The Latest: US appears cold to Iranian proposal to end the war without a nuclear deal

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The Trump administration seemed unlikely Tuesday to accept Iran's offer to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade on the country.

The proposal would postpone discussions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, something that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to rule out in a Fox News interview Monday.

“We have to ensure that any deal that is made, any agreement that is made, is one that definitively prevents them from sprinting towards a nuclear weapon at any point,” he said of the proposal, which was delivered to the U.S. by Pakistan.

The White House said U.S. President Donald Trump's national security team discussed the offer and Trump would address it later. The offer emerged Monday as Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited Russia, long a key backer of Tehran. It was unclear what, if any, assistance Moscow might offer now.

Since the war began, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and at least 2,521 people in Lebanon amid fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. Another 23 have been killed in Israel. The toll in Lebanon also includes 16 Israeli soldiers and six U.N. peacekeepers. Across the region, 13 U.S. service members have been killed, along with at least 10 crew members on ships and more than a dozen people in Gulf Arab states.

Here is the latest:

U.S. and Israeli airstrikes crippled thousands of factories in Iran, and the economic damage is reverberating — millions more Iranians could lose their jobs. Manufacturing is all but halted, and dairies struggle to find packages for milk and butter. Most damaging, Israeli strikes knocked out most steel and petrochemical production, causing a surge in prices for metals and plastic. Things could get worse as the U.S. blockades Iranian ports.

Economic woes sparked the mass protests that were crushed before the war, and could again push Iranians into the streets. But Iran’s leaders are betting that economic self-reliance built under decades of sanctions can help them endure the pain longer than Trump.

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United Nations General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock said urgent efforts to secure a ceasefire in the Iran war are critical.

During a visit Tuesday to New Delhi, Baerbock warned the conflict is disrupting global supplies and deepening regional crises, with attacks and blockades in the Strait of Hormuz increasing oil and fertilizer prices worldwide.

“Every effort to come to a ceasefire is highly needed,” Baerbock said, adding that the escalation is diverting attention from humanitarian crises in Gaza. “It overshadows the devastating situation for the people in Gaza. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is still heartbreaking.”

International aid group Doctors Without Borders accused Israel of “systemically depriving” people in Gaza of water in what it calls a “campaign of collective punishment” against Palestinians.

Known by its French acronym MSF, the group said in a report Tuesday that Israel has destroyed or damaged about 90% of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure including desalination plants, boreholes, pipelines and sewage systems.

MSF said it also documented the Israeli military shooting at clearly identified water trucks and destroying boreholes that were a lifeline for tens of thousands of people.

The practices have far-reaching consequences for the health, hygiene and dignity of Gaza’s 2.1 million people, MSF said.

“Israeli authorities know that without water life ends, yet they have deliberately and systematically obliterated water infrastructure in Gaza – while consistently blocking water-related supplies from entering,” MSF emergency manager Claire San Filippo said.

COGAT, Israel’s military body that coordinates aid to Gaza, rejected the accusations and said the water supply in the Gaza Strip “consistently exceeds humanitarian thresholds.”

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Israeli airstrikes hit the villages of Chakra, Tebnine and Kafra in southern Lebanon on Tuesday.

A drone strike also hit a motorcycle in the village of Mansouri, the agency reported.

There was no immediate information about possible casualties.

The strike came as Israel’s military asked residents of 16 southern village to evacuate, saying Hezbollah is using the communities to launch attacks on Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.

Bahrain sentenced 30 people to life in prison and 10-year terms over accusations of spying for Iran and supporting Iranian attacks on the tiny Island kingdom.

The public prosecution said Tuesday that five people, including two Afghans, received life sentences after being convicted of spying for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

The prosecution said 25 others were separately sentenced to 10 years each for supporting Iran’s “terrorist acts” in Bahrain.

Human rights activists have long criticized Bahrain’s rights records including convicting people in closed-door trials without allowing defendants to properly defend themselves.

A 9-year-old boy was killed Tuesday by Israeli fire in southern Gaza, Nasser Hospital said.

The hospital said Adel al-Najjar was collecting firewood in a roundabout in Khan Younis city when Israeli forces shot him about 400 meters (1,312 feet) west of the Yellow Line separating Israeli-controlled areas from the rest of Gaza.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

An Associated Press video shows two of the boy’s siblings crying over him on a stretcher at the hospital’s morgue. One knelt on his body and kissed his cheeks.

“What is the guilt of those children,” a woman said during the boy’s funeral. “God is plaguing you, Israel.”

The boy’s younger brother was killed a month ago, also while collecting firewood in Khan Younis, according to hospital records.

Since a ceasefire agreement went into effect in October, Israeli airstrikes and troops firing on Palestinians near military-held zones have killed at least 818 Palestinians, including at least 226 children and 179 women, according to Gaza health officials.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday briefed New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon by phone on Pakistan’s diplomatic outreach promoting regional peace and de-escalation.

Luxon expressed appreciation for Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts including outreach to the United States and Iran, according to Sharif’s office.

Sharif thanked Luxon for his support and reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to peace, dialogue and regional stability, the office said.

The war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza has left 96% of the Palestinian enclave’s cropland damaged or inaccessible, a study has found.

A study released Tuesday by aid group Mercy Corps found only 7% of Gaza’s agricultural infrastructure remains functional.

The group said water systems have been severely degraded, wells have been damaged, salinity has risen and wastewater has infiltrated Gaza’s farmland.

“This destruction is not just environmental,” Mercy Corps said. “It is directly linked to the food crisis.”

The group warned full recovery of Gaza’s cropland could be hindered for years if Israel continued its restriction on goods delivery and the contamination of land and water was not addressed.

An October ceasefire stopped heavy fighting in the Gaza war, which began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

A senior U.S. State Department official says Iran’s “illegal behavior” in the Strait of Hormuz should serve as a “wake-up call” for global energy security.

Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker told at a gathering of Baltic, Black, and Adriatic Sea countries Tuesday in Croatia that more needs to be done to diversify supplies and connect to avoid future problems.

“Iran’s illegal behavior in the Strait of Hormuz should be a wakeup call for all of us with regard to the need to secure our supply chains and reduce our dependencies on unreliable countries and geographies,” Hooker said during a panel discussion in the southern Adriatic Sea city of Dubrovnik.

“We all need to do more,” Hooker said. “The world is changing under our feet.”

The secretary of state was asked in a Fox News interview about Iran’s latest proposal, which would postpone discussions on its nuclear program but end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade and ends the war.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that at some point in the future if this radical clerical regime remains in charge in Iran, they will decide they want a nuclear weapon,” Rubio said.

“That fundamental issue still has to be confronted,” he said. “That still remains the core issue here.”

Asked if he thinks the Iranians are serious about a deal, Rubio said they are skilled negotiators looking to buy time.

“We can’t let them get away with it,” Rubio said. “We have to ensure that any deal that is made, any agreement that is made, is one that definitively prevents them from sprinting towards a nuclear weapon at any point.”