Iran says diplomacy continues as US strikes expand

Iran’s president said the country is in a “full-scale war” after the United States widened its air campaign and Tehran struck targets across the Gulf, even as officials on both sides said diplomacy through mediators had not stopped.

“The reality is that today the Islamic Republic of Iran is engaged in a full-scale war,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said Monday, warning that Iran might have to endure more strikes. Speaking separately in Tehran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Iran had received proposals through mediators aimed at ending the renewed fighting.

“We have been informed by mediators, we have received messages – without going into details – but the main point is that the diplomatic apparatus has been active in recent days and ideas have been conveyed to us by certain mediators,” Baghaei said, according to The Guardian. Al Jazeera reported that Baghaei said “proposals have been raised through mediators and have been passed over to us,” but that he did not disclose whether they included a 10-day truce reported by U.S. media.

The Guardian reported that an Iranian official told Reuters mediators had presented Iran with a proposal for a 10-day ceasefire to seek ways to revive a memorandum of understanding agreed last month. That deal, intended to halt attacks and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, is more than halfway through a 60-day implementation period.

The fighting has continued despite those efforts. Iranian media reported strikes around Tabriz, believed to hold underground missile bases, and Bushehr, home to Iran’s only operational civilian nuclear power plant. Al Jazeera reported that the United States launched a ninth consecutive day of strikes overnight, hitting areas including Tabriz, and said bridges, roads and military sites had been targeted in Iran.

The U.S. military said it had struck “military command centers, air defence and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and communications networks.” Al Jazeera reported that Iran said a civilian nuclear power plant under construction in Darkhovin was hit Sunday and had no military objective.

Iran has struck Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and other Arab countries while saying it is targeting U.S. forces there. Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, said its air traffic systems were damaged but traffic was not affected. Tankers and commercial ships have also been hit in the Strait of Hormuz, where roughly one-fifth of global oil and gas supplies passed before the war.

Shipping through the strait has slowed sharply, and oil prices rose above $90 a barrel, their highest level in a month, The Guardian reported. A ship caught fire Monday near Oman in the southern corridor the U.S. military has encouraged vessels to use; the crew abandoned the vessel safely and it was recovered by a tug, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed two oil tankers were blown up after attempting to use the route, but there was no independent confirmation.

The Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen announced a blockade of Saudi ports, saying they were responding to what they called Riyadh’s targeting of Sana’a airport and would answer a “blockade with a blockade.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington remained open to talks, but “it has to be real.” He said, “We’re going to continue to respond. If the door opens to diplomacy… that’ll be a very positive development.” Rubio also said Iranian missile and drone strikes that killed three U.S. service members over the past week were an impediment to diplomacy, Al Jazeera reported.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf rejected U.S. claims that Washington seeks an end to fighting, writing on X: “Actions must confirm claims, not contradict them.” Iranian army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia said the war should continue until deterrence is achieved: “If that does not happen, the enemy will miscalculate again and commit an aggression against Iranian soil.”

The U.S. military said one service member was killed Saturday in northern Iraq during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian attack drone. Two other U.S. service members were killed Friday in an Iranian attack on a Jordanian airbase, with a third missing. Since the war began, 17 U.S. service members have been killed. Iran’s health ministry said Friday that 50 people had been killed and more than 500 injured in the current round of fighting.