Trump extends pause on attacking Iran’s energy infrastructure

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran and the United States appeared at an impasse Thursday, hardening their positions over ceasefire talks and setting the stage for another potential escalation in the Middle East war as thousands more U.S. troops neared the region.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump extended his deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz to April 6, and Tehran tightened its grip on the crucial strait while Israel poured more troops into southern Lebanon to fight the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Sirens over Israel warned of barrages of incoming Iranian missiles, and Gulf nations worked to intercept fire. Heavy strikes were reported in Iran’s capital and other cities.

In a war that appears defined by who can take the most pain, the U.S. has offered shifting but ambitious objectives, including ensuring Iran’s missile and nuclear programs are no longer a threat and ending Tehran’s support for armed groups in the region. Washington at one point also pushed for the overthrow of Iran’s theocracy.

While the U.S.-Israeli campaign has hit Iran’s military and government hard, killing top leaders and striking scores of targets, Iran continues to fire missiles and there is no sign of an uprising against the government.

For Iran’s leadership, by contrast, merely outlasting the onslaught could be seen as victory. It may be hoping to get the U.S. to back down by roiling the world economy with its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz -- raising prices at the pump for drivers, prices in the grocery store for families and costs for businesses the world over.

Short of a negotiated solution, the U.S. would need a dramatic escalation to end Iran’s attacks and restore the free flow of goods through the strait, where 20 per cent of all traded oil and natural gas is transported in peacetime. Iran rejected a ceasefire proposal put forth by the U.S., while putting forth its own demands.

U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to strike Iran’s power plants if it doesn’t fully reopen the strait -- and his new deadline for that looms this weekend, when the war will also mark a month. But a Gulf Arab bloc said Thursday that Iran is now exacting tolls from ships to ensure their safe passage through the waterway.

Iran seen as operating Strait of Hormuz as ‘de facto toll booth’

Iran has been blocking ships from the strait that it perceives as linked to the U.S. and Israeli war effort, while letting through a trickle of others. Trump said during a Cabinet meeting Thursday that Iran is allowing some oil tankers through as a sign of good faith for talks.

Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi, secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a bloc of six Gulf Arab nations, said Iran was charging for safe passage.

The Fars and Tasnim news agencies, both close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, quoted lawmaker Mohammadreza Rezaei Kouchi as saying that parliament was working to formalize that process and that it was “natural” for ships to pay for it.

Lloyd’s List Intelligence called it a “de facto `toll booth’ regime,” saying that at least two vessels have paid in yuan, China’s currency.

Iran’s grip on the strait and relentless attacks on Gulf regional energy infrastructure have sent oil prices skyrocketing and concerns of a global energy crisis surging. Brent crude, the international standard, traded at US$104 Thursday, up more than 40 per cent from Feb. 28, when the war started. Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius called it a “catastrophe” for the world’s economies.

Israel said it killed the head of Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s navy, Commodore Alireza Tangsiri, and the country’s naval intelligence chief, Behnam Rezaei.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tangsiri was responsible for bombing operations that have blocked ships from crossing the Strait of Hormuz. Iran did not immediately acknowledge the killings.

Trump says Iran needs to ‘get serious’ about negotiations

Using Pakistan as an intermediary, Washington has delivered to Iran a 15-point “action list,” Trump envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed Thursday, calling it a framework for a possible peace deal. Witkoff said there were “strong signs” the U.S. could “convince Iran that this is the inflection point, with no good alternatives for them other than more death and destruction.”

A day after saying Iran wants to cut a deal, Trump posted on social media Thursday that Tehran needs to “get serious soon” on negotiating an end to the war “before it is too late, because once that happens there is NO TURNING BACK, and it won’t be pretty!”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview on state TV that his government has not engaged in talks to end the war and does not plan to.

Araghchi said the U.S. had tried to send messages to Iran through other nations, “but that is not a conversation nor a negotiation.”

Egypt is also acting as a go-between, according to Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, who said Thursday that his country sees a desire from both sides “for calm, for the exploration of negotiations.”

Press TV, the English-language broadcaster on Iranian state television, said Iran has its own five-point proposal, which included reparations and recognition of its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, a group of ships, including the USS Tripoli, drew closer to the Mideast with some 2,500 Marines. Also, at least 1,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne -- trained to land in hostile territory to secure key territory and airfields -- have been ordered to the region.

Ali Bahreini, Iran’s top envoy to UN institutions in Geneva warned Thursday that any U.S. and Israeli attempt to mount a ground invasion of Iran would be a “big” mistake.

A wave of Israeli airstrikes hits as Iran fires on Gulf neighbours

The Israeli army said Thursday it had deployed the 162nd division into southern Lebanon, joining thousands of troops that already have moved there since the war erupted. Israel says the open-ended invasion is aimed at protecting its northern border towns from Hezbollah attacks and uprooting the militant group from the area.

Israel also said it carried out a wave of attacks targeting Iranian infrastructure early Thursday while power was cut in some areas of the Iranian capital later in the day, according to witnesses. Heavy strikes were also reported around Isfahan, home to a major Iranian air base and other military sites, as well as one of the nuclear sites bombed by the U.S. during the 12-day war in June.

Witnesses told The Associated Press that power is out in some areas of Iran’s capital Tehran, though no official reports have been released yet. Witnesses had earlier reported the sounds of heavy strikes and fighter jets overhead.

Loud booms could be heard across Israel as it was repeatedly targeted by barrages from Iran. Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said a man in his 30s was killed in the area of Nahariya, the country’s northernmost coastal city. In the United Arab Emirates, two people were reported killed by shrapnel from a missile interception over Abu Dhabi.

Since the war began, more than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran, Deputy Health Minister Ali Jafarian told Al Jazeera.

Eighteen people have died in Israel, while three Israeli soldiers have also been killed in Lebanon. At least 13 American troops have been killed. More than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states have also died.

Authorities said more than 1,100 people have died in Lebanon, where Israel has targeted the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, which has fired into Israel. In Iraq, where Iranian-supported militant groups have entered the conflict, 80 members of the security forces have been killed.

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By Jon Gambrell And David Rising

Rising reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Rod McGuirk in Melbourne, Australia, and Giovanna Dell’Orto in Miami contributed to this report.