Air strikes have battered Iran’s capital and Iranian missiles and drones targeted Israel’s Tel Aviv and sites across the Middle East, even as President Donald Trump said the US was in talks with the Islamic Republic to end the war.
With thousands more US marines on their way to the Gulf, both sides firing intense barrages and Iran denying any negotiations are taking place, the war’s tempo remained high a day after Mr Trump delayed his self-imposed deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran’s chokehold on that crucial waterway has snarled international shipping, sent fuel prices skyrocketing, and threatened the world economy.
Pakistan has offered to host diplomatic talks, according to officials from there and two other countries involved.
But Iran remained defiant on Tuesday, with the spokesman of its top military command saying that the armed forces would fight “until complete victory”.
Any talks between the US and Iran – which appeared at the most tentative on Tuesday – would face monumental challenges.
Many of Washington’s shifting list of objectives – particularly over Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programmes – remain difficult to achieve.
Meanwhile, it is not clear who in Iran’s government would have the authority to negotiate – or be willing to, particularly as Israel has vowed to continue taking out leaders after killing several.
Iran also remains highly suspicious of the United States, which twice under the Trump administration has attacked during high-level diplomatic talks, including with the February 28 strikes that started the current war.
While Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf called the idea of negotiations with the US “fakenews”, foreign minister Abbas Araghchi’s office acknowledged he has been talking about the war this week with his counterparts in Azerbaijan, Egypt, Oman, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, Turkey and Turkmenistan.
Rubble covers the furniture of a destroyed living room in a residential building hit in an earlier US-Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran (Vahid Salemi/AP)
(Vahid Salemi)
The US had agreed “in principle” to join talks in Pakistan, according to three Pakistani officials, one Egyptian official and a Gulf diplomat, while mediators were still working to convince Iran.
The Pakistani officials said the “quiet diplomacy” had grown more complicated since news of Pakistan’s attempts leaked.
And in fact, Major General Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, spokesman of Iran’s top military command, issued a defiant statement.
Iranian state television quoted Maj Gen Aliabadi as saying: “Iran’s powerful armed forces are proud, victorious and steadfast in defending Iran’s integrity, and this path will continue until complete victory.”
The general did not say what “complete victory” would look like, but it appeared likely Iran’s military was trying to warn against offering concessions in any possible negotiations.
The Egyptian official said efforts are centred on “trust-building” between the US and Iran, with the aim of bringing about a pause in the fighting.
Israeli security and rescue forces respond at the site of an Iranian missile strike in Tel Aviv (Ohad Zwigenberg/AP)
(Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israel is not involved.
The official, who is involved in the efforts, said the priority is to prevent attacks on both Iran’s and Gulf Arab countries’ energy infrastructure and that they were working on a “mechanism” for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Talk of negotiations briefly drove down oil prices and boosted stocks.
But that respite was short-lived, with the price of Brent crude, the international standard, nudging back over 100 dollars a barrel on Tuesday, up nearly 40% since the war started.
Mr Trump’s announcement came as a contingent of thousands of marines is on the way to the region, raising speculation that the US may try to seize Kharg Island, which is vital to the country’s oil network.
The US bombed the island in the Persian Gulf more than a week ago, hitting its defences but saying it had left oil infrastructure intact.
Iran has threatened to mine the Persian Gulf if the US appears to be on the verge of landing troops.
(PA Graphics)
(PA Graphics)
That would complicate an amphibious assault and also imperil all shipping in the area.
Mr Trump said he would hold off on a threat to bomb Iran’s power stations while talks unfold – a delay that could be timed to coincide with the arrival of US marines in the region, expected on Friday, wrote the New York-based think tank the Soufan Centre in an analysis.
However, the centre also noted that “Trump could be actively seeking an offramp. Whether Iran reciprocates is yet to be seen”.
Mr Trump has said he has no plans to send ground forces into Iran but has not ruled it out.
Israel has suggested its ground forces could take part in the war.
Israel said it carried out an extensive series of strikes on Iranian “production sites”, without providing more information.
In Tehran, a massive blast was heard in northern neighbourhoods and another in the centre of the city.
Israeli security forces at the site of an Iranian missile strike in Tel Aviv (Ohad Zwigenberg/AP)
(Ohad Zwigenberg)
Iran also fired multiple waves of missiles at Israel early on Tuesday.
In Tel Aviv, a missile with a 100 kilogram (220lb) warhead evaded Israeli defences to slam into a street in the centre of the city, blowing out windows of a neighbouring apartment building and sending smoke billowing.
Four people suffered minor wounds, rescue service worker Yoel Moshe said.
Emerging from a shelter, Amir Hasid said he expected the scene to be far worse.
“It feels like you’re a (sitting) duck, waiting for the missiles to hit you, or someone next to you,” he said.
In Kuwait, power lines were hit from air defence shrapnel, causing partial electricity outages for several hours.
(PA Graphics)
(PA Graphics)
Missile alert sirens sounded in Bahrain, the Emirati Defence Ministry said air defence systems responded to ballistic missiles and drones, and Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry said it had destroyed 19 Iranian drones targeting its oil-rich Eastern Province.
Israel pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs on Tuesday, saying that it was targeting infrastructure used by the Iran-linked Hezbollah militant group.
A strike on a residential apartment south east of the Lebanese capital killed at least three people, including a three-year-old girl, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Another five people were killed in the south.
Meanwhile, Lebanon declared Iran’s ambassador persona non grata and ordered him to leave by Sunday.
A man stands on the rubble of a destroyed building that was hit by an Israeli air strike in Dahiyeh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon (Hussein Malla/AP)
(Hussein Malla)
The dramatic move offers the latest evidence of the deterioration in relations between Lebanon and Iran.
Iranian flights have been banned from landing in Lebanon, out of fear that they would carry weapons or funding for Hezbollah, and some Lebanese government officials have been critical of Tehran’s role in the country, accusing it of dragging the country into another war with Israel.
Israel has said that some of its strikes have targeted guard officials operating in the country.
Authorities say Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon and displaced more than one million.
Iran’s death toll has surpassed 1,500, its Health Ministry has said.
In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian strikes.
At least 13 US military members have been killed, along with more than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states.