Trump says ‘no deal’ as Iran says some countries have begun mediation efforts

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DUBAI/WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump said on March 6 that no deal with Iran would be possible short of its “unconditional surrender”, dashing hopes for mediation talks floated earlier in the day to end a devastating war that has spilled beyond the Middle East.

“After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction,” he said in a social media post.

In one of the first signals since the war began of any possible diplomatic initiative to end it, Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on X earlier in the day: “Some countries have begun mediation efforts.”

He did not identify the countries or give details. “Let’s be clear: We are committed to lasting peace in the region, but we have not the slightest hesitation in defending the dignity and authority of our country. Mediation should address those who underestimated the Iranian people and ignited this conflict,” he added.

Under Iran’s system, the president is subordinate to the supreme leader, but Mr Pezeshkian is now serving on a panel that has assumed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s duties.

Israel pounded Beirut on March 6 after ordering an unprecedented evacuation of the entire southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, a major expansion of the war against Iran it began a week ago alongside the United States.

Israel also launched a new wave of attacks on Iran, saying about 50 of its warplanes struck a bunker beneath the Tehran compound of slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, still being used by Iran’s leadership after he was killed by Israeli bombs on the first day of the war.

In an apparent escalation of his own war aims, Mr Trump demanded the right to help choose a successor to Mr Khamenei.

Israel has extended its bombing to Lebanon to root out Hezbollah, the Shi’ite militia allied to Iran that has been a dominant faction in Lebanese politics since the 1980s. Hezbollah fired on Israel this week to avenge the death of Mr Khamenei.

Explosions and flashes lit up the night sky over Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The Israeli military said it carried out 26 waves of strikes overnight, with targets that included Iran-backed Hezbollah militia command centres and weapons storage facilities.

“We’re sleeping here in the streets, some in cars, some on the street, some on the beach,” said Mr Jamal Seifeddin, 43, who fled Beirut’s southern suburbs and spent the night on the streets in the capital’s downtown district. “I’ve never slept on the ground like this. I’ve been forced to. No one even brought a blanket.”

Israel has intervened in Lebanon repeatedly, most recently in a bombing campaign that seriously weakened Hezbollah in 2024. But the ferocity of the strikes on March 6 appeared to have little precedent, even in the long history of warfare in the Lebanese capital.

Israel ordered an evacuation of the entire southern section of Beirut, home to hundreds of thousands of people. During previous campaigns, it ordered only smaller evacuations of specific areas.

Lebanon Prime Minister Nawaf Salam warned that “a humanitarian disaster is looming” due to mass displacement.

Speaking to foreign ambassadors, he said “the consequences of this displacement, at the humanitarian and political level, may well be unprecedented”.

More than 95,000 people are displaced to official shelters, according to the government’s latest count. “Our country has been drawn into a devastating war that we did not seek and did not choose,” Mr Salam said.

“Those who were forced to leave their homes are not and should not be held responsible for the suffering inflicted on them,” he added.

“They are victims of the Israeli war on Lebanon but also of those who offered a pretext for the Israeli aggression,” he said, in a jab at Hezbollah.

Tit-for-tat continues

Alongside the bombing of Beirut, Israel launched a new wave of attacks on Iran, saying it was targeting infrastructure in the capital Tehran.

Inside Israel, explosions could be heard as Israeli defences activated to shoot down incoming Iranian fire. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it launched a combined missile and drone operation targeting sites in the heart of Tel Aviv.

Overnight, Iranian drones also attacked the Al Udeid airbase in Qatar, the biggest US base in the Middle East, Qatari officials said. There were no reported casualties.

Nine ballistic missiles and more than 100 drones were intercepted over the United Arab Emirates, according to a statement from the Emirati Defence Ministry.

In insisting on the right to help choose Iran’s next leader – meant to be a senior Shi’ite Muslim cleric selected by a panel of religious experts – Mr Trump made his most explicit demand for control over a country of more than 90 million people.

The remarks could make it more difficult to end the war quickly in a deal that would leave Iran’s system of clerical rule in place.

“We’re going to have to choose that person along with Iran. We’re going to have to choose that person,” Mr Trump said on March 5.

Israel has said openly that it wants to overthrow Iran’s ruling system. Washington has been more circumspect, saying its aim is to eliminate Iran’s ability to project force beyond its borders, while also inviting Iranians to rise up and topple their government.

There was no immediate Iranian response to Mr Trump’s remarks.

Iran has cast the war as an unprovoked attack and describes the killing of its leader, Mr Khamenei, as an assassination. It says the panel that will choose the new leader is conducting its work.

Iranian officials initially said the new leader could be chosen soon and the leading candidate was Mr Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, a powerful hardliner. But plans for a quick dynastic succession may have been stalled since a three-day period of mourning for Mr Khamenei was postponed indefinitely on March 4.

Some Iranians openly celebrated the death of Mr Khamenei, just weeks after security forces under his control killed thousands of protesters in the worst domestic unrest since the revolutionary era. But there has been little sign of opposition to the authorities during the air strikes, with activists saying it is not safe to return to the streets.

War is choking aid

At least 1,230 people have been killed in Iran since the fighting began a week ago, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society.

The Lebanese Health Ministry has reported 123 people killed and 683 wounded as a result of Israeli attacks. At least 10 Israelis have been killed by Iranian attacks.

Aid officials said key humanitarian air, sea and land routes are being constricted by disruption from the war, delaying life-saving shipments to some of the world’s worst crises.

Aid to Gaza and Sudan is grinding to a halt, and costs are soaring for help to the hundreds of millions suffering hunger crises around the world.

“People in dire need of assistance will have to wait longer for food,” said Mr Jean-Martin Bauer, director of food security at the World Food Programme.

Already, tents, tarpaulins and lamps destined for the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank have become stuck in the supply chain, the International Organization for Migration said.

The United Nations rights chief on March 6 called for cool heads to prevail and urged the warring sides in the spiralling conflict to pull back and “give peace a chance”.

Mr Volker Turk told reporters in Geneva that the crisis “has been spreading like wildfire”.

“The world urgently needs to see steps to contain and extinguish this blaze,” he said, lamenting that “instead, we are only seeing more inflammatory, bellicose rhetoric, more bombings, more destruction, killings and escalation that fuels it further”.

“I urge the states involved to take immediate steps to de-escalate, to give peace a chance. And on other states to call clearly on those involved to pull back,” he said. “Cool heads must prevail if we are to prevent further terror and devastation for civilians.” REUTERS, AFP