US-Iran conversations ongoing 'continuously': Trump

United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday rubbished reports of a halt in communication between the US and Iran as "false and erroneous", adding that talks were ongoing "continuously" as the two negotiate over details of a peace deal. 

In a post on Truth Social, he said: "Fake news reports that the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the USA, stopped speaking a few days ago are false and erroneous. The conversations between us have been going on continuously, including four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago, and today. Where they lead, one never knows."

Earlier, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported, citing an informed source, that exchanges of messages between Iran and the US related to efforts to reach a preliminary memorandum of understanding had been halted for at least several days now.

The source said recent media reports and statements by some Western officials portraying communications between Tehran and Washington as routine “do not reflect the current reality.”

According to the source, message exchanges between the two sides regarding what was described as an initial memorandum of understanding had been suspended for several days now.

The Iranian source said the latest message from Iran to Washington was a “public message” concerning Lebanon that received broad international attention.

Rubio says Iran agreed to negotiate aspects of nuclear programme

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Iran has agreed to negotiate aspects of its nuclear programme, expressing hope that ongoing talks could help secure the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Speaking at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the State Department's budget request, Rubio said: "We are in talks ... There is the prospect before us, which could happen today, it could happen tomorrow, it could happen next week, that for the first time, certainly in my memory, they have agreed to negotiate aspects of their nuclear programme."

He said the US hopes such negotiations could lead to a broader understanding that would include the reopening of the strategic waterway.

"We're hopeful that something like that could happen, in which the straits would reopen, we would enter into a period of negotiations on very specific topics, delineated negotiations, in the hope of reaching an outcome that's acceptable to us and something they would be able to do as well," he said.

Rubio strongly criticised Iran's actions in the Strait of Hormuz, calling them "unlawful and illegal".

"There isn't a country on earth, other than Iran, and maybe Oman that flirted with it, that's in favour of what Iran is doing in the straits," he said. "The Chinese are against it, the Russians are against it, everyone is against it, the whole world is against it."

He said reopening the strait means that ships should be able to transit through international waters "without being fired upon" and "without paying a toll".

Asked whether sanctions relief had been discussed in exchange for reopening the strait, Rubio replied: "No, that hasn't been discussed."

"Any sanctions relief is condition-based, which means it has to be in return for the reason why those sanctions were put in place in the first place, which is their nuclear programme," Rubio said.

Separately, a spokesman for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that the readiness of the country’s armed forces today “is more than in the past”, claiming Tehran would use "different" types of weapons in case of a renewed war with the US and Israel.

"The best reason for this issue is that despite the use of its vast capacity on land, sea and air, America could not remove the Strait of Hormuz from Iran's control even for a few minutes," Sardar Mohebbi said in a statement carried by the semi-official news agency Tasnim.

Mohebbi said Tehran was ready for "all possible scenarios", adding that Washington "failed to achieve its goals" in the Strait of Hormuz during the latest round of the conflict.

Iran studying deal to halt war as stalemate with US persists

Iran is reviewing a proposed agreement with the United States to halt their war, Iranian media ​reported on Tuesday, after US President Donald Trump said talks to reach a deal were continuing.

More than three months after the US and Israel launched ‌strikes against Iran, the conflict has hardened into a stalemate while efforts to negotiate an interim deal have proved inconclusive, leaving the Strait of Hormuz largely shut.

Iran has not yet responded to a proposed final text of the temporary deal, and was taking a "stern" approach given what it sees as a history of US non-compliance and longstanding mistrust, Mehr News Agency cited a source as saying.

Trump said on Monday that negotiations with Iran were ​continuing and there would be a deal over the next week to extend a ceasefire agreed in early April and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Since mid-March, Trump has ​repeatedly said he is close to signing a peace agreement, though any such deal would postpone thorny issues, including the future of ⁠Iran's nuclear programme. A ceasefire has largely held since early April, but Iran and the US have exchanged strikes several times over the past week.

Oil prices fell more than 1% on Tuesday, ​paring the previous day's sharp gains. A senior International Energy Agency official warned that global oil inventories could hit historically low levels.

Iran urges UN Security Council to move beyond condemnation and punish Israel

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi urged the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday to “move beyond the stage of expressing concern” and “adopt punitive and binding decisions” against Israel.

In a post on X, he stated that the Middle East crisis is “the product of the crimes and impunity of the Zionist regime, which violates the sovereignty of governments, renders ceasefires meaningless, and desecrates the sanctities of the Palestinians”.

“International law is not upheld through low-cost and ineffective condemnations,” he added.

“In this regard, the US president’s claim of having dissuaded Netanyahu from launching a major attack on Beirut is more than a sign of Washington’s peace-seeking, it’s confirmation of America’s direct role in managing the Zionist regime’s aggressions,” said Gharibabadi.

“If the decision to attack the capital of an independent state can be changed with a single phone call the main question is: why did months of ceasefire violations, aggression against Lebanon, the displacement of its people, and threats to this country’s sovereignty – backed by Western political and military support – continue unabated?”

Lebanon announces partial ceasefire between Israel, Hezbollah but attacks continue

Lebanon announced ​a partial ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel on Monday in what would amount to a limited de-escalation of a conflict that has ‌killed thousands of Iranian and Lebanese people at the hands of US-Israeli strikes and inflamed the broader US-Israeli war on Iran.

According to Lebanon's embassy in Washington, the agreement would not end the conflict in that country. But it calls for Israel to refrain from strikes on Beirut and its suburbs controlled by Hezbollah, while the Iran-aligned group would halt its attacks on Israel.

Hostilities in southern Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March, continued ​on Monday evening. Early on Tuesday, the Israeli military said that it intercepted two projectiles that crossed from Lebanon into northern Israel, and that no ​injuries were reported.

US President Donald Trump, who first announced the agreement, said Hezbollah, through intermediaries, had pledged not to attack Israel. ⁠No US president has ever spoken with Hezbollah, with or without intermediaries. The US has designated the group as a terrorist organisation.

Read: Talks with Iran continuing at rapid pace: Trump

Trump also said Israeli Prime ​Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to pull back any troops preparing to attack Beirut.

After Trump's announcement, Netanyahu said Israel would continue military operations in southern Lebanon, where ground ​forces are pushing toward the Zaharani River, their deepest invasion in Lebanon in 25 years.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said the militia would support a full ceasefire across all Lebanon as a precursor to the withdrawal of Israeli troops. He did not say whether the group would stop its strikes on Israeli territory.

Lebanon said it would seek to expand the ceasefire in talks ​with Israel in Washington on Wednesday.

That could clear the path for renewed efforts to end the three-month-old war that began with US and Israeli attacks on Iran. The ​process has been stuck in limbo for weeks under a fragile ceasefire as negotiators have been unable to agree on an initial framework for peace talks.

The Israel-Hezbollah war erupted on ‌March 2 ⁠as an offshoot of the broader conflict and has been entangled with it ever since.

Iran has insisted on a halt to Israeli attacks in Lebanon as a condition of any deal to end the war, while the US has said the two conflicts are separate.

Read more: Trump says no Israeli troops will go to Beirut after call with Netanyahu

"The ceasefire between Iran and the US is unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a statement.

Iran’s ‘inflated regional ambitions’ causing instability: UAE official

Anwar Gargash, an adviser to the United Arab Emirates’ president, said countries in the Gulf “are all paying the price for Iran’s inflated regional ambitions”.

“No state in the region can play a role at the expense of shared security, stability, and prosperity,” Gargash said in a post on X.

“Review is required and inevitable on clear foundations: respect for sovereignty, good neighbourliness, and non-interference in others’ affairs.”

New Israeli strikes kill at least 8 in Lebanon despite ceasefire

New Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed at least eight people, including a dentist and his two children, despite an ongoing ceasefire, Lebanese media reported on Tuesday.

The dentist, his son and daughter were killed in an Israeli drone strike on their car while they were traveling on the Nabatieh–Khardali road in southern Lebanon, the state news agency NNA said.

Another drone attack killed two Syrian workers inside a plant nursery where they worked in the town of Jebchit.

Two more people were killed in drone strikes on a motorcycle in Toul and a car in Ansar, the agency said.

An Israeli drone also hit a car at the Harouf-Toul roundabout, killing the driver.

Warplanes also launched an airstrike on a Lebanese Civil Defense center on the Masil road in the town of Kfar Sir, destroying the facility. The center had been evacuated several days earlier, the NNA stated.

Separately, Israeli aircraft carried out a dawn airstrike on the town of Mansouri in the Tyre district, coinciding with artillery shelling in the area.

Attacks also hit a house in Tyre's al-Hosh, destroying it and damaging several nearby homes. Two wounded people were retrieved from the rubble and were hospitalized.

Meanwhile, NNA said the death toll from Monday’s strike on Jabal Amel Hospital in Tyre has risen to four, with 50 others injured.

The attack caused significant damage to hospital wards, the parking garage, and nearby buildings.

Israeli attacks target towns, villages across southern Lebanon

Israeli forces have continued their attacks across southern Lebanon, firing artillery near Nabatieh and striking the villages of Shukin and Kafr Tibnit, according to Al Jazeera.

Israeli drones also carried out three strikes on the town of Tallet Tol in Nabatieh district, according to reports.

Separately, an Israeli air attack struck near Tibnin.

Iran official calls for unity among factions to neutralise ‘enemy’s strategy’

Ahmad Naderi, a member of Iran’s praesidium of the parliament, has urged political leaders and factions not to bring “differences into the public arena”, deeming it “threatening and dangerous”, according to Al Jazeera.

In an interview with Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA), Naderi said that because the country is in “war conditions”, it’s important for all groups to present a united front.

“It should be noted, in particular, that the battlefield is not the only military arena; the field of diplomacy is also another aspect of this field,” he was quoted as saying.

“Therefore, in the period of silence on the military stage, maintaining national cohesion and avoiding turning differences into division is not a political recommendation but a condition for continuing national authority and neutralising the enemy’s strategy.”

‘Nothing can justify’ Israel’s ‘prolonged occupation’ of Lebanon: France

No justification can be made for Israeli troops remaining deep inside Lebanon after Israel’s biggest incursion into its northern neighbour in two decades, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told France TV, according to Al Jazeera.

Despite a “ceasefire” currently in effect in Lebanon, fighting continues to intensify between Hezbollah and Israeli forces as Israel bombs southern Lebanon, forcibly displacing hundreds of thousands of its residents.

“Nothing can justify the continuation of military operations and Israel’s prolonged occupation deep inside Lebanese territory,” Barrot told France TV.

Iran has said a permanent ceasefire in Lebanon remains a key condition for any peace deal with the US.

Hezbollah’s night-time use of FPV drones ‘considerable concern’ for Israeli forces: Israeli media

Israel’s military is reportedly investigating how Hezbollah’s first-person-view (FPV) drones have managed to strike Israeli forces in southern Lebanon at night several times in recent days, according to Al Jazeera.

The Israeli news website Ynet News reported that the first incident occurred on Saturday night when Givati Brigade soldier Staff Sergeant Michael Tyukin was killed, and a second followed overnight on Sunday into Monday when Maglan commando Staff Sergeant Adam Tzarfati was killed.

“It’s quite unusual that the drone struck a force at night. That still hasn’t happened to combat teams before,” an Israeli soldier told Ynet after visiting soldiers wounded in a night-time drone attack near southern Lebanon’s Beaufort Castle.

Ynet reported that Israeli forces were “concerned that Hezbollah could equip fibre-optic FPV drones with thermal systems, enabling them to operate at night … Until now, the assessment had been that the drones involved did not carry thermal systems, which would indicate improved operational capabilities after dark.”

“They [the drones] improve the accuracy of their fire every time,” a military official told Ynet. “That’s why we try to keep moving as much as possible.”

The report also said the Israeli army has begun to limit the use of heavy vehicles, such as those used for engineering purposes like military bulldozers and excavators, describing them as “easy targets” for FPV drones.

Iran hasn’t yet sent response to US peace proposal over ‘distrust’

Iran is still reviewing the final text of a possible deal with the US and no response has yet been sent, Iran's semi-official news agency Mehr reported, citing a source familiar with the matter.

Iran is seeking to achieve "real, tangible" benefits, the source added, saying that "the history of US non-compliance and historical distrust" has led Tehran to view the issue "very strictly."

Tensions in the Middle East have escalated since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran in February. Tehran retaliated with attacks targeting Israel and US allies in the Gulf, alongside the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran threatens to break off talks

Iranian state media said earlier on Monday ​that Tehran was halting indirect peace negotiations with ​the US and might end a ⁠ceasefire that has largely held since early April, citing the war in Lebanon.

There was no direct confirmation of the reports from Iranian officials, and Trump told an NBC reporter that he had not heard from Iran. He said in a CNBC interview on ​Monday that the peace talks had "started to get very boring" and that he did not care if they were ​over.

"I really don't ⁠care, I couldn't care less," Trump said.

Since mid-March, Trump has repeatedly said he is close to signing a peace agreement but has yet to do so. Despite the ceasefire, Iran and the US have exchanged strikes several times over the past week.

Meanwhile, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, Esmaeil Qaani, threatened to expand its blockade of the Strait ⁠of Hormuz ​to the Bab El Mandeb Strait, another chokepoint at the mouth of the Red Sea.

Iran has already ​bottled up maritime traffic in the Gulf that before the war provided one-fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas, sending prices sharply higher.

Oil prices rose 4% on Monday on the heightened tensions.