WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM/TEL AVIV, March 24 (Reuters) – Iran launched multiple waves of missiles at Israel on Tuesday, the Israeli military said, after U.S. President Donald Trump postponed the bombing of the Islamic Republic’s power plants and other energy infrastructure because of what he described as productive talks with Iranian officials.
The missiles triggered air raid sirens in Israel, including Tel Aviv, where gaping holes were torn through a multi-storey apartment building. It was not immediately clear if the damage was caused by a direct hit or debris from an interception.
Israel’s Fire and Rescue Service said they were searching for civilians trapped in one building in Tel Aviv and discovered civilians in a shelter in another damaged building.
Israel’s military said on Tuesday its fighter jets had carried out a large wave of strikes in central Tehran on Monday, targeting key command centres, including facilities associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ intelligence arm and the Iranian Intelligence Ministry. It said more than 50 additional targets were hit overnight, including ballistic missile storage and launch sites.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Monday that the U.S. and Iran had held “very good and productive” conversations about a “complete and total resolution of hostilities in the Middle East”.
As a result, Trump said he was postponing for five days a plan to hit Iran’s power plants, which he had threatened if Iran did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz. However, the pause only applies to Iran’s energy sites and U.S. strikes on the country continue, U.S. news outlet Semafor reported, citing a U.S. official.
Iran has effectively closed the key strait, a conduit for about 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, since the U.S. and Israel launched their war on February 28. More than 2,000 people have been killed in the war.
Iran responded to the threat, saying it would hammer infrastructure of U.S. allies in the Middle East, raising the prospect of an extreme disruption to global energy supplies.
IRAN DENIES NEGOTIATIONS
Trump’s step-back sent share prices higher and oil prices sharply lower to below $100 a barrel, a sudden reversal to a market swoon caused by his weekend threats and Iran’s vows to respond. [O/R]
Those gains were in jeopardy on Tuesday, however, after Iran’s powerful parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf – who an Israeli official and two other sources familiar with the matter said was the interlocutor in the talks on the Iranian side – said no negotiations had taken place.
“No negotiations have been held with the U.S., and fakenews is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped,” he wrote on X.
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said they were launching fresh attacks on U.S. targets, and described Trump’s words as “psychological operations” that were “worn out” and having no impact on Tehran’s fight.
On Tuesday, U.S. Treasury yields pushed higher and the dollar regained lost ground as the world continues to grapple with an energy shock triggered by Iran’s threat to shipping in the strait.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up 4.2% to $104.21 a barrel, reversing some of their 10% slide from Monday, while U.S. crude CLc1 rose 4.3% to $91.93 per barrel.
“The underlying situation is still incredibly fragile or flammable,” said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore.
“MAJOR POINTS OF AGREEMENT”
Trump told reporters his special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who had been negotiating with Iran before the war, had held discussions with a top Iranian official into the evening on Sunday and would continue on Monday.
“We have had very, very strong talks. We’ll see where they lead. We have major points of agreement, I would say, almost all points of agreement,” he said on Monday.
A European official said that while there had been no direct negotiations between the two nations, Egypt, Pakistan and Gulf states were relaying messages.
A Pakistani official and a second source told Reuters that direct talks on ending the war could be held in Islamabad as soon as this week.
The Pakistani official said U.S. Vice President JD Vance, as well as Witkoff and Kushner, were expected to meet Iranian officials in Islamabad this week, following a call between Trump and Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir.
The White House confirmed Trump’s call with Munir. The Pakistani prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Iranian media reported that Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif discussed the impact of the war on regional and global security.
“If the parties desire, Islamabad is always willing to host talks. It has consistently advocated for dialogue and diplomacy to promote peace and stability in the region,” Tahir Andrabi, a spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry, told Reuters.
Although there was no immediate confirmation that talks had taken place as described by Trump, Iran’s foreign ministry described initiatives to reduce tensions.
It said Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi had reviewed developments related to the Strait of Hormuz with his Omani counterpart and agreed to continue consultations between the two countries.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, Gram Slattery and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington, Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Alexander Cornwell in Tel Aviv, Ariba Shahid in Karachi and Saad Sayeed in Bangkok; Additional reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by David Brunnstrom and Michael Perry; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Stephen Coates)
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