US-Iran war latest: Trump sets Tehran five-day deadline for peace deal with threat US could ‘annihilate’ Iran

Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, has travelled to Pakistan, The Times has reported.

Pakistan has offered to host in-person talks between the US and Iran, but prominent Iranian officials have not signalled that they’d be there, according to The Times.

US President Donald Trump has said the Strait of Hormuz will be controlled by “me and the ayatollah”.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Trump Monday, “What about the Strait of Hormuz? Who’s going to be in control of that?”

Trump said it would be “jointly controlled,” possibly by him.

“Maybe me. Me and the Ayatollah. Whoever the Ayatollah is, whoever the next Ayatollah is”, the president said.

After the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed early in the Iran war, his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, took over as the country’s leader.

The Strait of Hormuz, which carries about a fifth of the world’s oil, has been effectively closed by Iran amid the war, and Trump has been trying to open it.

Iranian energy infrastructure has been damaged in airstrikes, the Associated Press reported, citing the Fars news agency.

Fars, a semiofficial Iranian news agency close to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, reported that natural gas infrastructure in Isfahan was hit, and a gas pipeline for the Khorramshahr power plant was targeted.

Kuwait’s energy ministry has said “air defense operations” caused a “partial power outage”.

Seven overhead power lines were damaged by falling debris in several areas, the ministry said in a translated statement early Tuesday morning local time, adding, “Work is underway to restore power as quickly as possible”.

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defence announced that it shot down 28 drones in a few hours early Tuesday morning local time.

In a series of social media posts, the ministry announced the interception and destruction of dozens of drones in the eastern region.

An Israeli minister has called for the annexation of southern Lebanon after Israeli troops bombed bridges and destroyed homes in an escalating military assault.

The comments by the far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich were the most explicit yet by a senior Israeli official on seizing Lebanese territory in a fight Israel says targets Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.

Lebanon was pulled into the regional war on March 2 when Hezbollah fired missiles into Israel.

Since then, Israel has ordered all residents to evacuate south of the Litani River as it pummels the area with air strikes, viewing it as a stronghold of Hezbollah, which has kept up rocket attacks on Israel.

Lebanese authorities say the Israeli air and ground assault has killed more than 1,000 people, and more than a million have been driven from their homes.

Reuters witnesses heard at least three blasts in Beirut’s Dahiyeh district late on Monday, as the Israeli military said it had attacked Hezbollah sites in the city.

An earlier strike in Beirut on Monday killed a commander of the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the Israeli military said.

Six people are now reported to have died in airstrikes in western Anbar.

Airstrikes targeting a site belonging to Iraq’s Shi’ite Popular Mobilisation Forces in the western province of Anbar killed six fighters and wounded 15 others, including the PMF’s Anbar operations commander, security sources said.

America has struck more than 9,000 targets and damaged or destroyed more than 140 Iranian vessels since it launched strikes last month, the US Central Command said in an update.

“CENTCOM forces are striking targets to dismantle the Iranian regime’s security apparatus, prioritising locations that pose an imminent threat,” it said.