Iran war updates: Tehran denies talks happened after Trump’s claims

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Here are some of the day’s top developments:

• US President Donald Trump has claimed that Iran wants to make a deal and the two countries have “major points of agreement”, as he ordered the military to suspend strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for five days.
• Iran has denied that any discussions with the US have taken place, arguing that Trump’s claim is aimed at manipulating the markets and insisting that its position on the Strait of Hormuz has not changed.
• Financial markets are seeing a spell of relief after Trump’s announcement, with the price for a barrel of Brent crude falling 10.9 percent to $99.94, down from nearly $120 at one point last week, and the S&P 500 climbing 1.1 percent for its best day since the war began.
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will keep attacking Iran and Lebanon, vowing to “safeguard” Israeli interests in any potential ceasefire or peace deal.
• Israel has kept up its barrage of strikes on Lebanon, targeting Beirut and its suburbs, as well as the Nabatieh and Tyre areas, where an attack killed a medic.
• Israeli attacks have damaged or destroyed six of the seven main bridges over the Litani River, which splits the north of Lebanon from the south, in recent days, while the UN estimates 1.2 million people in Lebanon are now displaced.
• Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has told an Israeli radio programme that “the new Israeli border must be the Litani [River]”.

The understanding is that there might have been some mediation between the two sides, but that did not amount to any kind of talks around a negotiating table.

Also, for the Iranians, it doesn’t mean the beginning of talks either directly or indirectly because they have been through this several times before. They are very suspicious and cautious of any move from the American side – particularly from President Donald Trump.

The Iranian speaker of parliament, Mohamed Bagher Galibaf, described the statements from Trump as “fake news” and manipulation of the energy market.

So the Iranians are still in the same position of suspicion and lack of trust towards the Americans, even though there are a lot of phone calls between Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and counterparts in the region and beyond.

He talked to the South Korean foreign minister, the Pakistani foreign minister, his Omani counterpart, and in all those phone calls he reiterated the same position that Iran has been saying all along: There is no new agreement on the Strait of Hormuz, and it’s still under Iranian control.

The head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, says it will evacuate more workers from Iran’s Russia-built nuclear power plant, but it will also keep some there.

Alexei Likhachev, who said last week that Rosatom had 480 workers at the plant in Bushehr, announced that evacuations this week will leave just a few dozen of its workers at the plant.

Last week, Likhachev reported that a strike had hit close to the working nuclear reactor, without causing damage or injuries.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia had urged the US to avoid hitting the plant, warning it could trigger “irreparable” consequences.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has put on a show of unity, displaying Israel in lockstep with its US allies in this military endeavour against Iran.

But privately, behind the scenes, there are real concerns about where this negotiation process might lead, and what the United States might concede.

Netanyahu is widely suspected of trying to undermine and derail the last set of talks brokered by Oman, and then encouraging Trump to give up the path of negotiation and get involved in this conflict.

So there’s a real concern about the control Israel might have – or what it might lose – if it’s swept up in this whirlwind diplomacy by the White House.

US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum says he has “tremendous confidence” in the engagement Trump claims to have had with Iran.

“President Trump is going to resolve it, and I’m very confident that as dealmaker-in-chief, he’s going to come out of this with a winning deal for Americans,” he told CNBC.

When asked to explain how the Strait of Hormuz’s effective closure has affected the administration’s thinking in relation to oil supply chains, Burgum claimed that Trump “knew this on day one”.

“We’ve been completely aware of this thing,” he said.

As we’ve been reporting, oil prices dropped today after Trump said he had ordered the military to postpone strikes against Iranian power plants.

Shortly after giving a news conference in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, Israeli President Isaac Herzog was forced to take cover as a missile struck nearby.

During the speech, Herzog said Israel could not return to last year’s ceasefire and must secure “strategic depth inside Lebanon”.

Watch our video below:

Iraqi police say an air attack has hit a military base used by the Iran-aligned Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) in the eastern part of Ramadi city in the western province of Anbar.

The strike is believed to have caused several casualties, according to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.

We will bring you more when we have it.

Iran has denied targeting a joint military base of the United States and the United Kingdom on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia with missiles, dismissing the claim as an “Israeli false flag” attack.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the accusations reflected a pattern of “disinformation”. Israel’s military chief, Eyal Zamir, claimed Iran used “a two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 4,000km [2,485 miles]” to target the US-UK base.

“The world has grown thoroughly exhausted with these tired and discredited ‘false flag’ storylines,” Baghaei wrote on X.

Read more here.

A cautious relief has swept through financial markets after President Trump said the US talked with Iran about a possible end to their war.

Oil prices eased, and stock prices rose on Wall Street after severe losses elsewhere in the world before Trump’s announcement.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude fell 10.9 percent to settle at $99.94, down from nearly $120 at one point last week. The S&P 500 climbed 1.1 percent for its best day since the war began.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average went from a surge of nearly 1,135 points during the morning to a more modest gain of 540 before accelerating to finish with a climb of 631.

Just in the last few hours, there were three strikes by Israeli warplanes targeting the southern suburbs of Beirut. There was a warning issued by Israel for anybody in this area to evacuate.

There has been an ongoing forced evacuation order for the southern suburbs since March 2, so the area is thought to be empty for the most part. However, Israel says it’s targeting Hezbollah “military infrastructure”.

There was another strike that killed an Iranian Quds force commander outside of Beirut earlier, in the Hazimiya district, which was confirmed by Lebanese officials, and the fighting in the south continues to intensify.

A major bridge was targeted today and destroyed. Six of the seven main bridges that cross over the Litani River from the north of the country to the south have been damaged or destroyed in recent days.

Here are some of the main developments:

• Iran will use “every capability to ensure security”, armed forces spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari has said, as explosions continue to rock Tehran.
• After talking to Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu says he will “safeguard” Israeli interests in any peace deal and that Israel will keep attacking Iran and Lebanon.
• The UN says 1.2 million people in Lebanon, or about one in five people, have been forced to flee their homes amid escalating Israeli attacks.
• Israel and Hezbollah continue to trade attacks, with Israel striking Beirut and killing a medic in the southern city of Tyre, as Hezbollah claims multiple attacks on the Israeli army.
• With regards to Lebanon, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told an Israeli radio programme that “the new Israeli border must be the Litani [River]”, a critical waterway that splits southern Lebanon from the rest of the country.