Thursday, March 26, 2026 - Iran has received a 15-point plan from the United States to end the Middle East war, Pakistani officials said Wednesday, raising hopes for a diplomatic solution even as Iran said it has fired a volley of cruise missiles at a US aircraft carrier.
A conflict that began on February 28 with a US-Israeli
bombing campaign on Iran has rapidly engulfed the entire region, sending oil
prices skyrocketing and threatening to derail the global economy.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed progress in
talks with Iran in recent days, even though Tehran has denied any negotiations
were taking place.
But fledgling diplomatic activity appeared to be gaining
momentum after two senior officials in Islamabad told AFP that American
proposals to stop the fighting had been “conveyed to Iran” through Pakistani
intermediaries.
Pakistan is being touted as a possible mediator given its
longstanding ties with both neighbouring Iran and the United States, as well as
close contacts in the region.
Even so, there was no let-up in the military activity, with
targets in Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia all
coming under fire.
Iran’s military said its cruise missiles fired at the USS
Abraham Lincoln carrier group had “forced it to change its position”, warning
of “powerful strikes” when the “hostile fleet” comes into range.
US ally Israel, meanwhile, said it had struck targets in
Tehran as well as a submarine development facility in the central city of
Isfahan.
From the Iranian capital, 40-year-old Shayan told AFP: “There is gasoline, water and electricity. But there is a sense of helplessness in all of us. We don’t know what to do, and there’s really nothing we can do.”
On another front, Israeli warplanes pounded the southern
suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
An AFP correspondent saw a street covered in shattered
cement and warped metal after the early morning strike, while an apartment
building’s upper floors appeared damaged.
Lebanon was pulled into the war when Hezbollah began firing
rockets into Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
According to Lebanese authorities, more than 1,000 people
have been killed in over three weeks of Israeli strikes and upwards of one
million people displaced.
In the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, almost cut off from
the rest of the country by bombs, Khalil, a man in his 30s, voiced his
defiance.
“They’ll have to take us by force,” he told AFP.
Despite Israeli ground operations and the spectre of a
full-blown invasion, “we don’t want to leave our land… our heart is here”, said
Khalil, sheltering with his young family in a theatre.
Diplomatically, the two sides offered conflicting accounts,
even though mediators in the region said work was ongoing behind the scenes to
relay messages.
“There is hope but it’s too early to be optimistic,” said a
diplomatic source in the region, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive
issues.
Both sides need to be able to climb down without losing
face, the source noted.
In public, Iran kept up its belligerent rhetoric, with the
speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, warning the US: “Do not
test our resolve to defend our land.”
According to Israel’s Channel 12, Trump’s proposals include
a ceasefire during which the sides would discuss a 15-point agreement that
would include a ban on Iran enriching uranium on its soil and the reopening of
the vital Strait of Hormuz oil route.
Iran in turn would see sanctions relief, according to the
report. The Trump administration similarly offered a 15-point plan before a
shorter Israeli and US bombing campaign against Iran in June.
Iran had agreed in 2015 to broad restraints on its contested nuclear program in a deal that Trump ripped up during his first term as he joined Israel in applying pressure to the cleric-run state.
Stocks rose and oil prices tumbled on signs of a possible
de-escalation, but focus remained on the Strait of Hormuz, through which
one-fifth of the world’s oil passes.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday that Iran
had given him “a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money”, which he
said demonstrated that “we’re dealing with the right people”.
The US president did not elaborate further but said it was
related to the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has largely blockaded in
retaliation for US and Israeli strikes.
Tehran, in a message circulated by the International
Maritime Organisation, assured safe passage through the strait to “non-hostile
vessels”.
However, the IMO also cited a statement from Iran’s foreign
ministry as saying no passage would be granted to vessels belonging to “the
aggressor parties — namely the United States and the Israeli regime”.
On a visit to Tokyo, the head of the International Energy
Agency said he was ready to approve the release of more oil reserves if needed
to cushion the war’s impact on global supplies.
But the effects are already visible around the world, with
Sri Lanka ordering an extra day off work to conserve energy and the price of
diesel doubling in Vietnam.
Hanoi resident Nguyen Van Chi said on Wednesday he had not
driven his truck in the past two weeks, instead opting to cycle.
“With this unbelievable price of diesel, I cannot even sell
my truck as no one is going to use it,” the 54-year-old businessman told AFP.
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