Donald Trump addresses reporters at the White House, Washington, D.C., March 24, 2026 (Jim Watson/AFP)

US-Israel War, Day 25: Trump Retreats With Declaration of “Talks” With Iran

UPDATE 0703 GMT:

Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed at least nine people on Wednesday, bringing the total to at least 1,072 with more than 1 million displaced.

Four people in the town of Adloun, two people in a Palestinian refugee camp in the Sidon area, and three in Habboush were slain.

In northern Israel, a woman was killed on Tuesday by rocket fire from Lebanon.

UPDATE 0700 GMT:

Global oil prices are falling with the announcement of the Trump camp’s plan sent to Iran.

Brent crude is down 6% at $98.30 and West Texas Intermediate is down 5% at $87.72.

Asian stock markets are up between 0.9% and 3.1%.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Iran’s regime has rejected the Trump camp’s 15-point “plan” over the US-Israel War.

Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner sent the proposal to Tehran via Pakistan. It reportedly returned to American demands tabled at the US-Iran meeting in Geneva on February 26, two days before the Trumpists joined Israel and strikes which killed Iran’s Supreme Leader and dozens of senior officials and commanders.

The Trump camp is insisting on the complete shutdown of Iran’s nuclear program with all enrichment halted and all major facilities shut down. Tehran’s ballistic missile program would be strictly limited. The regime would have to cut ties with allies such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis.

The Revolutionary Guards responded with strikes on Israel and on US bases in Kuwait, Jordan, and Bahrain. Drones hit a fuel tank and sparked a fire at Kuwait International Airport.

An Iranian military spokesperson, Lt. Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, chided the Trump Administration:

Have your internal conflicts reached the point where you are negotiating with yourselves?

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.

Esmail Kowsari, a member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, adopted a more measured tone:

We must think wisely. Their nature is to sow discord so that they can make people distrust officials and believe that such actions have taken place, whereas no such action has occurred.

Trumpists Try to Maintain Military Pressure

The US — but not Israel — has halted strikes on Iran for now, with Trump extending a “deadline” for attacks until Friday.

The Trump camp tried to maintain public pressure with approval of the deployment of more than 1,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division.

However, in a sign of the Administration’s dual track between the prospects of talks and the threat of assaults, the deployment is not of a full brigade, which more than 3,000 troops. The headquarters, staff, and some ground forces are being sent.

US officials floated the possibility of airborne troops being used to seize Kharg Island, the hub for more than 90% of Iran’s oil exports, in the northern Persian Gulf.

The airborne assault would complement or replace an attack from the sea. The Japan-based amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli, deployed on March 11, and the amphibious landing dock USS New Orleans will arrive in the region on Friday. Around 2,200 troops from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit are abroad.

Last week a second amphibious assault ship, the USS Boxer, was ordered to sail from California for the Middle East. The ship is carrying around 2,500 troops of the 11st Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Trump insisted on Tuesday that “this war has been won” and the Iranians are “going to make a deal”. He declared, without giving any detail or evidence, that Tehran had offered the US a “very specific prize” over the flow of oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz. It is a “very big present worth a significant amount of money” that proved “we’re dealing with the right people”.

Trump also claimed, again without evidence, “They’ve agreed they will never have a nuclear weapon. They’ve agreed to that.”

He added to the confusion over his tactics with the proclamation that only Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, were the “only two people that were quite disappointed” over talks with Iran.

“Pete didn’t want it settled,” Trump said. “They were not interested in settlement. They were interested in just winning this thing.”

Hegseth returned to the language of destruction: