Dawn
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06:45 Mar 26, 2026
Israel launched strikes across Iran on Thursday, hours after US President Donald Trump said Tehran wanted a deal to end the nearly four-week war despite its top diplomat rejecting any talks with Washington. The conflict has mushroomed to draw in nations around the Middle East, sending energy markets into a tailspin and threatening to torpedo the global economy. Iran, under near-daily bombardment since a joint US-Israeli attack started the war on February 28, was hit early on Thursday by what the Israeli army said was “a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting infrastructure”, including in the central city of Isfahan. In turn, an Iranian missile attack activated sirens across central Israel, including Tel Aviv and parts of Jerusalem, on Thursday morning, according to the Israeli military, the first launches it identified from Iran in more than 14 hours. Trump, whose daily statements have swung wildly from threatening to conciliatory, said talks to end the war were ongoing with Iran, but that officials in Tehran w...