Iran rejects ceasefire proposal, wants permanent end to war with US and Israel

The live blog has now ended and will be back at 9am BST tomorrow. You can read more of The New Arab's coverage of the US-Israeli war on Iran here.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Tuesday that "arrangements" were being made for a phone call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian as war rages in the Middle East.

"I recall what I said yesterday was that we were making arrangements to do a telephone call with the Iranian president," Takaichi said in parliament.

"We have to communicate both with the US and Iran, so we are seeking telephone calls with the presidents of both countries," she told a upper house budget committee meeting.

Earlier Tokyo said that Iran had freed a Japanese national held since January, with Kyodo News reporting that the person was believed to be the Tehran bureau chief of broadcaster NHK.

Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi spoke by phone with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi late Monday Japanese time, Tokyo said.

Israel's military announced a "wave" of air strikes on Iran after US President Donald Trump's said that a truce proposal to end the US-Israeli war on Iran from international mediators was not yet enough.

"A short while ago, the [military] completed an air strike wave with the aim of damaging Iranian terror regime infrastructure in Tehran and additional areas across Iran," the Israeli military wrote on its official Telegram channel.

 Explosions were heard in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and surrounding countryside on Tuesday that were caused by the Israeli interception of Iranian missiles, Syrian state TV reported.

Explosions were heard in parts of Tehran and the nearby city of Karaj, Iranian media reported early Tuesday.

"Moments ago, explosions were heard in parts of Tehran and Karaj," local media outlets Fars and Mehr said on Telegram, without giving further details.

A drone "coming from Iran" killed a couple in Iraqi Kurdistan after crashing into their home, local authorities reported early on Tuesday.

The autonomous region's Counter-Terrorism Service said in a statement that the incident took place on Monday "when a bomb-laden drone coming from Iran crashed into a civilian home in...the Dara Shakran subdistrict within Erbil Province".

Saudi Arabia's defence ministry said on Tuesday that air defences intercepted and destroyed seven ballistic missiles launched towards the Eastern region, adding that debris from the intercepted missiles fell near energy facilities.

Authorities were assessing potential damage, the ministry added. 

Antonio Costa, the President of the European Council, has said that the US-Israeli war on Iran can only be settled through a diplomatic solution that addresses its root causes.

He also said that "any targeting of civilian infrastructure, namely energy facilities, is illegal and unacceptable," and that civilians in Iran "would also be the main victim of a widening of the military campaign".

His comments come as Trump threatened to bomb Iran's energy sites and bridges.

"As I stressed in my recent call with the President of Iran, [Masoud Pezeshkian], the European Union urges Iran to immediately put an end to its attacks against countries in the region and to allow for the reestablishment of full freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz," he added.

Fifteen Americans were injured in an Iranian drone attack on the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait yesterday, according to US officials speaking to CBS News.

Donald Trump's "arrogant rhetoric" on the war on the Middle East is not hindering Iran's soldiers, Tehran's army said, after the US president on Monday threatened to raze Iran's infrastructure.

"The rude, arrogant rhetoric and baseless threats of the delusional US president... have no effect on the continuation of the offensive and crushing operations of the warriors of Islam against the American and Zionist enemies," said a spokesman for the army's Khatam Al-Anbiya central command cited by the national broadcaster.

The war in the Middle East will lead to higher inflation and slower global growth, the head of the International Monetary Fund told Reuters on Monday, ahead of a fresh forecast for the world economy planned by the global lender for next week.

Barring the war, the IMF had expected a small upgrade in its projection for global growth of 3.3 percent in 2026 and 3.2 percent in 2027.

"Had we not had this war we would have seen a small upgrade of our growth projections. Instead, all roads now lead to higher prices and slower growth," said Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the IMF.

Even a rapid end to hostilities and a fairly rapid recovery would result in a "relatively small" downward revision of the growth forecast and an upward revision of its inflation forecast, she said. If the war was protracted, the effect on inflation and growth would be greater, she said.

Georgieva said the IMF had received requests for financing assistance from some countries, but did not name them. She said the IMF could augment some existing lending programs to meet countries' needs

US President Donald Trump said Monday that the military had war plans to destroy all bridges and power plants in Iran over a four-hour period if his peace deal deadline is not met.

"We have a plan - because of the power of our military - where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o'clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again," Trump said at a press conference. "I mean complete demolition by 12 o'clock (midnight), and it'll happen over a period of four hours - if we wanted to."

Trump previously set 8:00 pm Washington time on Tuesday (midnight GMT) for Iran to agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Qatar's prime minister on Monday said he rejected attacks on civilian infrastructure during a call with Iran's foreign minister, as Tehran presses its campaign against Gulf states and Israel said it struck Iran's largest petrochemical complex.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani "emphasised that targeting civilian infrastructure... is a rejected and condemned behaviour by any party under any circumstances", Qatar's foreign ministry said in a readout of a call with Iran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi.

The Qatari prime minister also criticised Iran's "reckless disregard for the region's security" through its attacks on its neighbours and urged a "comprehensive and permanent diplomatic solution" to end the war.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards stopped two Qatari liquefied natural gas tankers headed toward the Strait of Hormuz earlier on Monday before transit and ordered them to hold position without explanation, a source briefed on an Iran-US agreement to allow the tankers to transit told Reuters.

The source said the tankers had been listed as among those Iran would allow to transit under an Iran-US agreement reached last week via Pakistan.

The US is preparing to conduct strikes on energy sites in Iran, according to officials speaking with the Wall Street Journal, with the publication adding that the military was drawing on existing lists to give US President Donald Trump options on what to strike.

Targets include those linked to the Iranian military, such as sites used to fuel mobile rocket launchers.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that the largest volume of strikes since day one of the operation against Iran would take place on Monday and warned that Tuesday would have even more.

President Donald Trump on Monday told reporters that Iran could be taken out in one night, "and that night might be tomorrow night".

Two blasts were heard near Erbil airport, which hosts advisers from the US-led anti-Islamic State coalition, in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region, an AFP journalist said on Monday.

Since the Middle East war erupted on 28 February, shadowy groups have been claiming near daily attacks on US interests in the country and beyond.

The Israeli military said Monday it carried out overnight strikes on three airports in Tehran, targeting several Iranian planes and helicopters.

Dozens of Israeli fighter jets struck aircraft and other military infrastructure at Bahram Airport, Mehrabad Airport and Azmayesh Airport in Tehran, the military said.

It described Mehrabad Airport, which has been hit several times before in the ongoing war, as a hub used by the Iran Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force to transfer weapons and funds to allied groups in the region.

The Israeli military said the strikes were part of efforts aimed at "degrading the Iranian Air Force and the IRGC air force at airports in Tehran".

Iran's Revolutionary Guards vowed on Monday to avenge the death of their intelligence chief, Major General Majid Khademi, killed earlier in the day in an Israeli strike.

"The malicious and desperate enemy should know that a major retaliatory strike by the IRGC Intelligence Organisation, under Operation 'Crushing Revenge,' awaits the planners and perpetrators of this crime," Khademi's agency said in a statement on the Guards' official site Sepah News.

US President Donald Trump brushed off concerns on Monday that hitting Iran's power facilities as he has threatened after a deadline expires this week would be a war crime.

"I'm not worried about it," Trump told reporters at an Easter egg roll at the White House when asked what he would say to those who allege that striking power plants would breach the laws of war.

"You know the war crime? The war crime is allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon," the president said.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday the Tuesday deadline he has set for Iran to make a deal is final, adding that Iran's proposal was significant but not good enough.

Yemen's Houthi rebels said on Monday that they had launched an attack targeting Israel alongside their backer Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

The group, along with "the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps... and the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, launched a barrage of cruise missiles and drones targeting several vital and military sites belonging to the Israeli enemy", military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement.

The Houthis, who control most of north and western Yemen, joined the war on March 28 in support of Iran.

Iran has rejected a proposed truce in its war with the United States and Israel, state media reported Monday, despite the stark threat by US President Donald Trump to destroy its vital infrastructure.

"Iran has conveyed to Pakistan its response to the American proposal to end the war," the news agency IRNA said, without revealing what the offer contained.

"In this response - set out in ten points - Iran... has rejected a ceasefire and insists on the need for a definitive end to the conflict."

Iran will continue the war with the United States and Israel for as long as its political leaders deem necessary, the army spokesman said Monday.

"We can continue the war as long as the political authorities see fit," Mohammad Akraminia told ISNA news agency, adding that "the enemy must definitely regret it because, after this war, we need to reach a point of security and not witness another war".

The Israeli military said it struck dozens of aircraft, helicopters, and other military infrastructure at three airports across Tehran.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Iranian counterpart Abbas Araqchi discussed the Iran conflict and other developments in a call on Monday, a Turkish foreign ministry source said.

The source gave no further information on the talks.

The White House on Monday confirmed there was a deal under consideration for a 45-day ceasefire with Iran, but that President Donald Trump had "not signed off" on the proposal and is continuing the war.

US media have reported that a proposal by mediators for a 45-day ceasefire in the Middle East war has been received by Washington.

"This is one of many ideas, and POTUS (Trump) has not signed off on it. Operation Epic Fury continues," a White House official told AFP, adding that the president will speak more on the conflict at a press conference scheduled for 1:00 pm (1700 GMT).

Iran's Marvdasht petrochemical complex was attacked by the United States and Israel, Iran's state media reported on Monday, the second incident targeting petrochemical sites in last 24 hours.

State media said the fire caused by the attack was under control and there was no significant damage reported.

Israel had earlier on Monday struck Iran's largest petrochemical complex at Asaluyeh, defence minister Israel Katz said, in what he described as a severe economic blow to Tehran.

Iran's foreign ministry said on Monday that a US operation to rescue a downed airman may have been a cover to "steal enriched uranium" from the Islamic republic.

Iran's military has called it "a deception and escape mission", insisting it was "completely foiled".

On Monday, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said there were "many questions and uncertainties" about the operation.

"The area where the American pilot was claimed to be present in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province is a long way from the area where they attempted to land or wanted to land their forces in central Iran," Baqaei said.

"The possibility that this was a deception operation to steal enriched uranium should not be ignored at all."

Israel's military said Monday it had killed the commander of the special operations unit of Iran's Quds Force in a strike on Tehran a day earlier.

The Quds Force is the foreign operations arm of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards.

"Yesterday, the Israeli Air Force... conducted a strike in Tehran and eliminated Asghar Bagheri, Commander of the Quds Force's Special Operations Unit (840) since 2019," a military statement said.

It added that Bagheri had in recent years held a series of senior positions within the Quds Force and "was involved in attacks targeting Israeli and American individuals worldwide".

The International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday said it can confirm recent impacts of military strikes close to Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, but said that the plant itself was not damaged.

The UN atomic watchdog said that the confirmation was based on its independent analysis of new satellite imagery and detailed knowledge of the site, adding that one strike had hit only 75 metres from the site perimeter.

Last week the agency had said it had been informed by Iran about a projectile striking close to the premises of the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards targeted the U.S. amphibious assault ship LHA-7, pushing it to retreat into the southern Indian Ocean, Iranian state media reported on Monday.

The Guards also targeted a container ship which they said belonged to Israel with the identifier "SDN7", without disclosing its location.

Israel's defence minister announced that Israel hit the South Pars petrochemical plant at Asaluyeh in Iran after Tehran reported an attack there.

The Kremlin, asked on Monday about threats made by U.S. President Donald Trump against Iran, said that the level of tension in the Middle East continues to grow, and that the whole region is "on fire".

Drone attack targets US diplomatic facility near Baghdad airport, smoke seen rising: security sources

⚡️🇮🇷🇮🇶🇺🇸Plumes of smoke rose from Victoria base near Baghdad International Airport. pic.twitter.com/fd06KUSf11

— War Monitor (@monitor11616) April 6, 2026

Four people were killed in the Israeli port city of Haifa after what Israeli media said was an Iranian missile strike that hit a residential building late on Sunday.

The bodies of the four people were recovered from beneath the rubble following hours of intensive search-and-rescue operations, the Israeli military said on Monday.

Gas supply was restored on Monday after being cut in parts of Tehran following an attack on gas infrastructure at a university in the city, state television reported.

The strike, which occurred in the early hours of Monday, hit a gas pressure reduction station and metering facilities at Sharif University of Technology, causing a leak.

"The attack did not result in a fire, and in less than half an hour, the gas leak was completely fixed," state broadcaster IRIB said. It said the problem had been "resolved" and gas supply had resumed for residents in affected parts of Tehran.

The attack also hit the university's data centre, which houses an artificial intelligence facility, according to the Fars news agency. Iranian media carried footage showing extensive damage at the site, with twisted metal, debris and damaged structures across the area.

JUST IN: 🇺🇸🇮🇷 Aftermath of US-Israeli strikes on Sharif University in Tehran, one of Iran's top science and engineering schools. pic.twitter.com/0KIrPxyEyK

— BRICS News (@BRICSinfo) April 6, 2026

Iran has formulated its positions and demands in response to recent ceasefire proposals conveyed via intermediaries, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday, adding that negotiations were "incompatible with ultimatums and threats to commit war crimes."

Spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran had a set of requirements based on its national interests that had already been conveyed via intermediary channels, adding that earlier U.S. demands such as the 15-point plan were rejected for being "excessive."

"Iran does not hesitate to clearly express what it considers its legitimate demands and doing so should not be interpreted as a sign of compromise, but rather as a reflection of its confidence in defending its positions," Baghaei said in a press conference.

"We have formulated our own responses" and will announce details in due time, he added in response to an Iranian journalist's question regarding ongoing efforts to bring about a ceasefire between Iran and the U.S.

A third Turkish-owned ship has crossed the war-torn Strait of Hormuz, Turkey's Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said on Monday.

"The Turkish-owned vessel 'Ocean Thunder' which was en route carrying crude oil loaded from Iraq to Malaysia, safely passed through the Strait of Hormuz last night," Uraloglu said on X.

According to the global ship tracking intelligence Marine Traffic, it was coming from the port of Basra in Iraq.

"With this passage, the number of Turkish-owned vessels in the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz has decreased to 12, and the number of vessels requesting exit has decreased to eight," the minister said.

He added efforts were under way to ensure the safe transfer of the eight ships that wish to depart from the region and the 156 personnel serving on these vessels.

U.S. forces located on Kuwait's Bubiyan island were targeted by Iran, the spokesperson of Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said in a video statement shared by state media on Monday.

Ebrahim Zolfaqari said Iran targeted satellite equipment and munitions on the island with drones, adding that U.S. forces had relocated there from Arifjan camp after that base was repeatedly struck by Iran.

Bubiyan island is the largest of Kuwait's coastal islands chain, located in the northwest of the Gulf.

Six people were injured from debris falling in a residential area in northern Kuwait after an Iranian attack, Kuwait's health ministry said earlier.

A strike has hit Beirut's southern suburbs after an Israeli army warning.

US-Israeli strikes killed on Monday the intelligence chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the Guards said.

"Major General Majid Khademi, the powerful and educated head of the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was martyred in the criminal terrorist attack by the American-Zionist enemy... at dawn today," said the Guards in a post on their Telegram channel.

UAE official Anwar Gargash said any settlement of the U.S.-Iran war must guarantee access through the Strait of Hormuz, warning that a deal that fails to rein in Iran’s nuclear programme and its missiles and drones would pave the way for “a more dangerous, more volatile Middle East."

Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, told a weekend briefing that the Strait of Hormuz - the world’s most critical oil artery - cannot be weaponised, stressing that its security is not a regional bargaining chip but a global economic imperative.

"The Strait of Hormuz cannot be held hostage by any country," said Gargash, adding that freedom of navigation through the waterway "has to be part and parcel of the settlement of any conflict with clear agreement on that."

Gargash said the UAE wants the war to end, but warned against a ceasefire that leaves the root causes of instability unresolved.

Falling debris from an intercepted attack injured one person in an industrial area of Abu Dhabi, authorities in the United Arab Emirates said Monday.

"Abu Dhabi authorities have responded to an incident of falling debris on the Raneen Systems company in ICAD (Industrial City of Abu Dhabi) in the Musaffah area, following a successful interception by air defence systems," the Abu Dhabi government's media office posted on X.

"The incident resulted in moderate injuries to a Ghanaian national."

In the northeastern emirate of Fujairah, authorities also reported that a telecommunications building was targeted by an Iranian drone, but there were no injuries.

Six injuries reported after debris fell from an Iranian attack on a residential area in northern Kuwait: health ministry

Israel's army said Monday it had completed a wave of strikes against "regime targets" in Tehran.

"A short while ago the IDF completed a wave of strikes on Iranian terror regime targets in Tehran," the Israeli military posted on Telegram.

It came after Iranian media reported attacks on residential areas in Tehran early Monday.