Trump threatens to 'unleash hell' if Iran rejects latest US proposal
A paramedic walks among the rubble at a site damaged in an Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Nabatieh, Lebanon, March 25, 2026. PHOTO: REUTERS
US President Donald Trump said Iran was desperate to make a deal to end nearly four weeks of fighting, contradicting the Iranian foreign minister, who said his country was reviewing a US proposal but had no intention of holding talks to wind down the conflict.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that while there had been no dialogue or negotiation with the US, various messages had been exchanged through intermediaries.
"Messages being conveyed through our friendly countries and us responding by stating our positions or issuing the necessary warnings is not called negotiation or dialogue," Araqchi said in a state television interview on Wednesday. "It is simply an exchange of messages through our friends".
Iran has targeted Zionist-linked facilities, satellite stations, Al-Azraq airbase, and US bases (Sheikh Isa, Ali al-Salem, Arifjan) using missiles and drones.
Waves 79–81 of Operation True Promise 4 carried out by IRGC aerospace and naval forces under ‘Ya Raziq al-Tifl al-Saghir’ (O the provider of the children and infants) code.
Targets included Zionist-linked facilities, satellite stations, Al-Azraq airbase, and US bases (Sheikh… pic.twitter.com/3pku5jmKqGTrump, speaking later on Wednesday at an event in Washington, said Iranian leaders "are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they're afraid to say it because they will be killed by their own people. They're also afraid they'll be killed by us".
PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re in negotiations right now. Iran would like to make a deal, and who wouldn’t if you were there? Pretty much everything they have is gone. pic.twitter.com/KfbKffQFtq
"We do not intend to negotiate," Araghchi told state TV. "We seek an end to the war on our own terms."
In Pakistan, officials said Islamabad had conveyed to Tehran a 15-point American plan to stop the fighting that began on February 28.
Iran's state-controlled Press TV cited an unidentified official as saying Tehran had "responded negatively" to the plan and the war would end only on Tehran's terms, which include guarantees against future attacks.
Read: Iran still weighing US proposal despite negative initial response, senior Iranian official says
A senior Israeli defence official said Israel was sceptical Iran would agree to the terms, and that Israel was concerned US negotiators might make concessions. Israel also wants any agreement to preserve its option to conduct pre-emptive strikes, a second source said.
Additionally, Iran has told intermediaries that Lebanon must be included in any ceasefire agreement with the US. and Israel, six regional sources familiar with Iran's position said.
Trump has not identified who the US is negotiating with in Iran, with many high-ranking officials among the thousands of people killed across the Middle East since the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28 and Iran launched strikes against Israel, US bases and Gulf states.
Iran's supreme commander, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed on the first day of the conflict by an Israeli strike and was replaced by his son Mojtaba, who has been wounded in strikes and has not been seen in any photograph or video clip since his appointment.
"If Iran fails to accept the reality of the current moment... Trump will ensure they are hit harder than they have ever been hit before," Leavitt said. "President Trump does not bluff, and he is prepared to unleash hell."
With thousands more US troops reportedly headed to the Middle East, Iran also threatened to open a new front by targeting Red Sea shipping should the United States launch a ground invasion.
Iran's military said cruise missiles fired at the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier group had "forced it to change its position" and warned of "powerful strikes" when the fleet comes into range.
Read more: Iran rejects US proposal, outlines five conditions to end war: state TV
Admiral Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command, said the United States had hit two-thirds of Iran's production facilities for missiles and drones, and drone and missile launch rates were down by 90 percent.
In a video on X, Cooper also estimated that 92 percent of the Iranian navy's largest vessels had been damaged or destroyed.
"They've now lost the ability to meaningfully project naval power and influence around the region and around the world," he said.
Update from CENTCOM Commander on Operation Epic Fury: pic.twitter.com/8yTLrVy4jk
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the war was "out of control" and had "gone too far."
He said that the "world is staring down the barrel of a wider war" in the region.
"It is time to stop climbing the escalation ladder – and start climbing the diplomatic ladder," Guterres said at the UN headquarters in New York.
The fallout from the conflict, which has caused the worst energy shock in history, has spread far beyond the region.
With the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas, effectively closed, fuel shortages are occurring around the globe, and businesses from airlines to supermarkets and used car dealers are grappling with challenges including rising costs, weakening demand and disrupted supply chains. Some governments are weighing support measures last used during the COVID pandemic.
Farmers are struggling to source diesel for their tractors and tens of millions more people will face acute hunger if the war continues into June, the World Food Programme estimates.
Hopes of a resolution to the conflict that had boosted global stock markets the previous session faded on Thursday, with oil prices resuming their surge.
"Optimism regarding a ceasefire has faded," said Tsuyoshi Ueno, senior economist at NLI Research Institute.
Meanwhile, missiles and drones kept striking targets across the Gulf.
Also read: Iran 'rejects' US 15-point peace plan, lays out own terms
Early on Thursday, the Israeli military said it had completed a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting infrastructure in several areas across Iran, after another wave of attacks on Wednesday.
The Pentagon is meanwhile planning to send thousands of airborne troops to the Gulf to give Trump more options to order a ground assault, sources have told Reuters, adding to two contingents of Marines already on their way. The first Marine unit, aboard a huge amphibious assault ship, could arrive around the end of the month.
Two killed in Abu Dhabi
Two people were killed in Abu Dhabi after debris from an intercepted missile fell on Sweihan Road, the emirate's media office said on Thursday, adding that three others were injured and several vehicles were damaged.
Iran officials spared on Pakistan's request
Israel took Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf off its hit-list after Pakistan requested Washington not to target them, a Pakistani official told Reuters on Thursday.
"The Israelis had their ... coordinates and wanted to take them out, we told the US if they are also eliminated then there is no one else to talk to, hence the US asked the Israelis to back off," the official said.