Israeli security forces and rescue team respond at the site of an Iranian missile strike in Tel Aviv, Israel, March 24. AP-Yonhap
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Smoke rose from central Tel Aviv as Iranian missiles and drones targeted Israel and Gulf Arab states Tuesday, even as U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. was in talks with the Islamic Republic to end the war.
Trump also delayed a deadline for Iran to open the strategic Strait of Hormuz for shipping or see its power stations targeted by airstrikes, briefly driving down oil prices and boosting stocks.
The delay offered a reprieve after the U.S. and Iran traded threats over the weekend of strikes that could have cut electricity to millions in Iran and around the Gulf and knocked out desalination plants that provide many desert nations with drinking water, while raising fears of possible catastrophe if nuclear plants were hit.
But any information on the talks described by Trump remain in dispute with Iran , which denied any talks had been held.
“No negotiations have been held with the U.S.,” Iranian parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf posted on X, adding that “fakenews is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said Israel will continue to strike Iran and Lebanon even as the U.S. considers a ceasefire.
“There’s more to come,” he said.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has been talking about the war this week to his counterparts in Azerbaijan, Egypt, Oman, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, Turkey and Turkmenistan, his office said.
A civil defense worker cuts a power cable in front of a destroyed building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, March 24. AP-Yonhap
Source: Korea Times News
