Iran war: Tehran sets own terms to end war, rejects US plan

President of the European Council Antonio Costa expressed solidarity with the over 1 million people internally displaced as a result of the fight between Israeli forces and Lebanese militia group Hezbollah.

"I spoke with President Aoun to express the EU's condolences for the loss of civilian lives and our solidarity and support for Lebanon and its people," Costa said in a post on X.

Costa called the Lebanese government's decision to ban the military activities of Hezbollah on March 2 a "right" decision. Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia group, criticized the ban, saying it wasn't justified.

"Hezbollah must cease its attacks immediately. Israel should stop its military operations and engage in direct talks with the Lebanese authorities," Costa added.

Fighting has flared between Israel and Hezbollah since the Lebanese militia group fired rockets into northern Israel after US-Israeli forces launched the war on Iran. 

Since then, Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed more than 1,000 people and displaced more than a million, according to government figures.

At least one Republican lawmaker made clear she does not support putting US service members on the ground in Iran following a closed-door briefing with lawmakers overseeing the military.

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina posted on social media that she would "not support troops on the ground in Iran, even more so after this briefing."

In addition to Mace, some 59% of Americans believe recent US military action against Iran has been excessive, according to an AP-NORC poll.  

The poll was released on Wednesday after various US news outlets reported that up to 3,000 US soldiers are expected to be deployed to the Middle East in the coming days.

The reported potential deployments come even as the Trump administration presses Iran to accept its ceasefire deal. 

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, however, told state television that Tehran has not had any negotiations with the US and does "not plan on any negotiations." 

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has again said Tehran did not plan to negotiate with the United States and that Iran would keep fighting.

"At present, our policy is the continuation of resistance", Araghchi said on state TV. "We do not intend to negotiate — so far, no negotiations have taken place, and I believe our position is completely principled."

"Speaking of negotiations now is an admission of defeat," he added

The announcement on Iranian state TV came after US President Trump said Washington had proposed a peace plan and following a report of Iranian conditions for a stop to the fighting (see entries below). 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the timeline for the war remains four to six weeks when asked if the conflict will end before President Donald Trump's rescheduled trip to China in May.

"Again, as I've said, we’ve always estimated approximately four to six weeks. So, you could do the math on that," Leavitt said during a press briefing at the White House.

Leavitt said Trump will travel to Beijing for a rescheduled summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on May 14 and 15.

Trump had been scheduled to travel to China later this month, but he previously announced he was delaying the trip so he could be in Washington to help steward the US and Israeli war against Iran.

The United States and Israel launched the airstrikes that began the ongoing war on February 28.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said US forces were "very close to meeting the core objectives" of the military action against Iran.

She told reporters that "productive conversations" with Iran were ongoing but stressed more strikes could come if they're unsuccessful. 

"If Iran fails to accept the reality of the current moment, if they fail to understand that they have been defeated militarily ... Trump will ensure they are hit harder than they have ever been hit before," Leavitt said at a briefing on Wednesday.

"President Trump does not bluff and he is prepared to unleash hell," she said. "Iran should not miscalculate again."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to identify which Iranian or Iranians the Trump administration is negotiating with.

She cautioned journalists about "reporting about speculative points or speculative plans from anonymous sources."

"The White House never confirmed that full plan," Leavitt said, adding that "there are elements of truth to it, but some of the stories I read were not entirely factual."

President Trump said earlier this week that both the United States and Iran were "keen" to end the war. But Iran has denied having any direct talks with the US.

The Trump administration also set up indirect talks by compiling a 15-point ceasefire plan and having had that delivered to the Islamic Republic via Pakistan, The New York Times reported.

Iran has rejected the proposal, state media Press TV reported citing an anonymous official.

Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey have each offered to broker a ceasefire in the region so far. 

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul called on Tehran to engage in negotiations with the United States to bring the war in Iran to an end.

Wadephul said he welcomed the news that the US was seeking negotiations to end the war in Iran, during a meeting with his Tunisian counterpart, Mohamed Ali Nafti, in Berlin.

"Iran's regime would be well advised to accept this now," Wadephul said, adding: "If there is a window for diplomacy, we should definitely give talks a chance." 

Wadephul said he's slated to meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ahead of a Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers meeting in France. 

The two-day meeting of G7 ministers begins Thursday. Rubio is expected to attend on Friday.

The G7 is comprised of the US, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Canada and Italy. 

Iran will not allow the United States to dictate the terms to end the war, Iranian state television's English-language broadcaster, Press TV, reported.

"Iran will end the war when it decides to do so and when its own conditions are met," Press TV quoted an anonymous official as saying.

Iran said it will continue fighting until:

• Aggression and acts of assassination come to an end.
• Objective conditions are established to ensure that the war will not recur.
• The payment of damages and war reparations is guaranteed and clearly determined.
• The end of the war is implemented across all fronts and all resistance groups involved in this conflict throughout the region.
• Iran's exercise of sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz is its natural and legal right, and guarantees for the implementation of the other party's commitments must be recognized.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country's armed forces were expanding a "buffer zone" in southern Lebanon.

Israeli military attacks against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon, have continued into Wednesday.

The latest flare-up between Israel and Hezbollah began after the Lebanese militia group fired rockets into northern Israel after the US-Israeli war on Iran began.

"We have created a genuine security zone preventing any infiltration toward the Galilee and the northern border," Netanyahu said in a video statement. "We are expanding this zone to push the threat from anti-tank missiles further away and to establish a broader buffer zone."

Netanyahu added that dismantling Hezbollah "remains central" to Israeli objectives in Lebanon.

"It is connected to the broader confrontation with Iran," he said.

The Lebanese Health Ministry, meanwhile, said  1,094 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on the country since March 2. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday named veteran French diplomat Jean Arnault as his personal envoy on the conflict in the Middle East, saying the fighting was "out of control" and that the "world is staring down the barrel of a wider war." 

He said he was in contact with many world leaders seeking a roadmap to peace and that these efforts must succeed.

Guterres warned that the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz was choking the movement of oil and gas, and also fertilizer at a critical moment in the global planting season. 

"It is time to stop climbing the escalation ladder — and start climbing the diplomatic ladder," Guterres said in New York. 

"My message to the United States and Israel is that it is high time to end the war — as human suffering deepens, civilian casualties mount, and the global economic impact is increasingly devastating," he said. "My message to Iran is to stop attacking their neighbors." 

Arnault, the new envoy, is a veteran with more than 30 years of experience in international diplomacy and a background in UN missions on four continents.

He was part of the process of disarming FARC rebels in Colombia. His most recent prominent assignment was in 2021 as Guterres' personal envoy to Afghanistan as international forces left the country and the Taliban returned to power. 

German government officials said on Wednesday they would not comment on President Frank-Walter Steinmeier's assertion that the United States and Israel are in "breach of international law" by waging war on Iran.

President Steinmeier (Germany's largely ceremonial head of state as opposed to Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who is the head of the government) said on Tuesday: "This war is, by my estimation, a breach of international law" and a "politically fateful mistake."

On Wednesday morning, a spokesman for Chancellor Merz's coalition said the government does not comment on remarks made by other "constitutional bodies."

He said that the "legal assessment [as to the legality of the war] falls under the auspices of the federal government and is not yet complete." He added that the assessment was taking into account "manifold breaches of international law and international treaties by Iran" as well as the "latent threat to the existence of the state of Israel."

Later, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul also refused to comment, saying during a meeting with his Tunisian counterpart, Mohamed Ali Nafti, in Berlin: "It is a long-held tradition in Germany that we don't comment on remarks made by other constitutional bodies."

Wadephul (CDU) said US government lawyers were also conducting an investigation into the legality of the war.

"We'll wait for that, review it and make a statement then," he said.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said the current conflict in the Middle East is "much worse" and more far-reaching than the 2003 Iraq war.

Speaking in parliament, Sanchez described the war involving the US, Israel, and Iran as outside the international legal framework.

"This is not the same scenario as the illegal war in Iraq. We are facing something far worse. Much worse. With a potential impact that is far broader and far deeper," he told lawmakers.

"This time, it's an absurd and illegal war. A cruel one that sets us back from achieving our economic, social, and environmental goals," he said.

Sanchez's government last week approved a sweeping package worth €5 billion ($5.8 billion) aimed at mitigating the economic impact of the war in the Middle East, including a reduction in fuel taxes. 

"It is not fair that some set the world on fire while others bear the ashes. It is not right that Spaniards and other Europeans should pay out of their own pockets for this illegal war," Sanchez said.

Sanchez, who is among the most vocal of Western leaders in his support for the Palestinian people, also said that Israel was apparently wreaking the same level of destruction on southern Lebanon as it had done on Gaza.

"An emboldened Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu aims to inflict on Lebanon the ​same destruction and suffering that was committed in Gaza," he said, speaking a day after Israeli ministers said they planned to seize territory in southern Lebanon.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was asked in the periodical question-and-answer session in the Bundestag on Wednesday what he was doing to try to bring a halt to the fighting in Iran and the wider Gulf region. 

He alluded to his trip to Washington earlier in the month and a call with US President Donald Trump on Sunday. He told lawmakers that he had sought to convey his "concerns" and some of the risks to the world and the economy posed by the ongoing conflict, "by no means least importantly the opportunities it is creating for the regime in Moscow" in its war against Ukraine as oil prices rise. 

"I am in close consultation with my colleagues in the European Union, and beyond that, in the UK and Norway and many others," Merz said. "We are trying to do everything in our power to move the US and Israel towards now seeking a diplomatic solution to this war."

"Some of what's being said does not make sense to us on a strategic level," Merz said. "And so we are looking for ways in which we can bring our weight to bear in the EU and beyond to contribute to an end to this war. However, that does require the readiness of all sides, also on the Iranian side, which at present is clearly not recognizable." 

Iran on Wednesday confirmed the receipt of a 15-point United States plan to end the ongoing war but rejected the proposals contained within it as "excessive."

After Pakistani officials told the AFP news agency that the plan had been "conveyed to Iran via Pakistan," Iranian state media cited a government official as saying that Tehran wants to end the war but only "at a time of its own choosing" and "only if [its] own conditions are met."

Chief among those conditions are an "end to attacks and assassinations," the establishment of "concrete guarantees" preventing a reoccurrence of war, "payment for war damage," and recognition of Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, according to the official.

He said Iran would not allow US President Donald Trump to "dictate the timing of the end of the war" and that "defensive operations" would continue until its conditions are met.

Negotiations with Israel while still under fire would effectively amount to "surrender" for Lebanon, the head of the Hezbollah militant group said on Tuesday, urging the Lebanese government to reverse its ban on the group's military activities.

"When negotiations with the Israeli enemy are proposed under fire, this is an imposition of surrender," said Naim Qassem in televised remarks read out on his behalf, rejecting moves by Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to begin direct negotiations "with an enemy that occupies our land and carries out daily attacks."

The Lebanese government banned Hezbollah's military activities on March 2, but Qassem said only a reversal of that decision could achieve "national unity."

He said Hezbollah ​fighters ⁠were prepared to ⁠continue fighting "without ​limits."