Sawt Falasteen - Iran media casts doubt on US peace plan

In a first public acknowledgement of US efforts to discuss peace, state television cited an unidentified official as saying the war would end on Tehran's terms, shortly after Iran said it had fired a volley of cruise missiles at a US aircraft carrier.

"Iran has responded negatively" to the American proposal, the official said, dismissing the reported overture from US President Donald Trump, according to the English-language broadcaster Press TV, in a report picked up by Iran's main news agencies.

"The end of the war will occur when Iran decides it should end, not when Trump envisions its conclusion," the Iranian official said.

Tehran had five conditions for ending the war, he added, including guarantees against future attacks and reparations for war damages.

The rebuttal came after two senior officials in Islamabad told AFP that Pakistan had conveyed to Tehran a 15-point plan proposed by the US to stop the fighting that began on February 28 with a US-Israeli bombing campaign on Iran and sparked retaliatory strikes across the region.

As the human and economic cost of the fighting mounts, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the war was "out of control".

"The conflict has broken past the limits even leaders thought imaginable," he told reporters. "The world is staring down the barrel of a wider war, a rising tide of human suffering, and a deeper global economic shock. This has gone too far."

On the ground, there was no let-up in the hostilities, with targets in Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia all coming under fire.

Iran's military said its cruise missiles fired at the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier group had "forced it to change its position", warning of "powerful strikes" when the "hostile fleet" comes into range.

US ally Israel, meanwhile, said it had struck targets in Tehran as well as a submarine development facility in the central city of Isfahan.

From the Iranian capital, 40-year-old Shayan told AFP: "There is gasoline, water and electricity. But there is a sense of helplessness in all of us. We don't know what to do and there's really nothing we can do."

- Iran sets five conditions -

Trump has in recent days repeatedly claimed progress in talks with Iran, even as Tehran denied any formal negotiations were taking place.

But there have been increased signs of tentative diplomatic efforts, with mediators in the region saying work was ongoing behind the scenes to relay messages.

"There is hope but it's too early to be optimistic," said a diplomatic source in the region, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive issues.

Both sides need to be able to climb down without losing face, the source noted.

According to the New York Times, citing anonymous officials, the American 15-point plan touches on Iran's contested nuclear and missile programmes, as well as "maritime routes".

Tehran has largely blocked the vital Strait of Hormuz oil route in retaliation for the US-Israeli attacks, pushing up global energy prices.

The Iranian official quoted by Press TV said Tehran has put forward its own five conditions for hostilities to end.

These include ending "aggression and assassinations" against the country and its leaders, setting up a robust mechanism guaranteeing that neither Israel nor the US will resume the war, as well as compensation for the destruction caused.

Iran's conditions also include a cessation of hostilities on all regional fronts and against all "resistance groups" -- an implicit reference to the Tehran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Tehran also wants international recognition and guarantees of Iran's rights to exercise its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.

- 'Our heart is here' -

It remains unclear whether Israel is on board with America's diplomatic overture.

While striking targets in Iran Wednesday, Israel kept up its campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, where Israeli warplanes pounded the southern suburbs of Beirut.

An AFP correspondent saw a street covered in shattered cement and warped metal after the early morning strike, while an apartment building's upper floors appeared damaged.

Lebanon was pulled into the war when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

According to Lebanese authorities, more than 1,000 people have been killed in over three weeks of Israeli strikes and upwards of one million people displaced.

In the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, almost cut off from the rest of the country by bombs, Khalil, a man in his 30s, voiced his defiance.

"They'll have to take us by force," he told AFP.

Despite Israeli ground operations and the spectre of a full-blown invasion, "we don't want to leave our land... our heart is here", said Khalil, sheltering with his young family in a theatre.

- 'Unbelievable price' -

Stocks rose and oil prices tumbled on optimism over potential negotiations, but focus remained on the Strait of Hormuz, through which one fifth of the world's oil passes.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday that Iran had given him "a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money", which he said demonstrated that "we're dealing with the right people".

The US president did not elaborate further but said it was related to the Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran, in a message circulated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), assured safe passage through the strait to "non-hostile vessels".

However, the IMO also cited a statement from Iran's foreign ministry as saying no passage would be granted to vessels belonging to "the aggressor parties -- namely the United States and the Israeli regime".

Hanoi resident Nguyen Van Chi said higher fuel prices meant he had not driven his truck in the past two weeks, instead opting to cycle.

"With this unbelievable price of diesel, I cannot even sell my truck as no one is going to use it," the 54-year-old businessman told AFP.

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O.Farraj--SF-PST