The Japan Times - Iran hits targets across Middle East after Trump signals talks progress

The conflict that began on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran has mushroomed throughout the Middle East, sending world energy markets into tailspin.

Iran fired a salvo of "precision-guided" missiles and drones at Israel and bases hosting US forces in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain, the country's Revolutionary Guards said early Wednesday.

AFP images captured rocket trails streaming over the skies of Israeli coastal city Netanya, as air raid sirens blasted across much of the country's central region.

Drones hit a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport sparking a fireball, while authorities in Jordan reported shrapnel falling near the capital Amman and air raid warnings rang out in Bahrain.

Iran has lashed out at Gulf nations, long seen as a relative safe haven in a volatile region, hammering the tourism industry and crippling global air travel as their major hubs come under attack.

The war has also drawn in Lebanon, with Israeli forces aiming to take control of ground up to the Litani River, around 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border, stepping up its campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah.

In the Lebanese town of Sahel Alma, north of Beirut, AFP images showed shattered windows and rubble lining the streets after an explosion.

"We have two-year-old children scared and crying and going through this," local resident Gaia Khouiri told AFP.

The Israeli campaign has killed at least 1,072 people in Lebanon, with more than one million people displaced, according to Lebanese authorities.

Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, again overnight.

An AFP correspondent saw a street covered in debris including shattered cement and and warped pieces of metal after the early morning strike, while an apartment building's upper floors appeared badly hit.

- 'Very big present' -

Israel also said it was launching fresh missile strikes on the "infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime".

"The sounds, the explosions, the missiles -- they are part of our daily life now," a 35-year-old woman in Tehran told AFP by telephone.

As the fighting on the ground showed little sign of respite, Trump appeared to be ramping up efforts to bring the conflict to an end.

The US president, whose daily statements on the war have swung wildly from threatening to conciliatory, said Washington was "in negotiations right now" with Tehran.

He told reporters in the Oval Office that Iran had given him "a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money", which he said demonstrated that "we're dealing with the right people".

Trump did not elaborate further but said it related to the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has largely blockaded in retaliation for US and Israeli strikes, sending global energy prices soaring.

Several media reported Trump had sent a 15-point plan to Iran via Pakistan, which has offered to mediate a possible end to the war.

Trump's cryptic statements on his eagerness to talk with Iran included repeating a claim that Tehran has "agreed they will never have a nuclear weapon".

Iran had agreed in 2015 to broad restraints on its contested nuclear programme in a deal that Trump ripped up during his first term.

Despite the US leader's stated hopes for a deal, The Wall Street Journal reported that Washington is planning to send a further 3,000 soldiers to the Middle East.

Iranian officials have yet to confirm any formal talks.

- 'Aggressor parties' -

As the warring parties traded strikes, focus remained on the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the key route through which one fifth of the world's crude oil flows.

Tehran, in a message circulated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), assured safe passage through the strait to "non-hostile vessels".

However, the IMO cited a statement from Iran's foreign ministry as saying no passage would be granted to vessels belonging to "the aggressor parties -- namely the United States and the Israeli regime".

The economic impact of the crisis has begun to bite around the world, with governments looking to cut energy consumption and airlines scaling back flights.

But Iran's pledge, plus Trump's more conciliatory tone, pushed stocks higher and sent oil prices lower in Asian trade.

The wider impact of the choking of the Strait of Hormuz was highlighted by a warning from a top World Trade Organization official in an interview with AFP.

"Fertilisers are the number one issue of concern today. If there is no more fertiliser, there is an impact on quantities but also on prices," Jean-Marie Paugam told AFP in an interview.

"The effect compounds the following year: harvests shrink and prices rise."

burs-ric/jsa

Y.Hara--JT