live Deal US Is Seeking With Iran 'Far Better' Than JCPOA, Says Trump

Good morning. We'll start the live blog today with Kuwait's Armed Forces announcing on March 25 that the country's air defense systems responded to incoming missile and drone threats. In a statement posted on X, the Army noted that explosions heard were the result of intercepting hostile targets. Separately, the country's civil aviation authority reported that drones thought to be launched by Iran had struck a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport, causing a fire. There have been no reports of casualties.

We are now closing the live blog for the day. We'll be back tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. Central European time to cover the latest events across the Middle East.

Iran has said "non-hostile vessels" can transit the Strait of Hormuz, according to a statement released to the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

"Non-hostile vessels... may -- provided that they neither participate in nor support acts of aggression against Iran -- and fully comply with the declared safety and security regulations -- benefit from safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz in coordination with the competent authorities," the statement said.

The IMO said the communique, dated Sunday, March 22, was issued by Iran's Foreign Ministry with the request that it be circulated by the IMO. The IMO says it had shared it with member states and NGOs.

The announcement comes amid US claims that Iran is eager to reach an agreement on how to end the daily US and Israeli airstrikes, to which Iran responded by obstructing the passage of commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz and thus disrupting oil and gas export from the Middle East to world markets, which has brought global energy prices up.

Iran also pointed out that the announcement does not apply to ships and equipment belonging to the United States and Israel, as well as other "participants in the aggression."

US and Israeli media outlets are reporting that the United States has sent Iran a 15-point plan to resolve the conflict in the Middle East, now in its fifth week since the US and Israel launched air strikes against Iran on February 28.

Citing two unnamed officials it said had been briefed on the diplomacy, The New York Times reported on March 24 that the plan had been delivered via Pakistan. The paper said it was “unclear how widely the plan…had been shared among Iranian officials” or whether Israel was on board.

Israel's Channel 12, which cited three sources, said the US was seeking a month-long cease-fire to discuss the plan, which it said included keeping the Strait of Hormuz open, dismantling Iran's nuclear program, ending its backing of proxy groups, and the removal of all sanctions on Tehran, among other things.

US President Donald Trump said on March 24 that the United States is "talking to the right people in Iran" about a deal to end the war and that “we’re in negotiations right now,” but did not provide details. Senior Iranian figures said a day earlier that Iran was not in negotiations with the US.

The Pentagon is reportedly preparing to send about 3,000 soldiers from the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, including elements of its Immediate Response Force, to the Middle East.

According to reports by The Wall Street Journal and Fox News, a written deployment order is expected soon. Major Geneneral Brandon Tegtmeier, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, and his headquarters staff have already been ordered to deploy.

The division’s elite paratroopers can deploy rapidly worldwide, often within 18–24 hours. Troops could begin moving within hours or days, although there has been no official confirmation of their departure.

President Donald Trump said the United States is “talking to the right people” in Iran as the US-Israeli war with Iran continues, reiterating that contacts are taking place despite Tehran’s denials.

"We're actually talking ‌to the right people and they want to make a deal so badly, ‌you have no idea how badly they want to make a deal," Trump said in remarks at the White House on March 24.

For the second time in two days, he said Iran had agreed it would never have nuclear weapons.

Trump did not name or otherwise identify anyone the United States is negotiating with. He said “we’re dealing with a new group of people” after killing the longtime supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and numerous other senior Iranian figures.

He said this group had given the US a “very big present" that had "arrived today" and was related to oil and gas. He did not say what it was.

While Iran continues to launch attacks on Israel, Persian Gulf countries, and US assets in the region, and is effectively blocking the Strait of Hormuz, a key artery for oil and gas shipments, Trump said that “this war has been won” and that Iran is “totally defeated.”

Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on March 23 that the United States and Iran had held "very good and productive" conversations about a "complete and total resolution of hostilities in the Middle East."

Iran’s parliament speaker and other denied negotiations with the US had been held, but US media reports suggested that there has been at least initial contact between the sides through intermediaries.

The Baha'i International Community says that Peyvan Naimi, a young Baha'i believer imprisoned in Kerman, a city in southern Iran, is facing "death threats" after enduring "two mock executions."

According to the group, which represents members of the worldwide Baha'i faith, the man has been subjected to "torture" and "interrogation" for a "long period of time," and the Iranian authorities are "trying to force him to confess to a crime he did not commit."

Naimi was arrested on January 8 on charges of "inciting" the protests that spread throughout the country -- a charge that the Baha'i International Community has called "false."

According to the group, after being arrested, Naimi was transferred to a "detention center under the supervision of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps" in Kerman, which is "notorious for torture and mistreatment of prisoners."

Naimi was transferred to a prison in Kerman after the broadcast of his "forced confession" on Iranian state TV, the group said, and, "to this day, no trial has been held for him, no verdict has been issued, and no evidence has been presented to justify the false accusations against him."

The Iranian authorities have persecuted the Baha'i community-- the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority -- for decades through arbitrary arrests, long prison sentences, bans from higher education and public-sector jobs, property confiscations, and other forms of discrimination.

Naimi has reportedly been accused of participating in the "death" of three paramilitary Basij officers during the January protests, "even though he was in detention at the time of the alleged attack." He was also "falsely accused of celebrating the death of Ali Khamenei, the former leader of the Islamic Republic, news of which he was unaware as a prisoner without access to communications."

According to the Baha'i International Community, Naimi's family says the young man was “subjected to constant and severe torture and interrogation and deprived of food and water for 10 days last week. His hands and feet were tied for 48 hours, tied to a wall, and repeatedly beaten."

Human rights groups have repeatedly documented Iran's use of torture, interrogation, and mock executions to extract false confessions.

Iran's national police command says 466 people have been arrested in recent days on charges of "online activities aimed at undermining national security."

A police report published on March 24 claimed that the arrested individuals were in contact with "enemy" networks and intended to create internal instability. Iranian state media have reported the arrests of more than 1,000 people on similar charges over the past month.

Meanwhile, in a statement, the Intelligence Ministry said it had identified and arrested 30 people in the provinces of Hamedan, Lorestan, and Kerman, claiming that these individuals were active in networks affiliated with the United States and Israel. The ministry said that some of the detainees "played a role in collecting and sending information from military and security centers."

Due to the Internet shutdown and the widespread disruption of communication channels, the only source of such news for the vast majority of Iranians is state-run media.

Iran has named a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and senior figure in ‌the hard-line political faction to replace the head of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, who was killed in US-Israeli air strikes last week.

Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr was appointed as Larijani's successor, according to Mehdi Tabatabaei, deputy of communications for the Iranian president's office.

Zolqadr is a former senior commander of the IRGC and is considered one of the original members of the group.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) claimed that Israel had crossed "red lines in genocide" of Lebanese and Palestinian civilians and said if this trend continues it will target the "gathering places" of Israeli forces in the north of the country and the Gaza Strip with missile and drone attacks.

This threat was issued by the IRGC after the Israeli Army announced on March 23 that two missiles fired from Iran toward Israel had landed in southern Lebanon.

The IRGC did not provide further details about the reason for the warning in its statement.

Since the start of the current war with Iran and the subsequent attacks on Israel by Hezbollah, which is deemed a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel has launched a large-scale simultaneous operation against the group in southern Lebanon.

In the latest developments, Lebanese officials said two people were killed and five others were wounded in an Israeli air strike on an area outside Beirut. The attack came after several overnight attacks on Beirut's southern suburbs.

The official Lebanese news agency reported continued Israeli attacks on various areas in the south and northeast of the country, as well as the entry of Israeli forces into a border town and clashes with residents.

Hezbollah has also announced attacks on Israeli forces in southern Lebanon and targets in northern Israel. The fighting, now in its fourth week, has killed more than 1,000 and caused widespread displacement in Lebanon.