Trump says Iran 'afraid' to admit it wants a deal as US sends in more troops

By Audrey Courty

By Georgie Hewson

Topic:Unrest, Conflict and War

The Trump administration is continuing to insist that peace talks with Iran are well underway, while Iranian authorities still say that's not the case.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insists there is no dialogue and that if the war ends it must be on Iran's terms.

Trump then claimed Iranian leaders are afraid to admit they are negotiating with the US, with the Pentagon confirming the deployment of more ground troops to the Middle East.

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By Audrey Courty

Hello. If you're just tuning in, let me bring you up to speed on the day so far:

By Audrey Courty

With US President Donald Trump now claiming Iranian officials are too "afraid" to admit they want to make a deal, let's look back on what the Iranian foreign minister said on the supposed talks.

Speaking to state-controlled media this morning, Abbas Araqchi said the exchange of messages through mediators "does not mean negotiations with the US".

"They have put forward some ideas. I saw in one or two places that it was described as a 15-point plan, but these were presented as various proposals," he said.

"All of them have been conveyed to the country's senior authorities, and if it becomes necessary to take a position, that will certainly be decided. For now, our policy is to continue resisting and to continue defending the country. At present we have no intention of negotiating, and no negotiations have taken place."

Still, the foreign minister did acknowledge that Tehran was reviewing the US's peace plan proposal, suggesting some willingness to negotiate if its demands were met.

"We want the war to end, but on our terms, in a way that ensures it will not be repeated and that our enemies learn a lesson so they will not even contemplate attacking Iran again," Araqchi said.

"Second, the damage suffered by the people of Iran must be compensated."

Reporting with Reuters

By Georgie Hewson

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has prayed that "every round find its mark against enemies" in his first Christian worship service at the Pentagon since the war in the Middle East began.

"Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy," he prayed during the livestreamed service.

Hegseth frequently invokes his evangelical faith as head of the armed forces, depicting a Christian nation trying to vanquish its foes with military might.

During the expanding Iran war and global conflicts, Hegseth's Christian rhetoric has drawn renewed scrutiny, including his past defense of the Crusades, the brutal medieval wars that pitted Christians against Muslims.

Reporting with AP

By Audrey Courty

The UN chief says a new envoy will be on the ground promoting mediation to end the Iran war.

Secretary-General António Guterres says his personal envoy, veteran French diplomat Jean Arnault, will lead "UN efforts on the conflict and its consequences".

Now more than three weeks since Israel and the US launched attacks on Iran, the secretary-general says, "the war is out of control."

"My message is that diplomacy must prevail," Guterres said.

"And diplomacy requires sincere dialogue."

He says Arnault will be doing on the ground what he has been trying to do from New York — supporting all efforts for mediation and peace.

Guterres told reporters that he had been in close contact with many in the region and around the world and that a number of initiatives for dialogue and peace were underway.

He said these must succeed and warned that prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz was choking movement of oil, gas, and fertiliser at a critical moment in the global food planting season.

An analysis released by the UN Worldf Food Programme last week warned that tens of millions more people would face acute ‌hunger if the Iran war continued through to June.

Guterres says Gulf countries are important suppliers of raw materials for nitrogen fertilisers crucial for developing countries.

"Without fertilisers today, we might have hunger tomorrow," he warned.

Reporting with AP and Reuters

By Georgie Hewson

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday his country's forces were expanding a "buffer zone" in southern Lebanon as the military pressed ahead with its campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Netanyahu said the zone had so far prevented any infiltration towards the northern border, and was being expanded "to push the threat from anti-tank missiles further away".

By Georgie Hewson

As reported earlier, Israel has continued strikes on southern Lebanon as hostilities between the two countries escalate.

The IDF says it has carried out overnight strikes just south of Beirut, in a cluster of neighbourhoods known as the Dahiya.

New evacuation warnings have also been issued for several towns and villages in southern Lebanon.

Pictures show locals sifting through the rubble and mourning paramedics who were killed in strikes on Tuesday.

Ali Jaber and Joud Sleiman were hit as they headed out on a motorcycle in southern Lebanon on a rescue mission, according to Lebanon's health ministry.

Israel, since March 2, has killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon and displaced more than a million, Lebanese authorities say.

By Audrey Courty

The chief of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, said that negotiating with Israel under fire would amount to "surrender" for Lebanon.

The comments come as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his forces were "expanding" a "buffer zone" in Lebanon and follow reports Iran wants to include Lebanon in any ceasefire deal.

Lebanon was pulled into the Middle East war when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Netanyahu said the Israeli military had "created a genuine security zone" inside Lebanon and was "expanding this zone," as its ground forces tried to push deeper into Lebanon.

By late on Wednesday, local time, Hezbollah said it had launched more than 80 attacks against Israel, the largest number the Iran-backed group has claimed since the start of the war.

It also said it had attacked Israeli forces in nine border towns.

Israel's military said that one of its soldiers was severely wounded by rocket fire in southern Lebanon, having earlier reported an officer being lightly injured in combat.

Reporting with AFP

By Audrey Courty

There was no advance warning, as has been customary from Iranian missile strikes, suggesting this was rocket fire from Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Lebanese militant group has pounded northern Israel constantly throughout this war but rarely reached deeper into the country.

Israel's emergency services said they had received no reports of casualties in the incident early this morning.

Reporting with AP

By Audrey Courty

US President Donald Trump has insisted again that Iran is taking part in peace talks, suggesting Tehran's denials are because Iranian negotiators fear being killed by their own side.

"They are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly," he told a dinner for Republican members of Congress, according to AFP.

"But they're afraid to say it, because they figure they'll be killed by their own people."

Reporting with AFP

By Audrey Courty

Six Middle Eastern countries have issued a joint statement reiterating their strongest condemnation of Iran's military actions.

Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Jordan also stressed their full right to self-defence in accordance with Article 51 of the UN charter.

In the statement published by Kuwait's foreign ministry on X, the countries expressed "their strongest condemnation of the blatant Iranian aggressions".

They call these actions "a flagrant violation" of sovereignty.

During the war, Iran has carried out strikes targeting US assets in countries across the Middle East, including some of those issuing this joint statement.

The statement also condemned "the aggressions launched by Iran-aligned armed factions from the Republic of Iraq against a number of regional states".

The countries have called on the Iraqi government to take the necessary measures to "halt the attacks" launched from its territory.

By Audrey Courty

Thousands of people have been killed across the Middle East since the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28 and Iran launched strikes against Israel, US bases and Gulf states.

Here are the latest death tolls reported, which the ABC has not independently verified.

More than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states have also died.

Reporting with Reuters

By Audrey Courty

The United Arab Emirates is "currently responding to incoming missile and drone threats from Iran", according to its Defence Ministry.

"The sounds heard are the result of the Air Defence Systems intercepting missiles and drones," the ministry said in a short statement shared on X.

By Audrey Courty

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he will convene a second emergency national cabinet meeting over the fuel crisis.

State and territory leaders will come together next week to coordinate a national fuel-conservation plan.

The government has previously confirmed that about 470 service stations around the country have run out of at least one type of fuel.

Last week, the national cabinet agreed to appoint Fuel Supply Taskforce Coordinator Anthea Harris to coordinate with the states on fuel security and supply chains.

Fuel prices have risen sharply around the world since Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route for about a fifth of the world's oil.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has conceded recent modelling forecasting high oil prices and inflation of up to 5 per cent looks "pretty conservative now".

By Audrey Courty

The US Central Command has just shared a video update saying it "remains on plan or ahead of plan in achieving very clear military objectives" in its war against Iran.

Admiral Brad Cooper says these objectives are "eliminating Iran's ability to project power in meaningful ways outside its borders".

US forces have struck more than 10,000 military targets, flown more than 10,000 combat flights in Iranian skies and have "overwhelmed Iranian air defences and our combat flights over Iran are having tangible effects," Cooper says.

He claims the US has destroyed "92 per cent of the Iranian navy's largest vessels", and that its drone and missile launch rates are down by "more than 90 per cent".

"They have now lost the ability to meaningfully to project naval power and influence around the region and around the world," Cooper says.

Cooper added that over two-thirds of Iran's missile, drone and naval shipping production facilities and shipyards have been damaged or destroyed.

Despite the US claims, Iran has so far been able to keep up drone and missile attacks against Israel and US assets in the Gulf, as well as targeting energy sites across the region.

By Audrey Courty

Kuwait's Ministry of Interior says the six people were allegedly linked to the Iran-backed Hezbollah group and were arrested for planning to carry out assassinations of leaders in the Gulf state.

The ministry said in a statement that five of those arrested were Kuwaiti citizens.

It added that it had identified 14 more members of the group who had fled the country: five Kuwaitis, five whose nationalities had been revoked, two Iranians, and two Lebanese.

The arrested members confessed to espionage and to joining a terror group, the statement said, and have been referred to the public prosecutor.

Reporting with AP

By Audrey Courty

Donald Trump's sudden declaration of progress in talks came just as the deadline was about to run out on his ultimatum to "obliterate" Iran's power plants unless the country released its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

In reponse, Iran threatened to retaliate against power, water and oil infrastructure across the Gulf.

On Monday, Trump pushed the deadline back five days and said there's a "very good chance" a deal could be reached this week. That was a relief to global oil and stock markets.

Trump's move could signal he's wary of the war's possible long-term damage to the US and global economy, though his administration has insisted that any pain from spiking oil prices will quickly be reversed once the war is over.

"Trump could be actively seeking an off-ramp," the Soufan Center, a New York-based think tank, wrote in an analysis.

On the other hand, the Soufan Center noted, Trump could be buying time for thousands of Marines heading to the region to arrive.

The deployment of marines could be a tactic to pressure Iran on negotiations.

But it has also raised speculation that the US may try to seize Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf, which is vital to Iran's oil network, or carry out an operation to remove enriched uranium from inside Iran.

Either would mean a greater escalation and a longer war.

Trump has said he has no plans to send ground forces into Iran but has not ruled it out. But Israel has suggested ground forces could participate in the war.

Reporting with AP

By Audrey Courty

Israeli officials, who have been advocating for Trump to continue the war against Iran, were reportedly taken by surprise by the submission of a US ceasefire plan.

According to a person briefed on the outline of the plan but not authorised to speak publicly about it, the move is being framed as Trump manoeuvring to give himself "max flexibility" on what he'll do next.

The White House has declined to provide details on the 15-point plan submitted to Iran.

Reporting with AP

By Audrey Courty

At least 1,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division will be sent to the Middle East in the coming days, three people with knowledge of the plans told The Associated Press.

They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans.

The paratroopers are trained to jump into hostile or contested areas to secure key territory and airfields.

The Pentagon is also in the process of sending about 5,000 more marines, trained in amphibious assaults, and thousands of sailors to the region.

Most Americans believe the US military action against Iran has gone too far, and many are worried about affording gasoline, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

The survey indicates that while Trump's approval rating is holding steady, the conflict could quickly become a major political liability for his Republican administration.

Reporting with AP

By Audrey Courty

Iran has told intermediaries that Lebanon must be included in any ceasefire agreement with the US and Israel, six regional sources familiar with Iran's position told Reuters.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the sources said Tehran had informed mediators as early as mid-March that it seeks a deal that would also stop Israel's attacks on Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah was founded by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1982 and is widely seen as the spearhead of Iran's regional alliance of armed actors.

The militant group opened fire on Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Tehran, triggering an Israeli air and ground campaign in Lebanon.

There was no immediate response from Iran's foreign ministry, Israel's foreign ministry or the Israeli military to questions from Reuters on the matter.

A senior Trump administration official said ending Iran's "proxy activities" and disarming Hezbollah were "crucial to ensuring peace and stability in Lebanon and across the region".

Reporting with Reuters

By Audrey Courty

According to the ABC's Middle East correspondent Matthew Doran talks between the US and Iran do appear to be ongoing even if indirectly.

Doran also points out both sides "are prone to hyperbole".

"The past few days have proven how anything Donald Trump says needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Or a teaspoon. Perhaps a ladle," he says.

"As much as the US might be looking for an off-ramp here, and Iran may be suffering immense losses, neither will want to yield much ground in negotiations."

There are a number of countries saying they're trying to mediate the dispute, but it appears Pakistan is the go-between as it stands.

You can read more from Doran's daily wrap-up of the war here: