ALL YOU SHOULD KNOW: War, Words and Mixed Signals. Iran Pounds Gulf and Israel as US Peace Plan Lands in Tehran
The day's central diplomatic drama centred on a US-drafted framework for ending the nearly month-long conflict. Pakistan, acting as intermediary, confirmed it had presented Washington's ceasefire proposal to Iran, with senior Pakistani officials telling the Associated Press that the 15-point plan broadly covers sanctions relief, a rollback of Iran's nuclear programme, restrictions on its ballistic missile capabilities, and guarantees for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Turkey also confirmed it has been "passing messages" between Tehran and Washington, with Ankara positioning itself as a potential venue for direct talks alongside Islamabad.
President Donald Trump insisted talks were progressing, claiming the "right leaders" in Iran "want to make a deal so badly." Iran's military answered with open contempt. Lt Col Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman for the Khatam-al Anbiya central headquarters coordinating Iran's army and Revolutionary Guard, asked pointedly whether the US was "negotiating with yourselves." Iran's ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam, flatly stated that "no direct or indirect negotiations have taken place between the two countries so far."
The Wall Street Journal, citing informed sources, reported that Iran's actual negotiating demands are steep to the point of being non-starters: closure of all US military bases in the Gulf, financial compensation for war damages, new arrangements granting Tehran toll authority over Strait of Hormuz traffic, complete sanctions removal, and the preservation of its ballistic missile programme without limitation. A senior US official dismissed the demands as "unrealistic and ridiculous."
Strikes Continue On Multiple Fronts
On the ground, the war showed no signs of pausing. Iran launched four missile salvos at Israel within a single 40-minute window in the morning hours, with explosions reported across the greater Tel Aviv area. Cluster munitions fell across approximately 30 sites stretching from Ashdod in the south to Haifa in the north, according to Sky News Arabia's correspondent. An Iranian ballistic missile struck near Hadera, close to a major Israeli power station, though the Israel Electric Corporation reported no infrastructure damage.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah fired roughly 40 rockets at northern Israel over two hours, triggering air raid sirens across the Galilee and the Haifa Bay area. The Israeli military ordered the evacuation of the city of Tyre, citing Hezbollah's use of residential neighbourhoods to launch attacks. Israeli strikes in Lebanon killed nine people, Lebanon's official National News Agency reported, while the Israeli defence minister announced that Israel had dropped 15,000 bombs on Iran — four times the volume used in last June's 12-day war.
Gulf states bore heavy punishment overnight. A drone struck a fuel storage facility at Kuwait International Airport, sparking a fire visible across the city; Bahrain's defence forces reported intercepting 30 Iranian drones in a single day; and the UAE confirmed its air defences engaged nine drones launched from Iranian territory. Jordan and Qatar both condemned the attacks at the UN Human Rights Council, with Doha's representative stressing her country had "refused to be part of the escalation" yet remained a target.
In Iraq, seven Iraqi Army soldiers were killed and 13 wounded in an airstrike on the Habbaniya military base in Anbar province. The strike hit the base's medical clinic — a facility Iraq's Defence Ministry called "exclusively" linked to the regular army with no connection to the Popular Mobilisation Forces. Baghdad denounced the attack as a "flagrant violation of international law."
Escalation Fears And Global Fallout
UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk issued one of the starkest warnings yet, telling the UN Human Rights Council that strikes in proximity to nuclear installations in both Iran and Israel meant that "states are flirting with unmitigated catastrophe." The council announced it would hold an urgent debate Friday focused on an Israeli airstrike on an Iranian school in Minab on the war's opening day.
Financial markets offered a fleeting glimpse of optimism: oil prices fell nearly 6%, with Brent crude dropping to around $98 a barrel, and Asian and European equity markets rose modestly on hopes the ceasefire framework could gain traction. That optimism was tempered by news that the US is preparing to deploy over 1,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East, on top of the approximately 50,000 already in the region — a move Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned would make those troops "victims of Netanyahu's delusions."
Australia announced a six-month ban on Iranians holding visitor visas from entering the country, a measure Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke framed as protecting the "integrity and sustainability" of Australia's migration system amid the conflict.
As of Wednesday midday, a response from Tehran to the US ceasefire proposal was still awaited.