A US proposal for ending nearly four weeks of fighting is "one-sided and unfair", a senior Iranian official has said, while also stressing that diplomacy had not ended despite the lack for now of a realistic plan for peace talks.
The official said the US proposal, conveyed to Tehran by Pakistan, "was reviewed in detail on Wednesday night by senior Iranian officials and the representative of Iran's Supreme Leader".
The senior official said it lacks the minimum requirements for success and serves only US and Israeli interests, adding that if realism prevails in Washington, "a path forward may still be found" to resolve the crisis.
Earlier today, US President Donald Trump warned Tehran to "get serious" about talks to end the conflict that began with US and Israeli strikes against Iran on 28 February.
Mr Trump said in a post on Truth Social that Iran was "begging" for a deal, after Iran's foreign minister said messages conveyed through intermediaries did not amount to dialogue and that Iran had no intention of negotiating at present.
Calling Iranian negotiators "very different" and "strange", Mr Trump added: "They better get serious soon, before it is too late, because once that happens, there is no turning back, and it won't be pretty."
Watch: Donald Trump claims Iran is 'afraid' to make a deal
Mr Trump later described the Iranians as "great negotiators" but said he was "not sure he's willing to make a deal with them to end the war".
The 15-point US proposal to end the conflict includes demands ranging from dismantling Iran's nuclear programme and curbing its missiles to effectively handing over control of the Strait of Hormuz, according to sources and reports.
Iran has hardened its stance since the war began, demanding guarantees against future military action, compensation for losses, and formal control of the Strait, Iranian sources say.
It also told intermediaries that Lebanon must be included in any ceasefire deal, regional sources said.
Mr Trump's comments came as the economic and humanitarian toll of the conflict mounted, with fuel shortages spreading worldwide, sending companies and countries scrambling to contain the fallout.
"Indirect talks" between the US and Iran are taking place through messages relayed by Pakistan, with other states including Turkey and Egypt also supporting mediation efforts, Pakistan's foreign minister said.
But Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said this did not amount to negotiation.
"Messages being conveyed through our friendly countries and us responding by stating our positions or issuing the necessary warnings is not called negotiation or dialogue," Mr Araghchi said in comments broadcast late last night.
"At present, our policy is to continue resistance and defend the country, and we have no intention of negotiating," he added.
Today, Iran launched multiple waves of missiles at Israel, triggering air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and other areas and injuring at least five people.
In Iran, strikes hit a residential zone in the southern city of Bandar Abbas and a village on the outskirts of the southern city of Shiraz, where two teenage brothers were killed, Iran's Tasnim news agency said. A university building in Isfahan was reported to have been hit.
Exchanges of missiles and drones across the Gulf continued today.
In Abu Dhabi, two people were killed and three others injured by debris from an intercepted ballistic missile, the government said.
Israeli officials said Israel had killed the naval commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, and that it had many more targets left as it degraded Iranian capabilities.
Still, Israel took Mr Araghchi and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf off its hit-list after Pakistan urged Washington to press Israel not to target people who could be negotiating partners, a Pakistani source with knowledge of the discussion said.
An Israeli military spokesperson declined to comment.
Hopes of a resolution to the conflict that had boosted global stock markets in the previous session dimmed today, with oil prices resuming their surge.
The fallout from the conflict, which has caused the worst energy shock in history, has spread far beyond the region. With the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas, effectively closed, the impact is rippling through sectors from plastics and airlines to technology, retail and tourism.
Some governments are weighing support measures last used during the Covid pandemic. Farmers are struggling to source diesel for their tractors and tens of millions more people will face acute hunger if the war continues into June, the World Food Programme estimates.
Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of Abu Dhabi state oil company ADNOC, accused Iran of "economic terrorism".
"No country can be allowed to destabilise the global economy in this way. Not now. Not ever," Al Jaber said in a speech in the US yesterday.
