DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Airstrikes battered Iran and Iranian missiles and drones targeted Israel's Tel Aviv and sites across the Mideast on Tuesday, even as President Donald Trump said the United States was in talks with the Islamic Republic to end the war.
With thousands more U.S. 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 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 Tuesday, with the spokesman of its top military command saying that the armed forces would fight “until complete victory.”
Any talks between the U.S. and Iran — which appeared at the most tentative — would face monumental challenges. Many of Washington's shifting list of objectives — particularly over Iran's ballistic missile and nuclear programs — remain difficult to achieve. Meanwhile, it's 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 Feb. 28 strikes that started the current war.
Pakistan says ‘quiet diplomacy’ is underway
While Iranian parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf called the idea of negotiations with the U.S. "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.
The U.S. had agreed “in principle” to join talks in Pakistan, according three Pakistani officials, one Egyptian official and a Gulf diplomat, while mediators were still working to convince Iran. An email seeking comment from the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad was not answered.
All of the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to provide the details to the media.
The Pakistani officials said the “quiet diplomacy” had grown more complicated since news of Pakistan’s attempts leaked. And in fact, Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, spokesman of Iran's top military command, issued a defiant statement.
Iranian state television quoted 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 centered on “trust-building” between the U.S. and Iran, with the aim of bringing about a pause in the fighting. 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 a barrel Tuesday, up nearly 40% since the war started.
Marines are on the way to the Persian Gulf
Trump's announcement came as a contingent of thousands of Marines was on the way to the region, raising speculation that the U.S. may try to seize Kharg Island, which is vital to the country's oil network.
The U.S. bombed the island in the Persian Gulf more than a week ago, hitting its defenses but saying it had left oil infrastructure intact.
Iran has threatened to mine the Persian Gulf if the U.S. appears to be on the verge of landing troops. That would complicate an amphibious assault and also imperil all shipping in the area.
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 buy time for the Marines to arrive, wrote the New York-based think tank the Soufan Center in an analysis.
However, the center also noted that “Trump could be actively seeking an offramp. Whether Iran reciprocates is yet to be seen.”
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.
Iran hits Israel and Gulf neighbors while Israel attacks Beirut
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 neighborhoods and another in the center of the city.
Iran also fired multiple waves of missiles at Israel early on Tuesday.
In Tel Aviv, a missile with a 100 kilogram (220 pound) warhead evaded Israeli defenses to slam into a street in the center of the city, blowing out windows of a neighboring 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 defense shrapnel, causing partial electricity outages for several hours. Missile alert sirens sounded in Bahrain, the Emirati Defense Ministry said air defense systems responded to ballistic missiles and drones, and Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said it had destroyed 19 Iranian drones targeting its oil-rich Eastern Province.
Israel pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs Tuesday saying that it was targeting infrastructure used by the Iran-linked Hezbollah militant group.
A strike on a residential apartment southeast of the Lebanese capital killed at least three people, including a 3-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.
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 1 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 U.S. military members have been killed, along with more than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states.
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Rising reported from Bangkok and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece, and Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut contributed to this report.