25/03/2026 – 10:54Kremlin says Russia has received no information from Iran on reported US 15-point plan
Russia has not received any information from Iran about a reported US 15-point plan and so Moscow cannot assess the reliability of the media reports, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
25/03/2026 – 09:53No negotiations have taken place between US, Iran, Tehran’s envoy to Pakistan says
Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan said there had been no talks between Washington or Tehran, after US President Donald Trump signalled tentative progress in diplomatic efforts to end the war.
“We have also heard such details through the media, but according to my information – and contrary to Trump’s claims – so far no negotiations, direct or indirect, have taken place between the two countries,” ambassador Reza Amiri Moghadam said, adding that it was “natural that friendly countries are always engaged in consultations with both sides to end this illegitimate aggression”.
25/03/2026 – 09:33Spain’s Sanchez says Middle East war ‘far worse’ than Iraq in 2003
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned Wednesday that the Middle East war presented a “far worse” scenario than the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
“This is not the same scenario as the illegal war in Iraq. We are facing something far worse. Much worse. With a potential impact that is far broader and far deeper,” he told parliament.
25/03/2026 – 09:29Spanish PM says Israel wants to inflict on Lebanon ‘same destruction’ as in Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “seeks to inflict the same level of damage and destruction” on Lebanon as Israeli forces had wrought on the Gaza Strip, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told lawmakers.
Sanchez, who appeared before the lower house to explain his government’s stance against the US-Israeli war on Iran, 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,” Sanchez said.
25/03/2026 – 09:11In Pictures: Drone strike sparks fire after hitting fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport
Smoke rises from Kuwait International Airport after a drone strike on a fuel storage tank, in Kuwait City, Kuwait, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. Photo: AP
25/03/2026 – 09:07Iran has received the 15-point US ceasefire proposal, 2 Pakistani officials tell AP
Iran has received a 15-point proposal from the US to reach a ceasefire in the war, two Pakistani officials said.
The Pakistani officials described the proposal broadly as touching on sanctions relief, civilian nuclear cooperation, a rollback of Iran’s nuclear program, monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency, missile limits and access for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf.
The officials spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorised to release the details.
Iran has insisted it isn’t engaged in negotiations with the US and a military spokesman mocked Washington over its diplomatic efforts Wednesday.
25/03/2026 – 08:57Strike on western Iraq kills seven security personnel, official says
Seven Iraqi soldiers were killed and 13 others wounded in an air strike on a site belonging to Iraq’s Shiite Popular Mobilisation Forces near an army medical centre in western Anbar, security sources and the defence ministry said.
The ministry said the strike, which took place at around 9am local time, hit a military clinic and a nearby engineering unit. Rescue teams were still searching the site for possible additional casualties.
The ministry condemned the strike as a “blatant and serious violation” of international laws and norms prohibiting attacks on medical facilities and personnel, describing it as a dangerous escalation and calling for those responsible to be held accountable.
It reserved the right to respond in accordance with legal frameworks, the ministry said.
25/03/2026 – 08:19Israel says it struck a naval missile production site in Tehran ‘in recent days’
The Israeli military announced it had struck a naval cruise missile production facility operating under Iran’s ministry of defence in Tehran.
“In recent days, the Israeli air force acting on IDF intelligence struck two key naval cruise missile production sites in Tehran,” the military said.
According to the military, the facility was used to “develop and manufacture long-range naval cruise missiles, which are capable of rapidly destroying targets at sea and on land”.
The strikes “represent another step in deepening the damage done to the regime’s military production infrastructure”, it added.
25/03/2026 – 08:15 ‘The humanitarian crisis here is worsening by the minute’: Israel continues to bomb Lebanon
More than a million people have been driven from their homes in Lebanon as Israel continues its bombardment of the country and seizes land south of the Litani River.
FRANCE 24 correspondent Renée Davis reports from Beirut on the rising resentment towards Israel’s ongoing air strikes.
25/03/2026 – 08:14New strike targets former paramilitaries in western Iraq, security official says
A new strike in western Iraq targeted the former paramilitary coalition Hashed al-Shaabi, a security official said Wednesday, a day after a similar attack killed 15 Iraqi fighters.
“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 – the deadliest in Iraq since the start of the Middle East war — prompted the government to grant former paramilitaries within the official armed forces a “right to respond” to any attack against them.
25/03/2026 – 07:12Israel and Iran exchange fresh air strikes
The Israeli Defense Forces said in a Telegram post it had launched a wave of strikes targeting infrastructure across Tehran. The semi-official Iranian SNN News Agency said the strikes hit a residential area in the city, with rescuers searching the rubble.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also 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.
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia said 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.
25/03/2026 – 06:44Iran military spokesperson says US is negotiating with itself, state media reports
The United States is negotiating with itself, an Iranian military spokesman said according to state media on Wednesday, a day after US President Donald Trump said Tehran wants to make a deal to end the war in the Middle East.
“Has the level of your inner struggle reached the stage of you negotiating with yourself?” Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesperson for the unified command of Iran’s armed forces, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, taunted the US leadership.
“People like us can never get along with people like you.”
Zolfaghari said US investments and pre-war energy prices would not return as long as Washington does not accept that regional stability is guaranteed by Iranian armed forces.
A 15-point plan aimed at putting an end to the conflict was drafted by Washington and sent to Tehran, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
25/03/2026 – 04:51Trump administration offers 15-point ceasefire plan to Iran
The Trump administration offered a 15-point ceasefire plan to Iran, a person briefed on the contours of the proposal said late Tuesday, even as the US military prepared to call up at least 1,000 more troops to supplement some 50,000 troops already in the Mideast.
The plan was submitted to Iran by intermediaries from Pakistan, who have offered to host renewed negotiations between Washington and Tehran, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly.
25/03/2026 – 04:50Top WTO official sounds fertiliser warning over Middle East war
Disruptions to fertiliser supplies caused by the Middle East war pose a double threat to global food security through scarcity and high prices, a top World Trade Organization official has warned.
A third of the world’s fertilisers normally transit the strait of Hormuz, and the disruption has prompted multiple warnings about the impact on food production.
“Fertilisers are the number one issue of concern today. If there is no more fertiliser, there is an impact on quantities but also on prices,” WTO Deputy Director-General Jean-Marie Paugam told AFP in an interview in Yaoundé.
“The effect compounds the following year: harvests shrink and prices rise.”
25/03/2026 – 04:36Iran Guards say fired missiles at Israel, Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had fired missiles at Israel as well as military bases hosting US forces in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain, Iranian state television reported on Wednesday.
A Guards statement carried by state broadcaster IRIB said that “targets in the heart of the occupied territories”, meaning Israel, and US military bases in the region “were struck by precision-guided liquid- and solid-fuel missile systems and attack drones”.
25/03/2026 – 04:28Oil prices tumble, stocks soar over hopes for war end
Oil prices tumbled and stocks rose Wednesday on hopes for a de-escalation of the Middle East war after Washington sent a peace plan to Iran, while Tehran announced it will let “non-hostile” oil vessels through the crucial Strait of Hormuz.
After nearly four weeks of conflict, investors jumped on the first signs that hostilities could wind down, though analysts pointed out that the arrival of more US troops in the region suggested the chance of escalation remained.
The economic impact of the crisis has begun to bite around the world, with governments looking to cut energy consumption and airlines scaling back flights.
Both main crude contracts plunged more than 6% – with Brent back below $100 – after US President Donald Trump voiced optimism at ending the war and said officials were “in negotiations right now”. Iran has not confirmed any formal talks.
25/03/2026 – 04:10US media: US to deploy at least 1,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division to Middle East
The US military is preparing to deploy at least 1,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East in the coming days, according to three people with knowledge of the plans.
The unit is considered the Army’s emergency response force and can typically be deployed on short notice.
The force would include a battalion of the 1st Brigade Combat Team as well as Maj. Gen. Brandon Tegtmeier, the division’s commander, and division staff, according to the people, who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans or private conversations.
It’s the latest addition of American troops to the Iran war effort after US officials recently said thousands of Marines aboard several Navy ships will be heading to the region.
While the Marine units are trained in missions that include supporting US embassies, evacuating civilians and disaster relief, the soldiers of the 82nd Airborne, based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, are trained to parachute into hostile or contested territory to secure key territory and airfields.
25/03/2026 – 04:07Israeli strikes kill 9 in south Lebanon
Lebanese state media reported on Wednesday that Israeli strikes killed at least six people in a town and a Palestinian refugee camp in the southern Sidon area, and three more in another town.
Israel has stepped up its campaign against Tehran-backed militant group Hezbollah, whose rocket attacks on March 2 pulled Lebanon into the regional war, triggered by US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Citing the health ministry, Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said 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 others wounded.
In another area of southern Lebanon, the NNA earlier said an Israeli raid on the town of Habboush killed at least three people and wounded 18 others.