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 2205 GMT:

Two more people have been slain and eight inured by Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon.

The Israelis targeted the town of Kfar Reman in the Nabatieh district.

The Israeli military announced the killing of another one of its troops, bringing the total to four.

UPDATE 2140 GMT:

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi has expressed “deep concern” over strikes near the Bushehr nuclear plant in southern Iran.

Grossi warned that any damage to the operating facility could cause a “major radiological accident affecting a large area in Iran and beyond”. He called for “maximum restraint” to avoid the risk of a nuclear accident.

The last reported strike was on Tuesday night, when a projectile struck the grounds of the nuclear power plant. The IAEA reported an earlier strike on March 17. No damage to the plant was reported in either incident.

UPDATE 2131 GMT:

Donald Trump has retreated by another 10 days in his threat to attack Iran’s energy infrastructure.

Without any evidence, Trump claimed that the request for the extension came from Tehran and that alleged talks are going “very well”.

He assailed the “fake news media” for reporting that there is no basis for his assertions.

UPDATE 1548 GMT:

Israel removed Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher ‌Ghalibaf from its hit list, following a request from Pakistan to the US.

A “Pakistani source with knowledge of the discussions” said, “The Israelis had their coordinates and wanted to take them out. We told the US that ​if they are also eliminated, then there is no one else to talk to. Hence the ​US asked the Israelis to back off.”

US officials have told the media that the Trump Administration, pursuing a “Venuezuela style” resolution, sees Ghalibaf as an Iranian leader whom can be engaged in talks over Trumpist demands.

Ghalibaf has publicly rejected an approach made by the White House last Saturday, declaring that the Trump camp is pursuing “talks” for “financial and oil manipulation” and to get out of the “quagmire” of the US-Israel War.

UPDATE 1452 GMT:

A Hezbollah rocket strike has killed a man and injured 12 other people in Nahariya in northern Israel.

The man in his 30s was fatally wounded by shrapnel. Another man in his 50s is in serious condition after the rocket hit a parking lot of a residential building.

UPDATE 1441 GMT:

Tehran has responded to the Trump camp’s 15-point proposal.

A “senior Iranian official” said the 15 points are “one-sided and unfair”, while adding that a path forward might still be found if realism prevails in Washington.

He said the proposal “was reviewed in detail on Wednesday night by senior Iranian officials and the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader”.

The official noted, “In brief, the proposal suggests that Iran would relinquish its ability to defend itself in exchange for a vague plan to lift sanctions.”

He emphasized that there is “still no arrangement for negotiations, and no plan for talks appears realistic at this stage”, although Turkey and Pakistan try to help “establish common ground between Iran and the United States and reduce differences”.

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An “informed source” said:

It is clear to Iran that…the Americans are pursuing several objectives under the guise of their claim to negotiate: First, deceiving the world by presenting an apparently peace-loving image and a desire to end the war; second, keeping the price of oil low globally; and third, buying time to prepare for a new act of aggression in southern Iran via a ground invasion….

If Iran had doubts about the outcome of the negotiations and America’s adherence to agreements before the 12-day war [Israel-US attacks in June 2025], since the 12-day war it has had complete doubts about America’s very willingness to negotiate at any point. The Americans started the war during negotiations in both the 12-day war and the war of Ramadan [from February 28], and this time too, under the guise of negotiations, they are seeking to lay the groundwork for a new crime.

UPDATE 1355 GMT:

Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim says Iran has allowed Malaysian tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz after talks with Iranian, Turkish, and other regional leaders.

“We’re now in the process of releasing the Malaysian oil tankers and the workers involved so that they can continue their journey home,” Anwar said in a televised address. “But it is not easy, as Iran feels it has been deceived repeatedly and finds it difficult to accept steps toward peace without a clear and binding security guarantee for their nation.”

For financial and/or political benefit, Iran has permitted some Turkish, Pakistani, Indian, and Thai-flagged vessels through the Strait.

UPDATE 1252 GMT:

The New York Times reports that many US troops in the Middle East are working remotely from hotels and office spaces after Iran’s bombing of American bases.

Much of the land-based military is now off the bases. Fighter pilots and crews operating and maintaining warplanes and conducting strikes remain on them.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has urged people to report the remote locations as it hunts for US personnel.

The Times notes that many of the 13 military bases in the region used by US troops are all but uninhabitable.

Six US service members were killed in a strike on Kuwait’s Port Shuaiba that destroyed an Army tactical operations center. Iranian drones and missiles also targeted Ali Al Salem Air Base, damaging aircraft structures and injuring personnel, and Camp Buehring, damaging maintenance and fuel facilities.

In Qatar, Iran struck Al Udeid Air Base, the regional air headquarters of US Central Command, damaging an early-warning radar system. In Bahrain, a one-way Iranian attack drone struck communications equipment at the headquarters of the 5th Fleet. At Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, Iranian missiles and drones damaged communications equipment and several refueling tankers.

Two “former US officials briefed on military operations” said there were no reinforced roofs on command centers at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, where one service member was killed and several others were wounded by an Iranian attack.

UPDATE 1248 GMT:

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz is claiming the targeted assassination of the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ Navy, Alireza Tangsiri, and other “senior officers of the naval command” in a strike overnight.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement:

We continue to forcefully strike the targets of the Iranian terrorist regime.

Last night, we eliminated the commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps navy. This man had a great deal of blood on his hands, he was also the one who led the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

UPDATE 0822 GMT:

After a 15-hour break in its attacks on Israel, Iran has launched at least six missiles within two hours on Jerusalem.

At least six people have been injured.

UPDATE 0724 GMT:

Two people have been killed and three injured in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi by debris from an intercepted missile.

UPDATE 0714 GMT:

Donald Trump insisted on Wednesday night:

Iran 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.

They’re also afraid they’ll be killed by us.

He asserted that no one wants to lead Iran, fearing they would be assassinated by the US.

UPDATE 0707 GMT:

Human Rights Watch says Israel has used white phosphorus in its attacks on southern Lebanon.

Deployment of the chemical is illegal under international humanitarian law.

Researchers said they have verified and geolocated eight images showing airburst white phosphorus munitions exploding over residential areas. The attacks were on the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor, in the opening days of Israel’s assault during the war on Gaza.

As 800,000 Lebanese have been forcibly displaced, many more episodes may have gone undocumented.

UPDATE 0659 GMT:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed that Israel is seeking, with ground and aerial operations, to expand its occupation of southern Lebanon.

Israel killed at least eight people on Wednesday in strikes and shelling, including on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Hezbollah head Naim Qassem rejected talks with Israel under fire, saying they would amount to “surrender”.

Israel’s military said Hezbollah’s mortar fire severely wounded one of its soldiers in southern Lebanon.

UPDATE, MARCH 26:

Iran has again publicly rejected talks with the Trump camp.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on State TV, “We do not plan on any negotiations. Speaking of negotiations now is an admission of defeat.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted, “Talks continue. They are productive, as the president said on Monday, and they continue to be.”

Leavitt warned that if the talks with Iran are not effective, Donald Trump “will ensure they are hit harder than they have ever been hit before”.

UPDATE 1753 GMT:

Officials say the “present” which Iran gave the US, according to Donald Trump on Tuesday, was permission for safe passage of some fuel tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump blustered to reporters, as he declared US-Iran “talks”, that Tehran “did something yesterday that was amazing — they gave us a present…worth a tremendous amount of money”.

He continued, “They gave it to us, and they said they were going to give it. That meant one thing to me. [That we’re] dealing with the right people.”

A US official said that when the Trump Administration began passing along messages to Iran through mediators over the weekend, it asked Tehran to make a gesture of goodwill.

In response, Iran allowed several tankers that were not linked to the US or Israel through the Strait of Hormuz to help calm global markets, said an Arab official.

UPDATE 1718 GMT:

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says the US-Israel War on Iran is “out of control”:

The conflict has broken past the limits even leaders thought imaginable.

The world is staring down the barrel of a wider war, a rising tide of human suffering, and a deeper global economic shock. This has gone too far.

He added that “the Gaza model must not be replicated in Lebanon”, calling for an end Israeli military operations in the country and urging Hezbollah to stop launching rockets at northern Israel.

UPDATE 1710 GMT:

A senior Iranian official says that, while Iran’s initial response to the Trump camp’s proposal is “not positive”, the regime is still reviewing it.

A “senior political security official”, quoted by State outlet Press TV, says Iran has rejected the proposal and put forward its own conditions to end the war.

  • An end to “aggression and assassinations”;
  • “Concrete” guarantees preventing the reoccurrence of war against Iran;
  • Payment for war damages and reparations;
  • End of war on Iran and against “all resistance groups” across the Middle East;
  • Recognition of Iran’s sovereignty over the strait of Hormuz.

A “senior Iranian official”, speaking to Al Jazeera, described the Trumpist 15-point plan as “extremely maximalist and unreasonable”.

And the Revolutionary Guards-linked Fars, citing a “knowledgable source”, says Tehran will not accept a ceasefire and believes it would not be “logical” to enter talks.

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: