US President Donald Trump said that a deal to end the Iran war is near, after Tehran dismissed his 15-point ceasefire plan and issued its own sweeping demands to stop fighting as it launched more attacks on Israel and Gulf Arab countries.
Two officials from Pakistan described the 15-point US proposal broadly, saying it included sanctions relief, a rollback of Iran’s nuclear programme, limits on missiles and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is normally shipped.
Iran issued its own plan via state TV, which includes a halt to killings of its officials, means to make sure no other war is waged against it, reparations for the war, the end of hostilities and Iran’s sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.
“No negotiations have happened with the enemy until now, and we do not plan on any negotiations,” Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi later told state TV.
Mr Trump insisted at a Republican fundraiser on Wednesday night that talks were underway with Iran’s leaders.
“They are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they’re afraid to say it because they figure they’ll be killed by their own people,” he said.
The death toll from the war has risen to more than 1,500 people in Iran, nearly 1,100 people in Lebanon, 20 in Israel and 13 US military members, as well as a number of civilians on land and sea in the Gulf region. Millions of people in Lebanon and Iran have been displaced.
Activists in Iran reported heavy strikes early on Thursday morning around Isfahan, a city 205 miles south of capital Tehran.
The pro-reform newspaper Ham Mihan reported online about strikes in the area.
Isfahan is home to a major Iranian air base and other military sites, as well as one of the nuclear sites bombed by the United States during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June.
The semi-official Fars news agency, which is close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, described the attacks as targeting “two residential areas”, without elaborating.
Earlier, Israel’s military said it had completed “a wide-scale wave of strikes” across Iran, including in Isfahan.
A missile alert sounded on mobile phones in Dubai on Thursday morning.
Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry said it intercepted multiple drones over its oil-rich Eastern Province on Thursday morning, while Kuwait reported it was working to intercept incoming Iranian fire and Bahrain sounded its missile alert sirens.