Iran-US war latest: Tehran denies wanting ceasefire and warns Trump it will fight for ‘as long as it takes’

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi also said in his comments today that the country is open to having discussions with others about the Strait of Hormuz, which is currently disrupting oil markets.

“We are open to countries who want to talk to us about the safe passage of their vessels,” he told NBC.

Negotiations between Iran and India had seen the safe passage of the country’s vessel through the vital waterway.

“I cannot mention any country in particular, but we have been approached by a number of countries who wants to have a safe passage for their vessels. And this is up to our military to decide, and they have already decided to let, you know, a group of vessels belongs to different countries to pass in a safe and secure.”

Three arrests have been made amid a protest and counter-protest for Al Quds Day, police said.

Al Quds Day demonstrators chanted “from the river to the sea” and held pictures of the late leader of Iran at a static protest in London on Sunday.

The Metropolitan Police said they were “aware of chanting made by a speaker at the Al Quds protest and will be investigating”.

Scotland Yard had braced for a “difficult public order” environment, with at least 1,000 officers drafted in to manage the crowd.

In a post on X, the Metropolitan Police said: “Officers have made three arrests, one for showing support for a proscribed organisation, one for dangerous driving and a third for threatening and abusive behaviour.”

The force added: “We are aware of chanting made by a speaker at the Al Quds protest and will be investigating.

“We recognise the concern footage and chanting like this causes, particularly with London’s Jewish communities.

“When this language had been used previously we sought advice from the CPS who determined that there would be insufficient evidence to take a case forward.”

Over 400 million barrels of oil from the emergency reserves of the International Energy Agency are to flow into global markets soon, the agency said in a statement on Sunday.

Governments have committed to make available 271.7 million barrels of oil from government stocks, 116.6 million barrels from obligated industry stocks and 23.6 million barrels from other sources, the statement said.

It added that 72 per cent of planned releases are in the form of crude oil and 28 per cent are oil products.

Stocks from Asia Oceania countries will be available immediately and stocks from Europe and the Americas will be available at the end of March.

Major Alex Klinner, 33, left behind 7-month-old twins and a 2-year-old son when the KC-135 Stratotanker he and five other crew members were aboard Thursday to support the U.S. war against Iran crashed, his brother-in-law James Harrill told the Associated Press.

“On March 12, our world shattered,” his wife, Libby, wrote on Instagram. “I’m devastated to lose the best person I know, the person that made everything more fun, my best friend.”

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has said that he sees no point in negotiating with the US and said his country is fighting a war of “self-defence”.

“We don’t see any reason why we should talk with Americans, because we were talking with them when they decided to attack us, and that was for the second time,” Araghchi told CBS News.

“This is a war of choice by President Trump and the United States, and we are going to continue our self-defence.”

Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has issued a defiant message after President Donald Trump claimed that the Islamic Republic had been pleading for a deal.

”We never asked for a cease fire, and we have never asked even for negotiation,” he told CBS News.

“We are ready to defend ourselves as long as it takes. And this is what we have done so far, and we continue to do that until President Trump comes to the point that this is an illegal war with no victory.”

He also appeared to refer to Trump’s comments about striking Kharg Island “just for fun”.

“And you know, there are people being killed only because President Trump wants to have fun.”

Israel is to widen the scope of strikes against Iran, the military has said in a new update.

Several central command centres of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are said to have been damaged as well as several command centres associated with the Basij unit of the country’s security forces.

“The IDF is expanding in these days the scope of strikes targeting infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime in additional areas in western and central Iran, with the aim of broadly and systematically impairing the regime’s command and control capabilities,” it wrote in a statement on Sunday afternoon.

“The completed strikes are part of the phase of deepening the damage to the core arrays of the Iranian terror regime and its foundations.”

The US Central Command has shared new footage of strikes on Iranian targets on Sunday.

“Iranian combat power declines, as US dominance builds over vast swaths of Iran,” it wrote in a caption to the video.

Five people in Bahrain have been arrested for allegedly collecting and passing on “precise and sensitive information” to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

They were also arrested for “recruiting terrorist elements” in order to carry out plots against Bahrain, the country’s ministry of the interior confirmed on Sunday.

A sixth individual is on the run.