TEHRAN — As American officials quietly pass along a 15-point plan for peace, Iran is answering not with signatures but with missiles, according to Hurriyet Daily News. New attacks yesterday lit up the sky over the Gulf, including one that sparked a massive fire at Kuwait International Airport, leaving black smoke rising like a grim reply to Washington’s call for a ceasefire.
The U.S. plan, delivered through Pakistani intermediaries, touches on sanctions relief, limits on Iran’s missile program, civilian nuclear cooperation, and international monitoring. It also promises guarantees for vital shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that carries about one-fifth of the world’s oil. Yet Tehran’s reaction suggests that for now, talk of a truce has little ground to stand on.
Lt. Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesman for Iran’s military high command, dismissed reports of negotiations with the U.S., mocking Washington’s claims of talks. “Have your internal conflicts reached the point where you are negotiating with yourselves?” he said on state television. “Someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you.”
The words came as American forces began to move closer to the region. According to officials familiar with the plans, about 1,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division are being deployed, alongside roughly 5,000 Marines and thousands of sailors. The Pentagon has not released official numbers or locations.
Meanwhile, Israeli jets launched new large-scale strikes across Iran, reportedly hitting military infrastructure in Qazvin in the northwest. Missile sirens echoed again across Israel as Iran fired back — part of the near daily exchanges since the U.S. and Israel opened the war with a joint assault on Feb. 28.
Diplomats from Türkiye, Egypt, and Pakistan are struggling to arrange a face-to-face meeting between U.S. and Iranian representatives. Pakistani officials say Tehran initially seemed open to talks but pulled back, citing past American strikes during diplomacy and recent media leaks.
For now, the guns speak louder than the envoys. Oil prices continue to climb, global markets tremble, and peace, though drawn on paper in fifteen hopeful points, remains buried beneath the smoke and noise of another war neither side seems ready to end.
