail Saqab Esfahani, the vice-president for the Energy Optimisation and Strategic Management Organisation, dismissed Trump’s claimed breakthrough, stating that Iran’s negotiating position had likely not changed since before the war. He warned: “Now you are the one who must offer attractive proposals; otherwise, await further surprises on the battlefield.”
The spokesman for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, Iran’s top military command, dismissed the idea of talks, warning: “Do not call your defeat an agreement”.
Film director’s home hit in Tehran bombing
Damage after airstrikes targeting Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran
AP
The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said that the home of an award-winning Iranian director had been bombed during what he called the US-Israeli “war of whims”.
“Remember Abbas Kiarostami, the renowned Iranian director who won the Palme d’Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival for his masterpiece Taste of Cherry? Even his HOME was not spared from the bombs of the American-Israeli aggressors,” Esmaeil Baqaei posted on X.
“Was Kiarostami’s home part of the alleged ‘imminent threat’ to the United States?!” he added, referring to one of Trump’s justifications for the war. “The truth is that this American-Israeli war of whims is not merely against a state — it is against a deep-rooted culture, civilisation, and identity,” Baqaei wrote.
Kiarostami, who died in 2016, was one of Iran’s most acclaimed directors whose international work included the 2010 French drama Certified Copy starring Juliette Binoche.
His son Ahmad posted on social media this week that “the Chizar neighborhood in Tehran was bombed, where both my mother’s and my father’s houses are located … this morning I learned that my father’s house was damaged.”
‘We have had a very bad experience with American diplomacy’
A US F-22 Raptor prepares for a combat flight
No one can trust American diplomacy, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman declared on Wednesday, despite President Trump’s claims that Tehran was negotiating an end to the war.
In an interview with India Today, Esmaeil Baqaei repeated Iran’s complaint that the war started after it last engaged with US officials.
“We have had a very bad experience with American diplomacy, and while we were in the middle of the negotiation process, we were attacked twice in the span of nine months. This was a betrayal of diplomacy, and it happened not once, but twice,” he said, referring to the 12-day war fought with Israel and America last June as well as the current conflict, which is in its 26th day.
“There are no talks or negotiations between Iran and the United States, and the Iranian armed forces are focused on defending the country’s territory,” Baqaei added.
More than 5,000 Israelis treated for injuries
After a missile strike in Bnei Brak, on the eastern outskirts of Tel Aviv
ILIA YEFIMOVICH/GETTY IMAGES
More than 5,000 people in Israel have required hospital treatment for injuries suffered during strikes from Iran, the country’s health ministry has said.
Although most Iranian missiles launched against the country have been intercepted, at least 16 people have died in the attacks, and in the last 24 hours, 204 people were taken to hospitals.
The ministry says that since the beginning of the war with Iran on February 28, 5,045 people have been admitted to hospitals, 120 of whom remain inpatients.
The ministry does not give a breakdown of the causes of injuries, meaning some may have been injured by debris from interceptions, or as they rushed to the shelter, rather than as a direct result of missile fire from Iran or rocket fire across the northern border from Lebanon.
Iran grants safe passage to Thai tanker
A Thai oil tanker safely passed through the Strait of Hormuz after diplomatic co-ordination between Thailand and Iran, officials said on Wednesday.
In a sign that Iran will selectively let some vessels through, the tanker owned by the Bangchak Corporation crossed the strategic waterway on Monday, but only after negotiations between the Thai foreign minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow and Iran’s ambassador to Bangkok.
The company and a source in the Thai foreign ministry said no payment was involved.
“I requested that if Thai ships need to pass through the strait, could they assist in ensuring safe passage?” Phuangketkeow told reporters late on Tuesday. “They responded that they would take care of it and asked us to provide the names of the vessels that would be transiting.”
Another Thai vessel, owned by SCG Chemicals, is awaiting clearance to transit the strait, Phuangketkeow said.
Two weeks ago, the Thailand-flagged bulk carrier Mayuree Naree was attacked by a projectile in the strait, causing a fire onboard and forcing the crew to evacuate.
Fresh missile strike hits Iraqi base
A strike in western Iraq targeted the former paramilitary coalition Hashed al-Shaabi, a security official said on Wednesday.
The incident came a day after a similar attack killed 15 Iraqi fighters — the deadliest in the country since the start of the Middle East war.
“Two missiles were fired from a fighter jet” at the same base in Anbar province that was struck on Tuesday, the official said.
Tuesday’s strike prompted the government to grant former paramilitaries within the official armed forces a “right to respond” to any attack against them.
Royal Navy leads talks on coalition to reopen Strait of Hormuz
Britain is leading talks on a two-stage coalition mission involving warships and autonomous systems to reopen the Strait of Hormuz once the conflict subsides, defence officials say.
A bulk carrier sits anchored at a port in Muscat, Oman, as maritime traffic through the strait has mostly come to a halt
ELKE SCHOLIERS/GETTY IMAGES
The Royal Navy could deploy a “mothership” equipped with torpedo-shaped drones that can target mines laid by Iran in the narrow strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
Once free of mines, uncrewed and crewed ships would protect merchant vessels as part of a multinational escorting mission to restore traffic through the chokepoint, officials said.
• Read in full: Warships and mine-clearing drones could be deployed in the Gulf
‘US is only negotiating with itself’ says Iranian military spokesman
Tehran has claimed the US is ‘negotiating with itself’
An Iranian military spokesman has mocked US attempts at a ceasefire deal, insisting the US was only negotiating with itself.
Lieutenant Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesman for the Iranian military’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, made the statement in a prerecorded video aired on state television.
He said: “The strategic power you used to talk about has turned into a strategic failure. The one claiming to be a global superpower would have already gotten out of this mess if it could. Don’t dress up your defeat as an agreement. Your era of empty promises has come to an end. Have your internal conflicts reached the point where you are negotiating with yourselves?”
Zolfaghari’s statement came shortly after the Trump administration sent a 15-point ceasefire plan to Iran through Pakistan.
“Our first and last word has been the same from day one, and it will stay that way. Someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you,” Zolfaghari said. “Not now, not ever.”
Israeli strikes in Lebanon kill at least six
Four people were killed in an “Israeli enemy raid” on the town of Adloun, and another two in a strike on an apartment in the Mieh Mieh refugee camp that left four wounded, Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said, citing the health ministry.
In another area of southern Lebanon, an Israeli raid on the town of Habboush killed at least three people and wounded 18 others, the NNA said.
Israel has ramped up its campaign against the Tehran-backed militant group Hezbollah, whose rocket attacks on March 2 in response to US-Israeli strikes on Iran pulled Lebanon into the regional war.
The Israeli campaign has killed at least 1,072 people in Lebanon, with more than one million people displaced, according to Lebanese authorities.
Israel, which occupied southern Lebanon for nearly two decades until 2000, has said its military would take control of the border area up to the Litani River, about 20 miles from the frontier.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps sets high bar in ceasefire talks
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has consolidated power within the Iranian regime and is making demands of the Trump administration to enter ceasefire negotiations, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper claimed demands included the closure of all US bases in the Gulf, lifting all sanctions on Iran and reparations for attacks on Iran.
Other demands included allowing Iran to collect fees from ships that transit the Strait of Hormuz, an end to Israel’s strikes on Hezbollah and no limits on its missile program. A US official called the demands ridiculous and unrealistic, the paper said.
Cargo ships have largely been unable to pass through the strait since the conflict began
REUTERS
The US has sent Iran a 15-point plan to end the war that would include strict limits on its nuclear programme and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, according to reports.
Israel struck the Iranian capital Tehran early on Wednesday, Israeli military and Iranian media said.
The Israeli Defence Forces said in a Telegram post that it had launched a wave of strikes targeting infrastructure across Tehran. The Iranian SNN News Agency said the strikes hit a residential area in the city, with rescuers searching the rubble.
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday they had repelled fresh drone attacks, without stating where they originated. Drones targeted a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport, causing a fire but no casualties, Kuwait’s Civil Aviation Authority said.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had launched a new wave of attacks against locations in Israel including Tel Aviv and Kiryat Shmona, as well as US bases in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain, Iranian state media reported.
Damage at a site struck by a projectile in Bnei Brak, on the eastern outskirts of Tel Aviv
ILIA YEFIMOVICH/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Israel has continued its strikes in southern Lebanon after announcing plans to occupy part of Lebanon.
Israel Katz, the defence minister, said he had ordered the military to establish a “security zone” south of Lebanon’s Litani River to prevent the Shia group from firing into northern Israel.
Katz said the IDF was “following the model of Rafah and Beit Hanoun”, two Palestinian cities reduced largely to rubble during the Gaza war, and would raze houses in Lebanon near the border that were suspected of being used as “terror outposts”.
Israel has been hitting sites from the air and launching limited ground operations since March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets from Lebanon to protest against the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Hassan Fadlallah, an MP representing Hezbollah in the Lebanese parliament, said the group would fight occupation by Israel, describing it as an “existential threat” to Lebanon.
• Read in full: Hezbollah clashes divide Lebanese as Israeli troops advance further
In pictures: missile strikes
A building damaged by an Iranian missile in Bnei Brak, Israel
SAEED QAQ/ANADOLU/GETTY IMAGES
Smoke rises from Beirut’s southern suburbs following an Israeli strike
REUTERS
Destruction in Tyre, Lebanon
REUTERS/MANU BRABO
Fears of a global recession
Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, told the BBC that he feared a global recession if Iran remained a threat and oil prices stay high.
There could be “years of above $100, closer to $150 oil, which has profound implications in the economy … and a probably stark and steep recession,” Fink said.
BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager.
Iran death toll surpasses 1,500
More than 1,500 people have died in Iran since the US launched Operation Epic Fury on February 28, the country’s health ministry has said.
Damage caused by an airstrike in in Tabriz, northwestern Iran, on Tuesday
MATIN HASHEMI/AP
The death toll in Lebanon has surpassed 1,000, while 16 have died in Israel.
The US military has lost 13 troops.
Clogged toilets, a fire and no beds: US warship pulled from Middle East
The USS Gerald R Ford, the largest military ship ever built, is undergoing repairs in Greece after withdrawing from the Middle East amid reports of a fire in the laundry room, not enough beds for sailors and clogged toilets.
The fire, which happened earlier this month, lasted more than 30 hours and destroyed much of the berthing. More than 200 sailors were treated for smoke inhalation and two others sustained lacerations.
The withdrawal of the 1,106ft, $13 billion ship comes amid reports of concerns on how it would fare against Iranian drones and attack boats.
• Read in full: Clogged toilets, laundry room fire and no beds: USS Gerald R Ford in turmoil
Iran gives US ‘ridiculous and unrealistic’ demands
Iran is demanding to keep its nuclear programme, the closure of all American army bases in the Gulf, a new system that would allow Tehran to collect fees from ships passing the Strait of Hormuz and a halt to all sanctions the country currently faces, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The Journal reported that those were just a few of the many conditions Iranian officials have communicated to the US as the two countries prepare to hold direct talks.
A US official told the outlet the “ridiculous and unrealistic” demands were relayed to the US by Middle Eastern mediators.
Senate votes against war powers measure
The Senate has rejected, for the third time, a resolution to limit President Trump’s military powers in the war with Iran.
The measure, which was spearheaded by Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat, sought to make Trump need Congress approval before using military force.
Senator Rand Paul was the only Republican who voted in favour of the resolution. Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat and an Israel supporter, voted against it.
“If Republicans won’t hold a debate and vote on this illegal, incompletely run war, then Democrats will,” Murphy said on Tuesday.
Iran appoints new security chief
Iran has appointed Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, replacing Ali Larijani, who was killed in strikes launched by Israel last week.
Zolghadr, 72, was formerly a deputy commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who also served as a deputy interior minister during the former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s first term.
Trump’s approval rating at lowest since White House return
President Trump’s approval rating has fallen to its lowest point since he returned to the White House, hit by a surge in fuel prices and widespread disapproval of the war he launched on Iran, an Reuters/Ipsos poll has found.
The poll, data for which was collected over the weekend, showed that 36 per cent of Americans approved of Trump’s performance. Last week it was 40 per cent.
Trump’s standing within the Republican Party remains mostly strong. Only about one in five Republicans said they disapproved of his overall performance in the White House, little changed from about one in seven last week. But the share of Republicans who disapproved of his handling of the cost of living rose to 34 per cent from 27 per cent last week.
Trump’s approval rating was 47 per cent in the first days of his presidency and since last summer had largely held at about 40 per cent.
• Read in full: Donald Trump approval rating: today’s polls and popularity tracked
Trump: This war has been won
Yesterday, President Trump declared that he had achieved “regime change” in Iran, an aim he highlighted when the war began.
Talking about the military action and the assassination of senior Iranian leaders, Trump said: “We have really achieved change, this is a change in the regime because the leaders are different to the ones that caused all those problems.”
He added: “We can say we really have regime change. This war has been won. The only ones that … keep it going is the fake news.”
Canada condemns Israeli plan to occupy part of Lebanon
Canada has criticised Israeli plans to occupy southern Lebanon up to the Litani River.
A social media post from Canada’s foreign ministry said Lebanon’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity must not be violated”.
Reopening Strait is ‘risky’
Reopening the Strait of Hormuz is a plausible possibility but also a risky one, Elliott Abrams, President Trump’s former special representative to Iran, told Times Radio.
“It would require hitting more of the Iranian sites, particularly along the shore, so as to try to eliminate more of their ability to attack ships,” Abrams explained.
“And then it would require a lot of ships going to convoy the tankers and try to defend the tankers. That is something that, in my view, other countries could contribute to.”
He added: “I’m sure we can do it. The question is really, will the president want to take the risk that the Iranians have one lucky shot and kill a very substantial number of American sailors?”
‘We will control the Strait of Hormuz’, says former US general
Jack Keane, a retired four-star general and the US army’s former vice chief of staff, told Times Radio that “there’s no doubt” the American military will gain control of the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
He said: “We don’t have reservations about that. And those plans are in the works. We’re stripping away, as we speak, the ability of the Iranians to retaliate against such a thing, given what they have left. We know what that is, and we’re dealing with it.
“And at some point, we would obviously occupy the Gulf and in the vicinity of the Straits so we could do just that.”
More details emerge on US plan
Further details are emerging about the reported 15-point plan US officials have handed to Iran.
Among the other demands, according to reports in the US, is the dismantling of Iran’s Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow nuclear facilities. Future Iranian missiles would also be restricted to “self-defence” and Iran must halt “the funding, direction and arming of it regional proxies”, it is being reported.
So far, only 14 points of the plan have emerged.
The US previously put forward a 15-point plan to the Iranians as part of negotiations between the two countries in spring last year.
Israel launches fresh strikes
Israel says it has launched a fresh wave of strikes on the Iranian capital, Tehran, within the last hour.
The Israeli Defence Forces said the strikes were targeting Iranian infrastructure sites.
US sends paratroopers to Gulf as Trump weighs up Kharg invasion
President Trump has ordered thousands of elite US paratroopers to the Middle East as he considers an invasion of Kharg Island, the oil-exporting hub on which the Iranian economy relies.
Based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the Immediate Response Force is a brigade of about 3,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division that can deploy anywhere in the world within 18 hours.
The division’s commander, Major General Brandon Tegtmeier, and his headquarters staff are also heading for the region before a possible troop landing on the island, according to Fox News.
• Read in full: US sends paratroopers to Gulf as Trump weighs Kharg invasion
Europe risks fuel shortages as soon as next month, says Shell boss
The boss of Shell has warned that Europe risks fuel shortages as soon as next month as supplies dwindle and Gulf exports remain severely limited.
Wael Sawan, the company’s chief executive, said that the global oil and gas supply squeeze had already forced parts of Asia to cut energy consumption and that the “ripple effect” was threatening to spread west within days.
Speaking at a conference in Houston, Sawan said that European governments may soon need to cut consumptions themselves — a step not taken since the 2022 energy crisis.
“It is a ripple effect,” he said. “We see south Asia first to get that brunt, that moves to southeast Asia, northeast Asia and then more so into Europe as we get into April.
“So we are trying to work with governments to alert them to the levers they may need to pull — including demand‑side measures, what they need to do around storage, what they need to do around purchasing stock and so on and so forth.”
US sends 15-point war-ending plan to Iran
The United States has sent Iran a 15-point plan to end the war that would include strict limits on its nuclear programme and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, according to reports.
The New York Times, quoting two anonymous officials, said that the proposal was sent to Iran via Pakistan, which has offered to mediate.
Israel’s Channel 12 said that the US and Iran would declare a month-long ceasefire during which they would negotiate on the basis of the proposal.
The plan calls for an end to any uranium enrichment on Iranian soil and the handing over of enriched material, which Israel and the US say could be developed into a nuclear bomb.
The plan also says that Iran will allow unimpeded access through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran in turn would see an end to all sanctions, the Israeli report said.
Iran would also receive assistance in developing civil nuclear energy at Bushehr, a key site that Tehran on Tuesday accused Israel of striking.
There is no talk in the apparent plan of forcing governmental change in Iran, whose cleric-run state weeks earlier ruthlessly put down mass protests, killing thousands.
Iran: ‘Non-hostile’ vessels can travel through Strait of Hormuz
Iran has told the United Nations Security Council and the International Maritime Organization that “non-hostile vessels” may travel through the Strait of Hormuz if they co-ordinate with Iranian authorities.
A statement on X said: “Non-hostile vessels, including those belonging to or associated with other States, may — provided that they neither participate in nor support acts of aggression against Iran and fully comply with the declared safety and security regulations — benefit from safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz in coordination with the competent Iranian authorities.”
Tehran had effectively shut the waterway, where a fifth of the world’s oil normally transits, after the US and Israel launched attacks four weeks ago, sending fuel prices soaring around the world.
Speaking at the White House on Tuesday Trump said the US had received a “present” from Iran that related to the Strait of Hormuz.
“It was a very big present, worth a tremendous amount of money,” Trump said, adding: “It was a very nice thing they did.”