Trump warns ‘it won’t be pretty’ as he readies Iran war ‘final blow’

Here are the latest developments in the US-Israel war with Iran on Thursday, March 26:

• Donald Trump has told Iran’s ‘strange’ leaders to ‘get serious soon’ following a rejected US peace proposal and warned them there could be ‘no turning back’
• Two people were killed and three were wounded by falling debris after air defences intercepted a ballistic missile on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi
• The Israeli military said one of its soldiers, a 21-year-old man, has been killed during its ongoing operations in southern Lebanon
• Russia has denied a report it is shipping drones to Iran and accused the media of spreading ‘lies’
• Oil prices jumped and stock markets fell as the world reacted to Iran rejecting a peace proposal put forward by the US during mediation efforts
• Iran is preparing a parliamentary bill to charge tolls for ships passing through Strait of Hormuz
• Israel has said high-ranking Iranian navy commander Alireza Tangsiri has been killed in a strike on Iran
• Gulf states continue to come under attack with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait all reporting drones have been intercepted by air defence systems

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

Donald Trump has urged Iran to make a deal to end US and Israeli bombing or face more strikes on their country.

‘They now have the chance, that is Iran, to permanently abandon their nuclear ambitions and to join a new path forward,’ Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

‘We’ll see if they want to do it. If they don’t, we’re their worst nightmare. In the meantime, we’ll just keep blowing them away.’

Trump spoke after a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Thursday that Washington’s proposal for ending nearly four weeks of fighting is ‘one-sided and unfair but that diplomacy continues.

Iran has amassed more than a million soldiers to fight any US ground invasion, a military official has told Iranian media.

Speaking to Iran’s state-backed Tasnim news agency, the source said Tehran had seen a ‘massive influx of applications’ from young Iranians ready to fight in the war.

It comes following reports the Pentagon is drawing up military options to deliver a ‘final blow’ in Iran which is said to include a possible invasion of Kharg Island.

The military source said: ‘America wants to open the Strait through suicide and self-destruction; that’s fine. We are prepared for them to act on their suicide strategy, and for the Strait to remain closed.’

Donald Trump has said the Iranian regime has admitted it has been ‘decisively defeated’ which is why they have entered talks to end the war.

The President repeated his claim Iran has been ‘obliterated’, adding the US is free to ‘seize towns’ and ‘destroy nuclear weapons’.

He said:

The Iranian regime is admitting to itself it has been decisively defeated. They’re saying to people this is a disaster. They know it, that’s why they are talking to us.

They have a disaster on their hands, they can’t make a comeback. We are free to roam over there, seize the towns and destroy all their crazy nuclear weapons and drones.They have a chance to make a deal but it’s up to them.

Trump added the Strait of Hormuz will reopen if the ‘right deal’ can be reached.

Donald Trump has described British aircraft carriers as ‘toys’ compared to American ones in his latest swipe at the UK.

Speaking in the White House, Trump said:

The British said ‘we’ll send our aircraft carriers’ – which aren’t the best aircraft carriers by the way, they are toys compared to what we have – ‘we’ll send our aircraft carrier when the war is over’. I said ‘that’s wonderful, thank you very much – don’t bother’.

Trump later added, ‘we don’t it, we don’t need them.’

Downing Street has previously rejected Trump’s claims it offered to send aircraft carriers to the war.

Donald Trump said on Thursday that the Iranians are great negotiators, but that he’s not sure he’s willing to make a deal with them to end the war.

Hosting a cabinet meeting in the White House, Trump added the Iranians are ‘lousy fighters’.

He said:

They’re lousy fighters but they’re great negotiators. They’re begging to work out a deal. I don’t know if we’ll be able to do that.

Pakistan has emerged as a key intermediary between Iran and the United States to try to secure talks to end their war in the Gulf.

On Thursday, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar confirmed Islamabad was involved, saying ‘US-Iran indirect talks are taking place through messages being relayed by Pakistan’.

Pakistan has avoided taking sides and tried instead to maintain stable relations with all parties.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned both the US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Tehran’s retaliation against its neighbours.

Let’s take a look at Pakistan’s relationship with Iran and the US:

Pakistan shares a 900-kilometre (560-mile) border in its southwest with Iran, and also deep historical, cultural and religious links.

Iran was the first country to recognise Pakistan after independence in 1947. Pakistan returned the favour for the Islamic republic after the 1979 revolution.

They cooperated against Moscow during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s powerful army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, has built up a personal rapport with US President Donald Trump and spoke to him last Sunday.

Munir – in a Western business suit rather than army fatigues – visited Washington with Sharif last year after a flare-up in hostilities between Pakistan and India in divided Kashmir.

Sharif praised Trump’s ‘bold and visionary’ intervention, while Munir said the US leader deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for stopping an escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

Iran has sent an official response to a US proposal to end the war, Iran’s Tasnim news agency is reporting.

Donald Trump sent a 15-point plan to stop the conflict which was passed to Iranian leaders by Pakistan during mediation efforts.

Yesterday it was reported Tehran had rejected the proposal and set five of its own conditions although there was no official statement from the leadership.

Now it’s understood the response has been sent through intermediaries with Iran waiting for a response.

In its report, Tasnim wrote: ‘In its response, the Islamic Republic announced that aggression and terror by the enemy must end, objective conditions must be created to prevent a recurrence of the war, payment of damages and war compensation must be guaranteed and responsibilities must be clearly defined, and the end of the war must be implemented on all fronts and with respect to all resistance groups that participated in this battle, throughout the region.’

Iran’s initial response to the US proposal to end the war, which was conveyed to Pakistan, was that it was ‘one-sided and unfair,’ a senior Iranian official told Reuters.

The official said the proposal ‘was reviewed in detail on Wednesday night by senior Iranian officials and the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader.’

‘In brief, the proposal suggests that Iran would relinquish its ability to defend itself in exchange for a vague plan to lift sanctions,’ he said, adding that the proposal lacked the minimum requirements for success.

He said there was ‘still no arrangement for negotiations, and no plan for talks appears realistic at this stage,’ while Turkey and Pakistan were trying to help ‘establish common ground between Iran and the United States and reduce differences.’

The European Union’s top diplomat has accused Russia of providing intelligence support to Iran ‘kill Americans’.

Kaja Kallas has called on the US to increase pressure on Moscow.

‘We see that Russia is helping Iran with intelligence to target Americans, to kill Americans, and Russia is also supporting Iran now with the drones so that they can attack neighbouring countries and also US military bases,’ Kallas told journalists at a G7 meeting outside Paris.

‘These wars are very much interlinked… If America wants the war in the Middle East to stop, Iran to stop attacking them, they should also put the pressure on Russia so that they are not able to help them in this,’ she added, referring to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Wall Street stocks opened lower today as oil spiked, with investors losing faith in the immediate prospects for peace in the US-Israel war on Iran.

International benchmark Brent North Sea crude jumped 4.4 per cent to $106.67 per barrel this morning, while the main US oil contract, West Texas Intermediate, rose 3.9 per cent to $93.81.

Donald Trump warned Tehran to engage in talks ‘before it is too late,’ but Iran has publicly rejected US overtures. Both sides have kept up their attacks, with Israel claiming it killed the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ navy.

About five minutes into trading, all three major US indices were in the red.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite was down 1.1 percent to 21,687.19, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.4 percent to 46,233.83 while the broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.8 percent to 6,542.41.

Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital, said oil prices were the main ‘driving forces’ of the market at the moment.

Iran’s foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi has accused the US of ‘double standards’ over its stance on the effective blockade at the Strait of Hormuz.

Araghchi said while the US has condemned Tehran for cutting off access to the strait, it has backed Israel for a blockade to restrict supplies entering Gaza.

The politician is understood to be involved in any US-Iran talks.