A senior Iranian military officer warned that renewed war with the U.S. seems “inevitable” as diplomacy and Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire efforts showed fresh strain.
A senior Iranian military officer warned Tuesday that renewed fighting with the United States appears “inevitable,” a stark signal as Tehran weighs a U.S. draft proposal and regional fighting continues to undercut President Trump’s public claims of progress.
The officer said “the Iranian nation will never surrender,” according to CBS News live updates. The warning landed amid conflicting accounts of whether U.S.-Iran diplomacy is still moving: a source close to Iran’s negotiating team told a state news agency Tehran is still considering the latest draft and has not responded, while Iran’s semi-official Fars News agency reported that indirect exchanges through mediators stopped several days ago.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, testifying Tuesday on Capitol Hill, said the United States and Iran remain in talks. He told lawmakers sanctions relief would require major concessions on Iran’s nuclear program, including its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and said relief had not been offered simply in exchange for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
The diplomatic uncertainty comes as the Israel-Hezbollah conflict grinds on. Trump said Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “turned his troops around” in Lebanon after a phone call between the leaders and that the sides had agreed to stop fighting ahead of Israel-Lebanon talks in Washington. But Hezbollah and Israel exchanged fire overnight, and a senior Hezbollah official said Tuesday the group would not accept a “partial ceasefire” tied to Israel sparing Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that Israeli drone strikes in southern Lebanon killed eight people Tuesday, including a father and two children. The Israeli military told The Associated Press it was not aware of strikes in one of the areas cited by the Lebanese report.
Pressure is also building around maritime transit. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said 24 vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz over the previous 24 hours after coordinating with its naval forces, and the IRGC said it targeted the MSC Sariska V cargo ship Monday in retaliation for a U.S. strike on an Iranian vessel. MSC said all crew members were safe and denied the ship was American-Israeli owned, saying its ownership was Italian.
For now, the clearest through line is uncertainty: Tehran has not publicly accepted the U.S. draft, Washington says sanctions relief hinges on nuclear concessions, and the fighting in Lebanon has continued despite announcements of a pause. The next test is whether talks in Washington and indirect U.S.-Iran contacts produce a verifiable halt in fighting — or point toward a return to hostilities.
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