Iran says it has no plans for negotiations with the U.S.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-South Carolina, said after a briefing on the Iran war that she is even more opposed to troops on the ground there than she was previously.

“Just walked out of a House Armed Services briefing on Iran. Let me repeat: I will not support troops on the ground in Iran, even more so after this briefing,” Mace said on X.

The Trump administration has sent additional troops to the region but has not said that ground troops would be used in Iran.

Mace, who is running for governor of South Carolina, said in another post earlier today that “President Trump has been enormously successful so far.”

“But we cannot allow the Washington War Machine to turn Iran into another Iraq,” she wrote.

Two people were killed and three others injured in Abu Dhabi after debris fell from a ballistic missile that was intercepted by the emirate’s air defense systems, officials said. 

They said the missile was successfully intercepted, but falling debris caused casualties and damage on the ground.

“The incident resulted in the deaths of two unidentified individuals, three injuries, and damage to a number of cars,” the statement added.

The statement did not say where the missile originated, but the United Arab Emirates has been the target of multiple retaliatory strikes by Iran.

The war with Iran “is a catastrophe for the world’s economies,” Germany’s defense minister said.

“The impact is absolutely evident, already now after a little more than two weeks,” Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters during a visit to Australia, where he made it clear that Germany did not want to get involved in the war.

“As the European partners, and Germany as well, highlighted from the beginning on: We have not been consulted before. Nobody asked us about it before. It’s not our war,” he said.

“And therefore we don’t want to get sucked into that war, to make it crystal clear,” Pistorius said.

Israel’s military said Thursday morning local time that it had identified Iranian missiles targeting the country.

The military said its Home Front Command issued a precautionary alert to residents in affected areas.

“Leaving a protected space is permitted only after receiving explicit instructions,” the statement added.

The IDF later said search and rescue forces were on their way to the site in central Israel where impacts had been reported.

The United Arab Emirates’ military said Thursday local time that its air defenses “are currently responding to incoming missile and drone threats from Iran.”

The country’s Defense Ministry said on X that “sounds heard are the result of the Air Defence Systems intercepting missiles and drones.”

The Philippines said it was activating a $332 million fund to provide energy security, a day after its president declared a state of national energy emergency amid soaring global oil and gas prices.

Countries in Asia, which is heavily dependent on the Middle East for oil and gas imports, have been hit especially hard by market disruptions caused by Iran’s effective shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz.

The Philippines’ Energy Department said activating the fund was intended “to strengthen the country’s fuel security amid continued volatility in the global oil market due to the Middle East conflict.”

It is targeting an increase of 2 million barrels of available fuel, the department said.

Israel’s military said Thursday morning local time that it has conducted more strikes against targets in Isfahan, Iran.

The Israel Defense Forces said it “completed a wave of strikes in Isfahan.”

“A short while ago, the IDF completed a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime in several areas in Iran,” it said in a statement.

Tensions flared behind closed doors today as defense and intelligence officials briefed some lawmakers about the war in Iran, with Republicans and Democrats expressing frustration about a lack of clarity and information about Trump’s strategy, according to four congressional officials who attended the briefing and a lawmaker who was briefed on it later.

Much of the frustration during the briefing for the House Armed Services Committee centered on the prospect of the United States’ sending ground troops into Iran, the officials and lawmaker said, including what the troops could be used for and whether the U.S. can adequately protect them once they are deployed. 

“There was no plan, no strategy, no end game shared, and they didn’t give any answers. It’s unclear if there isn’t a plan or if there is a plan and they wouldn’t share it with members,” one of the congressional officials said. 

The briefing took place as the war nears the one-month mark and the Trump administration is both engaging in a diplomatic effort to attempt to end it and sending more troops to the Middle East while Trump weighs whether to deploy American forces on the ground inside Iran.

The chairman of the committee, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., acknowledged in a text message to NBC News after the briefing that there has been some frustration with “ALL the briefings that we have been receiving for the last several months.” 

He said that “criticism has NOTHING to do with Operation Epic Fury,” adding: “I fully support what the administration is doing in Iran. But, when briefing members they need to be prepared to deliver substantive information and more fully answer questions.”

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., at the U.S. Capitol. Heather Diehl / Getty Images

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., publicly criticized the briefing afterward, writing on X: “Just walked out of a House Armed Services Briefing on Iran. Let me repeat: I will not support troops on the ground in Iran, even more so after this briefing.” 

The Pentagon and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The congressional officials said the briefers could not provide details about the possibility of deploying U.S. troops to Iran but would not rule it out. And some lawmakers who attended the briefing made it clear in the closed-door meeting that they would not support boots on the ground, the officials said. 

The lawmaker who was briefed on the contents of the briefing said a “red line” for some lawmakers who currently support the war would be U.S. ground troops in Iran. “That’s the time that they’re going to abandon the effort. There was concern that that is not being ruled out,” the lawmaker said.

The four congressional officials in the briefing also said there was frustration with the defense and intelligence officials over what they view as a lack of a cohesive strategy for the war, specifically where it is heading. They also said tensions flared over conflicting explanations from the administration about the justification for starting the war. 

The briefers said the additional U.S. troops headed to the region are intended to give Trump options, the congressional officials said. 

Trump said tonight that he considered an Iran with the potential for a nuclear weapon a “cancer” and defended the war despite the higher prices it has caused.

President Donald Trump speaks at the National Republican Congressional Committee's annual President's Dinner at Union Station in Washington today.  Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images

“We had no choice,” Trump said at a Republican fundraiser in Washington.

“But I thought it would be much worse. I thought that the energy prices, the oil prices would go up higher. I thought the stock market would go somewhat lower,” he said.

“But it didn’t matter to me, short term,” Trump said. “What we had to do is get rid of the cancer. We had to cut out the cancer, and the cancer was Iran with a nuclear weapon.”

Critics have called the war with Iran poorly justified and planned.

A Trump administration official, Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned March 17 over the war and wrote in a resignation letter that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.”

Trump told the crowd at a Republican fundraiser tonight that Iran is negotiating an end to the war, despite denials reported by Iranian state media.

“We’re winning so big. Nobody’s ever seen anything like what we’re doing in the Middle East with Iran,” Trump said at the National Republican Congressional Committee event in Washington.

“And they are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly but they’re afraid to say it,” he said. “Because they figure they’ll be killed by their own people. They’re also afraid they’ll be killed by us.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state television today that "there are no negotiations underway."

"In recent days, the American side has sent various messages through friendly countries," Araghchi said. "The fact that messages are sent and we respond with warnings or state our positions does not constitute negotiation or dialogue; it is an exchange of messages."

Trump said later in his speech that “fake news” was reporting that the U.S. was not doing well in the war.

“If you listen to the news, you’d think we’re losing a war in Iran,” Trump said. “We’re decimating the other side.”

Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz threatens the transportation of fertilizer and other needed materials during the global planting season, the United Nations secretary-general said today.

“The prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz is choking the movement of oil, gas & fertilizer at a critical moment in the global planting season,” Secretary General António Guterres said in a statement on X.

He said that civilians in the region and beyond are suffering and that the U.N. is trying to minimize consequences of the war.

“And the best way to minimize those consequences is clear: End the war — immediately,” Guterres wrote.

Around one-third of global seaborne fertilizer trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz, U.N. Trade and Development said March 10 in warning about disruptions due to the war, which began Feb. 28 with strikes by the U.S. and Israel.

Gas prices also cause an increase in fertilizer prices, it said, and the disruption raises concerns about access for some of the poorest countries.

Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of the U.S. military’s Central Command, said U.S. forces have struck more than 10,000 military targets in Iran in an operational update video posted on X.

He also said that 92% of Iran’s largest navy vessels have been destroyed and that more than two-thirds of Iran’s missile, drone and naval production facilities and shipyards have been damaged or destroyed.

U.S. forces maintain air superiority over Iran having now flown more than 10,000 combat flights, Cooper said.

Mohsen Rezaie, a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a senior official, said Iran is waiting for U.S. troops to arrive in the region.

"When they have achieved no results from their air force, which is their strength, what do they expect from a ground operation?" Rezaie, who was recently appointed as the military adviser to the new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, said on X. "Do American soldiers want to die for Israel? We are waiting.”

More than a thousand miles from the Iran war, Muslim residents in Indian-controlled Kashmir are collecting donations for Iranians: gold, cash, even utensils and livestock.

 Mukhtar Khan / AP

Community leaders and elders have set up stalls in this part of the disputed Himalayan region, which is overwhelmingly Muslim and split between India and Pakistan but coveted in its entirety by both. Young volunteers go door to door to collect contributions.

Women are donating their gold jewelry, bangles and earrings. Many households have offered their traditional copperware or livestock, and children have brought in their savings — some carrying piggy banks to collection points.

 Mukhtar Khan / AP

Some wealthier residents are sending cash to the Iranian Embassy’s relief account in New Delhi, set up this month. “My heart is with Iran, and I am offering my only pair of gold earrings,” said Shazia Batool, a young girl. “Sending help is the least we can do.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state television today that no peace talks with the U.S. have taken place.

“No negotiations have happened with the enemy until now, and we do not plan on any negotiations,” Araghchi said, according to The Associated Press.

NBC News has not independently verified the AP's report.

Trump said this week that his administration was engaged in productive discussions with Tehran, but regime officials countered that account, saying no direct or indirect talks had taken place.

The U.S. Postal Service says it will apply an 8% temporary surcharge to the “base postage prices on the following retail and commercial domestic competitive products: Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage, and Parcel Select.”

USPS said “no other products or services would be affected.” 

Energy and fuel prices have been rising sharply since the war with Iran began and USPS said adding the surcharge would “support the Postal Service’s ability to continue achieving its public service mission.” 

The charge is set to take effect on April 26 until January. 

Violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank “continues unabated,” the head of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency said as he prepares to leave his post.

The violence by extremist Israeli settlers has spiked as the world focuses on the war with Iran, with the United Nations reporting 25 Palestinians killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers from Jan. 1 to March 15, and new Israeli settlements and other regulations have stoked Palestinian fears of annexation.

“The fact that large groups of settlers storm Palestinian communities, brutalize residents & torch buildings is an outrage in itself,” Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of UNRWA, said on X. “But what is worse is that these egregious acts are accompanied by total impunity.”

Last week, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir called the rising settler violence “morally and ethically unacceptable.” Several Israeli civil rights and political groups have criticized the government for not doing enough to combat the extremist settler violence.

ADNOC, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, said on X that CEO Sultan Al Jaber met with Vice President JD Vance to discuss the energy market disruption caused by the war with Iran.

"We discussed the fact that energy security equals global security, and that restoring free passage through the Strait of Hormuz is the only durable solution to stabilizing global markets," the company said in its post.

"It was good to re-connect with Vice President Vance at this critical moment," the post said.

"We also underscored the strength of UAE–US relations across key sectors," the post said.

Al Jaber is also the UAE's minister of industry and advanced technologies.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., insisted today that the U.S. military does not have "boots on the ground" in the Middle East in the war with Iran but urged officials in Tehran to "take note" of the buildup of American troops in the region.

"I think Iran should watch that buildup, and they need to take note of that," Johnson told reporters. He also called on Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial oil and gas shipping.

Johnson said he believes the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran is nonetheless nearing an end.

"Operation Epic Fury is almost done. I mean, I think the mission that was very clearly defined in the beginning, the objectives have been met," he said.

The commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force warned Trump on X that every threat and ultimatum against the regime in Tehran constitutes an act of war.

Seyed Majid Mousavi added that today's strikes on the Israeli cities of Dimona and Haifa were direct responses to recent threats from the U.S.

Badr Abdelatty, Egypt’s foreign minister, told reporters today that Cairo stood ready to host meetings aimed at ending the war, according to Reuters.

Abdelatty, speaking at a news conference, said Egypt backed Trump’s initiative to negotiate with his counterparts in Tehran. Asked about Iran’s apparent rejection of the U.S. proposal to end the fighting, Abdelatty said: “We have to continue our efforts. It’s all about diplomacy and negotiations.”

The prime minister of Pakistan has also offered to host talks between the U.S. and Iran.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres today called on the U.S. and Israel to end the war with Iran and pleaded with the regime in Iran to stop attacking other countries in the Middle East.

“My message to the United States and Israel is that ​it is high time to end the war — as human suffering deepens, ​civilian casualties mount, and the global economic impact is increasingly devastating,” Guterres told reporters, according to Reuters.

“My message to Iran ‌is ⁠to stop attacking their neighbors,” he added.

Guterres said Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon, must stop launching attacks into Israel. Israel, for its part, must halt military operations and strikes in Lebanon, he said.

The Israeli assault has devastated civilian areas in the country's south as part of an operation that Israeli officials say is aimed at taking control of large swaths of land for an indefinite period.

“The Gaza model must not be replicated ​in Lebanon,” Guterres said.

Iran has "responded negatively" to the U.S. plan to end the war, according to Iranian state television’s English-language broadcaster, Press TV. It cited an unnamed senior political-security official with knowledge of the details of the proposal. 

Tehran will not allow Trump to dictate the terms or timing of the conflict's resolution, according to the report.

The official detailed five conditions that must be met before Iran agrees to end the war, including a complete halt to "aggression and assassinations" by the U.S. and Israel and recognition of Iran's sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial passageway for global oil.

China says that it supports all efforts to de-escalate tensions and called for an end to fighting in the Middle East. 

“China supports all efforts that help ease tensions, de-escalate the situation, and restore dialogue,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said during a news conference today. 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, yesterday that all parties must “seize every opportunity and window for peace” and called for peace talks to begin “as soon as possible.”

Six in 10 adults say the recent U.S. military action against Iran has gone too far, 26% say it has been about right, and 13% say it has not gone far enough, a new AP-NORC poll has found.

Ninety percent of respondents who identified as Democrats said recent military action has gone too far, compared with 26% of Republicans.

Meanwhile, 62% of respondents oppose deploying U.S. troops on the ground in Iran.

As far as U.S. foreign policy objectives go, 65% say it is extremely or very important to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and 67% say it’s important to prevent U.S. oil and gas prices from rising, according to the poll.

The United States has sent Iran a 15-point plan to end the war, according to two regional sources and a U.S. official, even as President Trump approves the deployment of more U.S. troops to the region.

The proposal was delivered to Iranian officials through Pakistan, the sources said, but it was not immediately clear if Iran has agreed to any of the points.

The delivery of the plan through Pakistan was first reported by The New York Times.

Trump confirmed the 15 points on Monday and expressed optimism about reaching an agreement.

“They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon. That’s number one. That’s number one, two and three,” Trump said, adding that Iran had agreed to that point. “They will never have a nuclear weapon.”

Iran has consistently said it is not pursuing a nuclear weapon.

U.S. stocks rose this morning and global oil prices fell in yet another volatile trading session, as traders and investors were buffeted by constant headlines about the war with Iran.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange today. Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images

Initially, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose more than 1% after reports surfaced that the U.S. had sent Iran a 15-point peace plan. However, unconfirmed reports from Iranian media, which cited an anonymous source, said this morning that Tehran would not accept a ceasefire or hold talks with the United States.

The reports briefly knocked index futures off their pre-market highs and lifted oil prices off their early morning lows.

Despite the apparent setback, stocks opened the trading day higher and the price of U.S. crude oil tumbled more than 4% in morning trading.

Read the full story here.

The Israeli military said it has targeted an Iranian underwater research center in Isfahan.

In a post on Telegram earlier today, the IDF said it carried out strikes on Iran’s “production industries” in the central city of Isfahan yesterday, and the underwater research center hit was the “only facility in Iran responsible for the design and development of submarines and support systems for the Iranian Navy.” It said Tehran produced “various models of unmanned vessels” at the site.

“The strike significantly limits the regime’s ability to manufacture new and advanced submarines for the Iranian Navy, as well as upgrade its existing fleet,” the IDF said.

Photos from Isfahan overnight showed extensive damage in the city.

Murat Sengul / Anadolu via Getty Images

Murat Sengul / Anadolu via Getty Images

Murat Sengul / Anadolu via Getty Images

Funeral ceremonies are held for health workers Ali Jaber and Joud Sulelman in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon today, after they were killed in an Israeli strike in the nearby town of Harouf yesterday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country would permanently strengthen its nuclear forces, as he set out policy priorities in a speech to parliament, state media KCNA reported.

Kim said Pyongyang’s status as a nuclear-armed state was irreversible and expanding a “self-defensive nuclear deterrent” was essential to national security, regional stability and economic development, according to the agency. 

“The current world reality, where the dignity and rights of sovereign states are mercilessly violated by unilateral force and violence, clearly teaches what the true guarantee of a state’s existence and peace is,” Kim said in the address Monday to the Supreme People’s Assembly, the communist-run country’s rubber-stamp legislature.

Nuclear weapons had deterred war and allowed the state to focus resources on economic growth, construction and living standards, he added.

Iran’s navy has claimed it fired cruise missiles toward the U.S. aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and forced it to change course, according to the official state news agency IRNA.

The action was aimed at demonstrating Iran’s naval dominance in response to threats from “hostile fleets,” the navy said. 

There was no immediate reaction from the Pentagon, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.  

Trump told reporters yesterday the Abraham Lincoln was shot at with more than 100 missiles but that all of them were intercepted. He had previously said that the U.S. has effectively obliterated the Iranian navy.

“The performance and movements of the hostile Abraham Lincoln strike group are constantly being monitored, and it will be targeted as soon as it comes within missile range,” IRNA quoted Iran’s navy chief, Adm. Shahram Irani, as saying. 

Iran’s navy will not rest until it avenges the deaths of sailors killed when the U.S. torpedoed an Iranian warship in international waters earlier this month, Shahram said. 

Kuwait has reported that it shot down multiple drones today, but one hit a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport. This sparked a fire, the General Civil Aviation Authority said, which firefighters were working to contain.

AP

Gulf Arab states told the U.N. Human Rights Council today they face an existential threat from Iran.

Since the joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran last month, Tehran has continued retaliatory strikes on military, energy and civilian infrastructure across the region.

“We are seeing an existential threat to international and regional security. This aggressive approach is undermining international law and sovereignty,” Kuwaiti Ambassador Naser Abdullah H. M. Alhayen told the Geneva-based council earlier today. Other Gulf states also denounced Iran’s actions which they said were designed to spread terror.

Iran defended its actions, saying responsibility for the attacks also lies on those “who facilitated, supported and encouraged them,” said Iranian Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva Ali Bahreini.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned in a statement released today about the effect on the Gulf States and Jordan, saying strikes and interceptions there have caused “terrible harm to civilians, including dozens of deaths and injuries.”

Many of the strikes in this conflict raise “serious concerns” under international law, he said, which prohibits attacks targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, and attacks on military targets where harm to civilians is disproportionate.

More than 1,000 additional troops from the 82nd Airborne Division are heading to the Middle East, an announcement that came as Trump in the Oval Office said, “We’ve won this, this war has been won.” 

Iran disagrees, and taunted the idea of talks with the U.S. today while saying that oil prices would not return to normal until there is stability in the region.

02:20

NBC News

NBC News

Iranians gather outside a coffee shop and pizza restaurant on Niavaran street in Tehran today, next to the signage of a fake Apple store. A nearby police station was destroyed in recent U.S.-Israeli strikes on the Iranian capital, which is being monitored closely by security guards on the street.

It’s impossible to judge the progress of negotiations between Tehran and Washington to stop the U.S.-Israeli operation in Iran, the Kremlin said, amid many “false” reports. 

Asked about a purported U.S. peace plan in the works to settle the war, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a daily briefing earlier today that “our Iranian friends haven’t passed on this kind of information to us.”

He questioned the reliability of media reports about the plan, as he drew parallels with the 20-point peace plan first suggested by the Trump administration to settle the war in Ukraine last year, which was significantly revamped after several rounds of negotiations.

“You remember the confusion with the plans, the various number of points being mentioned in the plan for a Ukrainian settlement. It’s now fashionable to draw many parallels between the reports,” Peskov said.

“We don’t know how reliable they are. We don’t know whether they correspond to reality or not. There’s so much information out there right now, the lion’s share of which is completely false, that until there’s some official confirmation from official sources, it’s impossible to judge.”

British police arrested two men today in connection with an arson attack on four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity, which authorities are investigating as an antisemitic hate crime.

Four Hatzolah ambulances next to Machzike Hadath Synagogue in London on Monday, after they were set on fire overnight. Leon Neal / Getty Images

The Metropolitan Police said the two men, ages 45 and 47, were arrested in London on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life and both men have been taken to a police station in the city for questioning.

Police have not declared the incident to be a terror attack, but are investigating a claim of responsibility by a group with potential links to Iran.

Read the full story here.

Iran is "closely monitoring" all U.S. movements in the region, "especially troop deployments," the powerful speaker of the country’s parliament said this morning.

The statement comes after Trump approved the deployment of more than 1,000 paratroopers to the Middle East. 

"What the generals have broke, the soldiers can't fix; instead, they will fall victim to Netanyahu's delusions," Mohammad Bagher Galibaf wrote in a post on X. 

“Do not test our resolve to defend our land.”

Women living inside Iran share their experiences of daily life with NBC News, a rare insight from the country under fire.

As Tehran is hit with deadly strikes, residents are wary about how the war will unfold, with Iranians both inside the country and living abroad expressing fear for how the fighting will impact the country’s population, and how it might foster divisions.

06:15

Israel said its military struck two key naval cruise missile production sites “in the heart of Tehran,” the Iranian capital.

The sites were operated by Iran’s Ministry of Defense, according to the Israel Defense Forces, which said they were being used to develop “long-range naval cruise missiles” capable of striking targets on land and at sea.

“These were significant strikes that caused extensive damage to the cruise missile array and represent another step in deepening the damage done to the regime’s military production infrastructure,” the IDF said in a statement. 

Oil prices fell more than 5% and world shares gained this morning over the possibility of a de-escalation and talks.

U.S. futures were up 0.9%, while Brent crude, the international standard, fell 5.2% to $94.97 per barrel. It was around $104 yesterday

Benchmark U.S. crude was down 5.3% early to $87.44 a barrel.

Israel launched a fresh wave of attacks on Iran in the fourth week of the war in the Middle East with no sign of easing, while a top U.S. military commander urged Iranians to remain in shelters for the foreseeable future.

Images from Tabriz, in the East Azerbaijan province of northwestern Iran, show the scope of damage from a strike yesterday.

Mati Hashemi / AP

Mati Hashemi / AP

Mati Hashemi / AP

Mati Hashemi / AP

Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan said no talks have occurred between Washington and Tehran, according to Iranian state media.

The statement contradicts previous claims by Trump, who said negotiations with Tehran were ongoing. Pakistan has offered to host talks.

“Based on my information, contrary to Trump’s claim, no direct or indirect negotiations have taken place between the two countries so far,” Reza Amiri Moghadam said, according to Reuters.

He added, “Friendly countries seek to lay the ground for dialogue between Tehran and Washington, which we hope will be fruitful in ending this imposed war."

Ships that are “non-hostile” may transit the Strait of Hormuz “if they coordinate with Iranian authorities,” Iran said, suggesting its effective blockade of the crucial shipping route might be eased.

A cargo ship carrying vehicles sails through the Arabian Gulf toward the Strait of Hormuz in the United Arab Emirates, on Sunday.  AP

“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,” the Iranian mission to the United Nations said in a post on X.

Shipments of oil and liquefied natural gas through the Strait of Hormuz, which carries about one-fifth of the world’s supply, have been all but halted by Iran’s threats against vessels seeking to traverse it, sending global energy prices soaring.

Seven Iraqi soldiers were killed and 13 others injured in an airstrike that struck a medical facility early today in the Habbaniyah area of Anbar province, the country’s Defense Ministry said.

“This attack constitutes a blatant and serious violation of all international laws and conventions that prohibit targeting medical facilities and their personnel,” the ministry said in a statement. “This criminal act represents a dangerous escalation that necessitates a firm response and holding those responsible accountable.”

The ministry added that search and rescue teams were continuing to comb through the site.

The Israel Defense Forces said it had identified missiles launched from Iran toward Israel this morning as the two sides exchange new attacks. 

“The Home Front Command has sent a precautionary directive directly to mobile phones in the relevant areas,” the IDF said in a statement, urging the public to follow instructions and move to a safe location.

“Leaving a protected space is permitted only after receiving explicit instructions,” the statement added. 

Each day since the start of the war in Iran, U.S. military officials compile a video update for Trump that shows video of the biggest, most successful strikes on Iranian targets over the previous 48 hours, three current U.S. officials and a former U.S. official said.

 Daniel Torok / White House via Getty Images

The daily montage typically runs for about two minutes, sometimes longer, the officials said. It's not the only briefing Trump gets about the war. He’s also updated through conversations with top military and intelligence advisers, foreign leaders and news reports, the officials said.

But the video briefing is fueling concerns among some of Trump’s allies that he may not be receiving — or absorbing — the complete picture of the war, now in its fourth week, two of the current officials and the former official said.

Read the full story here.

A shrug, perhaps even a flash of dismay. But despite the public insults emanating from the White House, those close to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer say there is little chance he will hit back at President Donald Trump over the Iran war.

‘SNL UK’ spoofs Starmer’s relationship with Trump

01:39

The embattled prime minister is still pursuing close coordination with Trump, even after the latest indignity hurled by the president toward London as the conflict threatens havoc on the already stale British economy.

Read the full story here.

Iran’s Khatam Al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, which commands both the regular military and the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, suggested this morning there are no ongoing peace talks.

“Have your internal conflicts reached the point where you are negotiating with yourselves?” said Lt. Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesman for the headquarters.

“Our first and last word has been, is, and will be the same from the very first day: Someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you,” Zolfaghari said in the video statement aired on state television. “Not now, and not ever.”