Trump says Iran deal terms ‘not good enough’ as US warns of more strikes on Kharg Island

Iran launched at least three successive waves of missile attacks on Israel on Sunday, striking central areas and triggering air raid sirens across several regions, according to reports circulating on social media and statements cited by Drop Site News.

The reported barrage targeted multiple locations, with missiles impacting sites in central Israel while another wave was directed toward the southern part of the country. Initial accounts indicated damage in some areas, though the full extent of casualties or destruction was not immediately clear.

Videos and eyewitness reports shared online showed explosions and interception attempts as Israeli air defence systems responded to incoming projectiles. Authorities issued alerts urging residents in affected regions to seek shelter while emergency services assessed potential impact sites.

Images circulating on social media showed damage to buildings and infrastructure in Holon, south of Tel Aviv, following the reported Iranian missile strikes, though the extent of destruction and any casualties could not be independently verified.

The attacks come amid escalating regional tensions between Iran, Israel and the United States, with both sides exchanging strikes during a widening conflict that has drawn in multiple actors across the Middle East. Previous missile barrages have targeted major population centres and infrastructure across Israel, sometimes causing injuries and significant property damage despite interception efforts by air defence systems.

There was no immediate official statement from Israeli authorities detailing the scale of damage from the latest strikes. Iranian officials have previously framed missile launches as retaliation for Israeli and US military actions in the region.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said Iran appeared willing to make a deal to end the war, but the terms were “not good enough yet,” while warning that Washington could carry out further strikes on the Iranian oil export hub of Kharg Island.

In a telephone interview with NBC News on Saturday, Trump said Tehran wanted negotiations but insisted any agreement would require Iran to abandon nuclear ambitions.

“Iran wanted to make a deal, but I’m unwilling to do so now because the terms are not good enough yet,” Trump said. He declined to specify the terms but said an Iranian commitment to abandon nuclear ambitions would be part of any potential agreement.

Trump also said several countries had committed to helping secure the Strait of Hormuz, though he refused to name them.

The president said US strikes had “totally demolished” most of Kharg Island, a critical hub for Iranian oil exports, and warned more attacks could follow.

“We may hit it a few more times just for fun,” Trump said, while dismissing concerns about rising oil prices. “There’s so much oil, gas – there’s so much out there, but you know, it’s being clogged up a little bit. It’ll be unclogged very soon.”

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Trump also raised questions about the fate of Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of slain former leader Ali Khamenei.

“I don’t know if he’s even alive. So far, nobody’s been able to show him,” Trump said, noting that Khamenei’s first message was issued in writing rather than on camera.

“I’m hearing he’s not alive, and if he is, he should do something very smart for his country, and that’s surrender,” he added, before describing reports of his death as a “rumour”.

Earlier, Trump had threatened further strikes on Kharg Island and urged allies to deploy warships to secure the Strait of Hormuz, a key global oil and gas transit route.

Writing on social media, Trump said countries that rely on oil shipments through the strait should take responsibility for protecting the passage.

“The Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help — A LOT!” he wrote. “The US will also coordinate with those Countries so that everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well.”

Tehran’s capacity to choke off traffic through the Strait of Hormuz – the gateway for a fifth of the world’s oil – has vaulted from a long-standing danger to an urgent flashpoint, confronting the US and its allies with a crisis that could upend the global economy.

The comments marked an escalation in rhetoric from Trump, who had previously said US forces targeted only military facilities on Kharg Island. They also appeared to undermine diplomatic efforts, with three sources telling Reuters that the Trump administration had already rejected attempts by Middle Eastern allies to start negotiations aimed at ending the war.

Read More: US now begging others, even China, to help it make Hormuz safe, says Iran’s FM

As the conflict entered its third week, both sides appeared to be preparing for a prolonged fight.
Tehran rejected the possibility of any ceasefire until US and Israeli airstrikes stop, while Iranian forces continued strikes across the region.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday they had carried out missile and drone strikes on targets in Israel and three US bases in the region, calling the attacks the first round of retaliation for workers killed in Iran’s industrial areas. The Israeli military said it was intercepting incoming launches.

Saudi Arabia intercepted and destroyed 10 drones in Riyadh and the east, the defence ministry said. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had no connection to the attack, semi-official Fars news agency reported.

A drone attack disrupted a major United Arab Emirates energy hub on Saturday, and Washington warned US citizens to leave Iraq after a missile attack on the US embassy in Baghdad overnight on Friday.

Oil-loading operations have resumed at the global ship-refueling hub of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, after a drone attack and fire on Saturday, a Fujairah-based industry source said.

Since Israel and the United States began air attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, more than 2,000 people — mostly in Iran — have been killed, according to reports from governments and state media. At least 15 people were killed when an airstrike hit a refrigerator and heater factory in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported.

Iran warned civilians in the United Arab Emirates to evacuate ports, docks and what it called “American hideouts,” saying US forces had targeted Iran from those areas. The UAE denied that strikes on Kharg Island overnight Friday had been launched from its territory.

Calling any facility associated with the United States a “legitimate target,” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps urged US industries to leave the region.

Russia is supplying Iran with Shahed drones to use against the US and Israel, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told CNN. Shahed drones have been linked to other attacks on countries in the region, although their manufacturers are not always clear.

Oil market disruptions also appeared set to continue. Some oil-loading operations were suspended in the emirate of Fujairah after a drone attack, according to industry sources.

The emirate’s media office said the drone was intercepted, but civil defence crews were still trying late Saturday to extinguish a fire caused by falling debris.

Meanwhile, Iran downplayed the extent of damage on Kharg Island. The US military’s US Central Command said it had struck more than 90 targets there, including naval mine storage facilities, missile bunkers and other military sites.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi dismissed speculation by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth that Mojtaba Khamenei had been wounded.

“There is no problem with the new supreme leader. He sent his message yesterday, and he will perform his duties,” Araqchi said.

Iran’s defence ministry said nine ballistic missiles and 33 drones had been launched toward the UAE, while warning residents to leave areas near Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port, Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa Port and Fujairah port.

Fujairah, located outside the Strait of Hormuz, is a major outlet for about one million barrels per day of the UAE’s Murban crude oil, equivalent to about 1% of global demand.

Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform, urged China, France, Japan, South Korea, Britain and others to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz. None of those countries gave any immediate indication they would do so.

Takayuki Kobayashi, Japan’s ruling party policy chief, declined to rule out the possibility, but told public broadcaster NHK that “the (legal) threshold is very high.”

Japan interprets its pacifist postwar constitution to mean it can deploy its military if the nation’s survival is threatened, but the government would have to invoke a 2015 security law that has not been used.

France is seeking to assemble a coalition to secure the Strait of Hormuz once the security situation stabilises, while Britain is discussing a range of options with allies to ensure the security of shipping, officials have said.

South Korea’s presidential office said it would decide on Trump’s request after a “careful review.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who replaced his slain father, has said the Strait of Hormuz should ​remain closed.

Israeli spies held

Twenty people were arrested in northwestern Iran for attempting to cooperate with Israel, Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday, citing a statement by the West Azerbaijan province’s prosecutor’s office.

They are accused of sending location details on Iran’s military and security assets to Israel.

Israel has launched a new phase of its assault on Iran, targeting security checkpoints based on tip-offs from informants on the ground, a source briefed on Israel’s military strategy told Reuters last week.

‘Money, technology for help’

Ukraine wants money and technology in return for helping Middle Eastern nations defend against Iranian kamikaze drones, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, after Kyiv sent specialists to four countries in the region.

Zelenskiy told reporters in comments cleared for release on Sunday that each team sent to the Middle East consisted of dozens of people, who will be able to conduct expert assessments and demonstrate how drone defences should operate.

‘Ready for probe’

Iran’s foreign minister denied that Iran has targeted civilian or residential areas in the Middle East and said Tehran is ready to form a committee with its neighbours to investigate the responsibility for such strikes.

Gulf countries have called upon Iran to cease its attacks on their territories, which have not only sustained strikes on US military bases but also damage to energy facilities and residential areas.

Abbas Araqchi’s Telegram channel quoted him as saying in an interview with Al-Araby al-Jadeed website that Tehran was in communication with various Gulf capitals and would welcome any initiative that could guarantee a complete end to the US-Israeli war on Iran.