It is unlikely that Iran will agree to US demand, Israeli officers say
Trump appears determined to reach a deal with Iran, three senior Israeli officials say, adding that it is unlikely that Iran will agree to US demand.
Iran warns Israel troops will be targeted 'without any limit': Report
Iran's revolutionary guards warn Israeli military, their troops in the north and Gaza strip will be targeted 'without any limit' if Israel targets civilians in Palestinian territories and Lebanon, as reported by Irna News Agency.
Attack on Khorramshahr's gas line station did not impact operations
Local Iranian official says attack on Khorramshahr's gas line station did not impact operations, as repoted by Fars news agency.
US to continue Iran strikes, pause applies only to energy sites, Semafor reports
The United States will continue its strikes on Iran, with the pause applying only to attacks on Tehran's energy sites, Semafor reported on Monday, citing a U.S. official, during what President Donald Trump has described as "productive" talks with unidentified Iranian officials.
Earlier on Monday, Trump had postponed for five days a plan to hit Iran's power plants and energy infrastructure. Iran later denied that it had engaged in negotiations with the United States.
"The stop on attacks for five days is only on their energy sites," a U.S. official told Semafor.
"It is not on the military sites and the navy, and the ballistic missiles, and the defense industrial base. The initial initiatives of (Operation) Epic Fury will continue," he told the news agency.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. The White House, the U.S. State Department and the Pentagon and the did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular hours.
The Semafor report also added that Israel was not party to Washington's talks with Tehran.
Amazon says AWS' Bahrain region 'disrupted' following drone activity
Amazon said on Monday its Amazon Web Services region in Bahrain has been "disrupted" amid the current conflict in the Middle East, marking the second time in a month that its operations have been affected by the war. The disruption is due to drone activity in the area, an Amazon spokesperson said, following a Reuters inquiry. Reuters is first to report on the disruption. As of Monday night, AWS had not updated its status page to reflect the impact. Amazon did not immediately respond to a query on whether its Bahrain facility was directly hit by a drone attack or if the disruption was due to nearby strikes. The company said it is helping to migrate customers to alternate AWS regions while it recovers, though it did not provide additional details such as the extent of the damage or how long it anticipates the disruption to last.
"As this situation evolves and, as we have advised before, we request those with workloads in the affected regions continue to migrate to other locations," Amazon said in a statement Monday night.
AWS is Amazon's cloud computing unit and critical for the operation of many well-known websites and government operations. It is also the company's main driver of profits. The disruption is the second instance of drone activity affecting AWS' Bahrain region since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Earlier this month AWS reported that facilities in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates had lost power and it was working to recover, including transferring computing workloads to other regions. The strike on the UAE facility was the first time military action had disrupted a major U.S. tech company's data center, Reuters reported earlier in March. Amazon said it anticipated a "prolonged" recovery due to structural damage.
"These strikes have caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery to our infrastructure, and in some cases required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional waterdamage," AWS said earlier this month on its status page.
Amazon said at the time that the Bahrain region was impacted by a drone strike in close proximity to one of its facilities.
Iranian report claims energy infrastructure damage in strikes
A semiofficial Iranian news agency close to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard reported early Tuesday that two energy sites had been struck by airstrikes.
The report by the Fars news agency appeared timed to call into question comments by US President Donald Trump, who extended his deadline for Tehran to halt its attacks that have effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf. Trump had threatened to strike Iranian power plants.
Fars claimed an attack struck natural gas infrastructure in Isfahan, while another "targeted" a gas pipeline for the Khorramshahr power plant.
Neither Israel nor the US had claimed strikes in the area on Monday, though both countries don't always acknowledge their attacks. It also wasn't immediately clear if those sites had been specifically targeted or damaged in strikes hitting other sites in the area. (AP)
PRK
Iran hits Israel and Gulf neighbours, while Israel attacks Beirut
Iran fired three waves of missiles at Israel early Tuesday, with reports of an impact in the country's north, the Israeli Home Front Command said.
Israel, meantime, pounded Beirut's southern suburbs saying that it was targeting infrastructure used by the Iran-linked Hezbollah militant group.
In Kuwait, power lines were hit from air defence shrapnel, causing partial electricity outages in several hours. Missile alert sirens sounded in Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia's Defence Ministry said it had destroyed 19 Iranian drones targeting its oil-rich Eastern Province.
Oil prices briefly fell below USD 100 a barrel after Trump claimed his government was in talks to end the war. But that respite was short lived, with the price of Brent crude, the international standard, back to USD 104 a barrel in morning trading, up more than 40 per cent since Israel and the US started the war on February 28.
Iran sceptical of Trump's motives in deadline extension
Trump initially set a deadline of late Monday, Washington time, for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face attacks on its power plants, but on Monday he gave Tehran five more days to comply.
Iran has allowed a small number of ships through the strait, which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, but has said it will continue to target vessels linked to the US, Israel or its allies.
Its leaders are wary of Washington's motives, in part because Tehran was in negotiations with the US before the surprise attack that started the war. Iran had also been in talks last year when the US and Israel attacked its nuclear facilities, starting a 12-day war.
Trump's extension of the deadline comes as a contingent of thousands of Marines is on the way to the area, raising speculation that the US may try to seize Kharg Island, which is off of Iran's coast and vital to the country's oil network.
The US bombed the island in the Persian Gulf more than a week ago, hitting its defences but saying it had left oil infrastructure intact.
Iran has threatened if the US appears to be on the verge of landing troops it could mine the Persian Gulf, which would complicate an amphibious assault and also imperil all shipping in the area.
The delay could be timed to coincide with the arrival of US Marines in the region, expected Friday, wrote the New York-based think tank the Soufan Centre in an analysis.
"As Trump has in the past, he could be moving military assets into place, in this case to prepare for an invasion and seizure of Kharg Island, while using negotiations as a cover until those assets are fully combat-ready."
However, the centre 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'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 US military members have been killed, along with more than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states.
Pakistan and Turkey discuss Iran war de-escalation
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said its top diplomat Ishaq Dar spoke with his Turkish counterpart on Monday, urging continued diplomacy as Islamabad steps up its outreach in the region.
Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan signed a mutual defense pact last year saying any attack on either nation is an attack on both.
Regional heavyweights Turkey and Egypt speak to warring parties in first sign of coordinated mediation
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he spoke by phone with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan. Turkey has been an intermediary in past talks between Tehran and Washington.
Turkey's Foreign Ministry declined to comment Monday on whether the country had relayed messages between Iran and the US on Sunday, Turkish officials said Fidan had also spoken to his counterparts from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, and the European Union, as well as with US officials as part of efforts to end the war.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said Cairo has delivered "clear messages" to Iran focusing on de-escalating the conflict, according to his office. Egypt's Foreign Ministry said it was making "constant efforts and communications" with all parties.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday that the U.K. was ware of talks between the US. and Iran, but told British lawmakers "we mustn't fall into the false comfort of thinking that there will necessarily be a quick and early end to this".
Red Cross chief warns that striking civilian infrastructure risks war crimes
Without naming specific countries, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, said in a statement that "deliberate attacks on essential services and civilian infrastructure can amount to war crimes".
She said the trend isn't unique to the region or the current war, "but what we have seen in recent days in the Middle East risks reaching a point of no return".
Earlier Monday, Jamal Abdi, head of the National Iranian American Council, said Trump "threatening to bomb Iran's power plants is a threat to millions of civilians."
"This is not a targeted' strike. This is collective punishment," Abdi said.
Death toll in Lebanon reaches 1,039
The Lebanese Health Ministry said Monday that 10 people had been killed over the past 24 hours.
At least 118 children and 79 women were among those killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since the outbreak of a new Israel-Hezbollah war, the ministry said.
The ministry said 90 more people were also wounded, raising the total number of injured to at least 2,876.
