US Sends Iran Peace Plan as Tehran Launches Missiles Across Region

President Donald Trump said Tuesday the U.S. and Iran are in active negotiations to end the war, and revealed he had backed off a recent threat to strike Iranian energy infrastructure "based on the fact we're negotiating." Hours later, the claim collided with reality on the ground: the Israeli military said Iran fired missiles at Israel at least eight times Tuesday, with impacts reported in at least four sites across the country.

The New York Times, citing two unnamed officials, reported that the U.S. has sent Iran a 15-point plan to end the war, delivered through Pakistan, though it was unclear how widely the plan had been circulated among Iranian officials. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in an X post that his country was willing to facilitate talks between the two countries, and Trump shared a screenshot of Sharif's post on his Truth Social account Tuesday morning. Pakistan's powerful army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, spoke with Trump on Monday to find a resolution to the fighting, according to people familiar with the matter.

Tehran rejected Trump's characterization of the talks outright. Iran's Foreign Ministry said there had been no talks between Iran and the U.S., while acknowledging some countries in the region were working to reduce tensions. Iran's top military command spokesman put it more bluntly, telling state television: "Iran's powerful armed forces are proud, victorious and steadfast in defending Iran's integrity, and this path will continue until complete victory."

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to confirm or deny the scope of any diplomacy. "These are sensitive diplomatic discussions and the United States will not negotiate through the news media," Leavitt told CNBC, adding that "Operation Epic Fury continues unabated to achieve the military objectives laid out by the commander in chief and the Pentagon."

The missile barrages Tuesday underscored how far the battlefield remained from any ceasefire. At least six people were injured in Tel Aviv, according to Israeli health officials; a crater was left in the middle of a road in an upscale residential neighborhood, the facade of an apartment building next to it badly damaged and surrounding cars crushed. Israeli police estimated the Iranian missile contained a warhead with about 220 pounds of explosives. In Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region, a volley of six Iranian ballistic missiles killed six Kurdish fighters and wounded 30 others, according to the Kurdish regional government. In Bahrain, an Iranian missile attack killed a Moroccan contractor working for the Emirati armed forces and injured five Emirati service members. The Kuwaiti army reported multiple drone and missile attacks overnight.

A diplomatic source described the war as having killed more than 2,000 people and displaced millions as it enters its fourth week. Two drones struck the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh on Tuesday morning, causing what Saudi Arabia's Defense Ministry called "limited fire and minor material damage." The U.S. Embassy issued a warning via X: "We recommend American citizens in the Kingdom to shelter in place immediately."

The U.S. military was pressing its own offensive. The U.S. dropped 5,000-pound guided bombs on Iranian missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz, and a U.S. warship believed to be carrying Marines and sailors was nearing the Malacca Strait off Singapore, maritime tracking data showed, en route to the region. Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the war, though it has in recent days allowed a few tankers from India, Pakistan, China, and Turkey to pass through. The head of the International Energy Agency has warned that the disruption already exceeds the combined oil crises of 1973 and 1979.

Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, a retired Green Beret and longtime Trump supporter, announced his resignation over the war with Iran. Trump called the departure a "good thing."

U.S. officials said the Iranian government is in chaos and struggling to communicate internally, with the uncertain condition of the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, adding to confusion about who is empowered to make decisions. Some Iranian officials claimed Trump's talk of diplomatic progress was an effort to calm the markets and buy time for military plans. The Kremlin said Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin would "make every effort to facilitate at least a minor easing of tensions" and planned to convey his "deep concern" about the strikes to Iranian leadership directly.