Iran sent its response to the latest U.S. ceasefire proposal via Pakistani mediators and wants negotiations to focus on permanently ending the war, but President Donald Trump quickly rejected it as “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” with no details.

Iran seeks to end the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, and to ensure the security of shipping, state TV said.

Washington’s latest proposal addressed a deal to end the war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and roll back Iran’s nuclear program.

Mr. Trump earlier on social media accused Tehran of “playing games” with the United States for nearly 50 years, adding: “They will be laughing no longer!”

Mr. Trump is giving diplomacy “every chance we possibly can before going back to hostilities”, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told ABC earlier.

Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen or heard publicly since the war began, “issued new and decisive directives for the continuation of operations and the powerful confrontation with the enemies” while meeting with the head of the joint military command, the state broadcaster reported, with no details.

Drone attacks target Gulf Arab nations

The fragile ceasefire was tested when a drone ignited a small fire on a ship off Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait reported drones entering their airspace. The UAE said it shot down two drones and blamed Iran. No casualties were reported, and no one immediately claimed responsibility.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry called the ship attack a “dangerous and unacceptable escalation that threatens the security and safety of maritime trade routes and vital supplies in the region.” The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre gave no details about the ship’s owner or origin.

Kuwait Defence Ministry spokesperson Brig. Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al Otaibi said forces responded to drones but did not say where they came from.

Iran and armed allied groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon have used drones to carry out hundreds of strikes since the war began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on February 28.

Iran says it’s on full readiness’ to protect nuclear sites

Mr. Trump has reiterated threats to resume full-scale bombing if Iran does not accept an agreement to reopen the strait and roll back its nuclear program. Iran has largely blocked the strategic waterway that’s key to the global flow of oil, natural gas and fertilizer since the war began, rattling world markets.

The U.S. military in turn has blockaded Iranian ports since April 13, saying it has turned back 61 commercial vessels and disabled four. On Friday, it struck two Iranian oil tankers it said were trying to breach the blockade.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy says any attack on Iranian oil tankers or commercial vessels would be met with a “heavy assault” on U.S. bases in the region and enemy ships.

Another sticking point in negotiations is Iran’s highly enriched uranium. The UN nuclear agency says Iran has more than 440 kilograms (970 pounds) enriched up to 60 per cent purity, a short, technical step from weapons grade.

In an interview posted late on Saturday (May 9, 2026), an Iranian military spokesperson said forces were on “full readiness” to protect sites where uranium is stored.

“We considered it possible that they might intend to steal it through infiltration operations or heli-borne operations,” Brig. Gen. Akrami Nia told the IRNA news agency.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an excerpt of an interview with CBS airing Sunday (May 10, 2026), said the war isn’t over because the enriched uranium needs to be taken out of Iran. “Trump has said to me, I want to go in there,’ and I think it can be done physically,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday (May 9, 2026) that Moscow’s proposal to take enriched uranium from Iran to help negotiate a settlement remains on the table.

The majority of Iran’s highly enriched uranium is likely at its Isfahan nuclear complex, the International Atomic Energy Agency director-general told The Associated Press last month. The facility was hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes in the 12-day war last year and faced less intense attacks this year.

Negotiators from Iran and the United States prepared on Friday (April 10, 2026) for high-level talks planned to start a day later in Islamabad, seeking to steady a ceasefire teetering over Israel and Hezbollah exchanging fire and Tehran’s chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance was set to take off from Washington, with Iran still remaining mum over its team as it tried to pressure Washington to halt Israeli attacks in Lebanon. The semiofficial Tasnim news agency, close to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, claimed that talks would “remain suspended” otherwise.

Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed at least five people on Thursday (March 26, 2026), Lebanese state media said, as Hezbollah militants claimed they had staged a new wave of attacks on Israel.

Also read: West Asia war updates on March 26, 2026

The Israeli military announced, meanwhile, the killing of a soldier in fighting in south Lebanon, raising to three the total number of troops killed since Hezbollah drew Lebanon into war with Israel.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran, the militant movement’s backer.

Israel has since launched a sustained campaign of bombardment focused mostly, but not solely, on areas where Hezbollah has long held sway, while also sending ground troops across the border in a push to establish a buffer zone by reoccupying swathes of south Lebanon.

According to Lebanon’s National News Agency, a strike on a building in the Nabatieh area of south Lebanon killed two people. Another strike in the border area of Bint Jbeil killed another three people, the agency said.

On Wednesday (March 25, 2026), Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Israeli strikes had killed 1,094 people since the start of the war, 121 of them children, and wounded more than 3,000 others.

Million displaced

With swathes of Lebanon under evacuation warnings, more than a million people have fled their homes.

On Thursday (March 26, 2026), the Israeli military said it had killed 700 Hezbollah militants since the start of the war, though the movement has not announced its casualties.

With Israel pressing its bid to crush Hezbollah, the militants claimed a new round of attacks against it.

The group said it had targeted a Defence Ministry complex in Tel Aviv, as well as other military objectives in northern Israel.

Hezbollah also said it had fired rockets in Lebanon’s Khiam, scene of fierce fighting between Israeli troops and the militant group.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday (March 25, 2026) that his country’s forces were expanding a “buffer zone” in southern Lebanon, adding that dismantling Hezbollah “remains central” to Israel’s objectives in Lebanon.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty announced on a visit to Beirut on Thursday (March 26, 2026) the delivery of 1,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid while calling for the immediate cessation of what he called Israel’s “aggression”.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also called for an end to the war.

“Hezbollah must stop launching attacks into Israel. And Israel must stop its military operations and strikes in Lebanon, which are hitting civilians the hardest,” he said. “The Gaza model must not be replicated in Lebanon.”

On Wednesday (March 25, 2026), Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said any negotiations with Israel under fire would amount to “surrender”, as he called on Lebanon’s authorities to rethink their decision to “criminalise” his group’s military activities.

Hezbollah and its Shiite Muslim ally Amal condemned the government’s decision to declare Iran’s ambassador persona non grata, while movements aligned with the groups called for a sit-in to support the envoy on Thursday afternoon (March 26, 2026).

Israel launched airstrikes Monday on the outskirts of northeastern Lebanon, killing five people, including four Hezbollah members, according to officials. This comes as global pressure mounts to disarm the Lebanese militant group.

Since Hezbollah and Israel’s monthslong war ended in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in November, Israel has struck southern Lebanon almost daily in what they say are attacks to target the Lebanese militant group. The strikes in northeastern Lebanon, near Syria, far from the country’s border with Israel, are rare.

Monday’s strikes hit the fringes of the provinces of Hermel and Bekaa, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, wounding five people.

A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press, confirmed four of the five killed were group members.

Israeli Arabic military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said their air forces targeted Hezbollah positions and infrastructure, including a training area for the group’s elite Radwan Forces.

The Lebanese government recently backed a plan drafted by the military to gradually disarm the group, but said it opposes any direct confrontation with Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has not fired at Israel since November. It maintains it no longer has an armed presence south of the Litani River, but refuses to discuss disarmament until Israel stops its attacks and withdraws from five hilltop points that it captured during the war, which killed some 4,000 people in Lebanon and caused billions of dollars in damage in the Mediterranean country.