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February 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran has mushroomed throughout the region, sending world energy markets into a tailspin.

Iran’s military said it fired cruise missiles at the US aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and “forced it to change its position”, warning of “powerful strikes” when the “hostile fleet” comes into range.

It also said it fired a salvo of “precision-guided” missiles and drones at Israel and bases hosting US forces in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain, the country’s Revolutionary Guards said early yesterday.

Drones hit a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport, sparking a fireball, while authorities in Jordan reported shrapnel falling near the capital, Amman, and air raid warnings rang out in Bahrain.

The war has also drawn in Lebanon, with Israeli forces aiming to take control of ground up to the Litani River, around 30 kilometres from the border, stepping up their campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, again overnight.

Israel also said it had struck targets in Tehran as well as a submarine development facility in the central city of Isfahan.

Meanwhile, a new strike in western Iraq killed seven security personnel, the defence ministry said yesterday, a day after a deadly attack on the same base targeted the former paramilitary Hashed al-Shaabi, killing 15 pro-Iranian fighters.

As the fighting showed little sign of respite, Trump claimed that negotiations are ongoing to bring the conflict to an end.

The US president, whose daily statements on the war have swung wildly from threatening to conciliatory, said Washington was “in negotiations right now” with Tehran.

He told reporters in the Oval Office that Iran had given him “a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money”, which he said demonstrated that “we’re dealing with the right people”.

Trump did not elaborate further but said it related to the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has largely blockaded in retaliation for US and Israeli strikes, sending global energy prices soaring.

Several media reported Trump had sent a 15-point plan to Iran via Pakistan, which has offered to mediate a possible end to the war. A senior Iranian source, on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Pakistan has delivered a US proposal to Iran. The source did not disclose details of the proposal.

Israel’s Channel 12 said that, according to the plan, the US and Iran would declare a month-long ceasefire during which they would negotiate on the basis of the proposal.

The plan calls for the end of any uranium enrichment on Iranian soil and the handing over of enriched material, which Israel and the US say could be developed into a nuclear bomb, Channel 12 said.

It said that Iran would also allow unimpeded access through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran in turn would see an end to all sanctions, the Israeli report said.

Iran would also receive assistance in developing civil nuclear energy at Bushehr, a key site that Tehran on Tuesday accused Israel of striking.

The Guardian yesterday reported that the 15-point plan is more or less the same plan the US sent to Iran a year ago, which was rejected by Tehran. That original 15-point plan was the basis for negotiations in late May 2025, shortly before the talks collapsed due to Israeli airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear programme.

Since then, sources in Tehran say Iran’s negotiating posture has hardened sharply.

In any talks with the US, Iran would not only demand an end to the war but also concessions that are likely red lines for Trump -- guarantees against future military action, compensation for wartime losses and formal control of the Strait of Hormuz, the sources said. Iran would also refuse to negotiate any limitations to its ballistic missile programme, they said.

Amid the US leader’s stated hopes for a deal, The Wall Street Journal reported that Washington is planning to send a further 3,000 soldiers to the Middle East.

Reuters also reported that the Pentagon was expected to send thousands of soldiers from the US Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East.

Citing sources, who opted to be anonymous, the report said the Pentagon was set to send between 3,000 and 4,000 soldiers. The US already has about 50,000 troops in the region.

Sources had previously said the US military was looking at options in the Iran war, including securing the Strait of ​Hormuz, potentially by deploying US ⁠forces to Iran’s shoreline. The Trump administration has also discussed options to send ground forces to Iran’s Kharg Island, the hub for 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports.

While Trump recently cited “productive” talks with Iran, public support for the campaign remains low, with a Reuters/Ipsos poll showing 61% of Americans opposing US strikes.

Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam, said that “contrary to Trump’s claims -- so far no negotiations, direct or indirect, have taken place between the two countries.”

As the warring parties traded strikes and war of words, focus remained on the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the key route through which one-fifth of the world’s crude oil flows.

Tehran, in a message circulated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), assured safe passage through the strait to “non-hostile vessels”.

However, the IMO cited a statement from Iran’s foreign ministry as saying no passage would be granted to vessels belonging to “the aggressor parties -- namely the United States and the Israeli regime”.