Iran fires missiles at American military bases across the Gulf and says US is ‘negotiating with yourselves’ – live updates

Smoke rises from Kuwait international airport after a drone strike

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had fired a fresh wave of missiles at Israel, as well as US bases hosting American troops in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain.

Tehran has kept up its retaliatory attacks on Israel and Gulf nations it accuses of serving as launchpads for US strikes.

Drones hit a fuel tank and sparked a fire at Kuwait International Airport, the Gulf state’s civil aviation authority said, causing ‘limited’ damage.

In Bahrain, the interior ministry said air raid sirens were activated, while Jordan’s public security directorate reported shrapnel fell near the capital Amman, resulting in no casualties or damage.

Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted at least four drones in the kingdom’s east.

The Israeli military has announced it struck two naval cruise missile production facilities belonging to Tehran.

‘In recent days, the Israeli air force acting on IDF intelligence struck two key naval cruise missile production sites in Tehran,’ the military said.

It said the facilities were used to ‘develop and manufacture long-range naval cruise missiles, which are capable of rapidly destroying targets at sea and on land’.

The strikes ‘represent another step in deepening the damage done to the regime’s military production infrastructure’, the military added.

Last week, the military announced its fighter jets had struck several Iranian naval ships in the Caspian Sea, including vessels equipped with anti-submarine missiles.

Iran’s military has rejected Donald Trump’s assertion the US is in talks to end the war, saying the country is negotiating with itself.

The rejection of negotiations by the unified command of the Iranian Armed Forces, which is dominated by the hardline elite Revolutionary Guards, comes amid reports the US has sent a 15-point plan for discussion to Tehran.

‘Has the level of your inner struggle reached the stage of you (Trump) negotiating with yourself?’ the top spokesperson for Iran’s joint military command, Ebrahim Zolfaqari, said on Iranian state TV.

‘People like us can never get along with people like you. As we have always said … no one like us will make a deal with you. Not now. Not ever.’

Iran’s leadership has previously said it cannot negotiate with the US as Washington has attacked the country twice during high-level negotiations in the past two years.

Watch Zolfaqari mock Trump with his own ‘you’re fired’ catchphrase last week:

Iran has said ‘non-hostile vessels’ can transit the Strait of Hormuz if they comply with the relevant authorities, it emerged last night.

In a statement released to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), Tehran said ships can pass ‘provided that they neither participate in nor support acts of aggression against Iran’.

Vessels must also ‘fully comply with the declared safety and security regulations’.

The IMO said Tuesday that the communique, dated Sunday, was issued by Iran’s foreign ministry with the request that it be circulated by the IMO. The IMO had shared it with member states and NGOs, it added.

It said responsibility for ‘any disruption, insecurity or escalation of risks in this critical waterway’ lay with the US and Israel, which it accused of waging an ‘unlawful and destabilising war against Iran’.

Iran has virtually closed the vital strait since the US-Israeli strikes that started the war on February 28

Oil prices dropped and stocks rose today after reports Washington has sent a 15-point peace plan to Iran

Both main crude contracts plunged more than six percent – with Brent back below $100 – after US President Donald Trump voiced optimism at ending the war and said officials were ‘in negotiations right now’. However, both pared the losses as the day wore on.

Equity traders pounced on the developments, with Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore, Mumbai, Bangkok, Jakarta, Wellington and Taipei all well up.

London, Paris and Frankfurt rose at the open.

An extra boost came from International Energy Agency boss Fatih Birol’s comments that he was ‘ready to move forward’ with an additional release of oil reserves ‘if and when necessary’.

Key figures at around 8:15am:

• West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 4.2 percent at $88.50 a barrel
• Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 5.0 percent at $99.26 a barrel
• Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 2.9 percent at 53,749.62 (close)
• Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.1 percent at 25,335.95 (close)
• Shanghai – Composite: UP 1.3 percent at 3,931.84 (close)
• London – FTSE 100: UP 0.7 percent at 10,032.23

Donald Trump claimed Iran gave the US a ‘present’ amid negotiations between Washington and Tehran.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump said: ‘They did something yesterday that was amazing actually. They gave us a present and the present arrived today. And it was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money.

‘That meant one thing to me – we’re dealing with the right people.’

The US leader did not explain further but said it related to the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has largely blockaded in retaliation for US and Israeli strikes, spiking global energy prices.

Tehran, in a message circulated by the International Maritime Organization, assured safe passage through the strait to ‘non-hostile vessels’.

Watch Trump’s remarks below:

by Stephen M Lepore, US Senior Reporter

Iran wants Vice President JD Vance at the negotiating table to help end the ongoing Middle East conflict after Trump sent the nation a 15-point ceasefire plan.

Iranian officials reportedly said they would rather talk with Vance because top Mideast envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner ‘stabbed them in the back.’

‘The perception is that Vance would be intent on wrapping up the conflict’ as opposed to Kushner, Witkoff or Secretary of State Marco Rubio, sources told CNN.

Another Middle East source went further, telling The Telegraph Iran thought Kushner and Witkoff were ‘backstabbers.’

‘Vance is preferred. They don’t want to work with Jared and Witkoff because they stabbed them in the back,’ the source told The Telegraph.

Tehran believes that Witkoff and Kushner represent the failed negotiations that took place before the US and Israel began attacking and wouldn’t be productive now.

Donald Trump has apparently sent Iran a 15-point plan to end the war.

The New York Times, quoting unnamed officials, said that the United States had sent the propsoal to Iran through Pakistan after the country’s prime minister offered to host US-Iran talks.

Israel’s Channel 12 said that Trump was proposing a one-month ceasefire during which the sides would discuss a proposal that would include handing over Iran’s enriched uranium and banning further enrichment.

Iran would also ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran in turn would see an end to all sanctions, which have been in place in various forms for years, the Israeli report said.

Iran would also receive assistance in developing civil nuclear energy at Bushehr, a key site which dates from before the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of day 26 of the Iran war as Donald Trump signals he is ready for peace talks.

Trump, whose daily statements have swung wildly from threatening to conciliatory, said yesterday Washington was ‘in negotiations right now’ with Tehran with a 15-point peace plan drafted up.

However, Iran has launched a new missile salvo across the Middle East today and renewed its mockery of Trump over his own statements.

US military bases in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain were targeted in the latest attacks on the Gulf states

Iranian military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaghari suggested the US is ‘negotiating with yourselves’.

Stick with us throughout the day as we bring you the latest developments on the conflict