Iran-Israel war highlights: Iran says U.S. must accept its peace plan or face ‘failure’

People walk past a mural depicting the late leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and the late Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran on May 12, 2026.

Iran’s chief negotiator said Tuesday (May 12, 2026) thatWashington must accept Tehran’s latest peace planor face failure, after U.S. President Donald Trump warned the truce in the war in West Asia was on the brink of collapse.

“There is no alternative but to accept the rights of the Iranian people as laid out in the 14-point proposal. Any other approach will be completely inconclusive; nothing but one failure after another,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a post on X.

Mr. Trump insisted he does not need help from China on ending the war with Iran but said he would talk at length with Xi Jinping when they meet this week.

Dubai Kuwaitaccused Iran of sending an armed paramilitary Revolutionary Guard teamto attack an island in the West Asian nation home to a China-funded port project.

Kuwait’s Interior Ministry said today it had arrested four people ‌affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards who attempted ‌to infiltrate the ‌Gulf state ⁠by sea, the ⁠state news agencyKUNAreported.

The Ministry added that one member of Kuwait’s ‌armed forces was injured in clashes with the infiltrators.

Kuwait later summoned Iran’s ‌ambassador and handed him a protest note over what it ⁠described as the infiltration of Bubiyan Island by the ‌Revolutionary Guards the Foreign Ministry said.

Bubiyan Island is the largest of Kuwait’s coastal island chain, located in the northwest ‌of the Gulf.

Kuwait condemned the incident as a hostile act and ⁠said it reserved the right ⁠to defend its sovereignty under Article ‌51 of the U.N. Charter.

The U.S. war in Iran has cost $29 billion so far, a ⁠senior Pentagon official said today, an increase of $4 billion from an estimate provided ‌late last month.

With just six months before midterm elections ‌in which U.S. President Donald Trump’s ‌Republicans ⁠may face an uphill ⁠battle to keep their House majority, Democrats are riding high in public opinion polls as they attempt to ‌link the war with cost of living issues.

On April 29, the Pentagon said the war at ‌that point had cost $25 billion.

Jules Hurst, who is performing the duties of the comptroller, told lawmakers ⁠that the new cost included updated repair and replacement of ‌equipment and operational costs.

“The joint staff team and the comptroller team are constantly looking at that estimate,” Mr. Hurst said. He was speaking alongside Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and ‌Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine.

It is unclear how the Pentagon arrived at ⁠the $29 billion figure. A source toldReuters⁠in March that Mr. Trump’s administration estimated the first six days ‌of the war had cost at least $11.3 billion.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards held military exercises in capital Tehran to prepare for any confrontation, state media reported today, after U.S. President Donald Trump warned a ceasefire in the West Asia war was on the brink of collapse.

The drills involved the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or IRGC, the ideological arm of Iran’s military, as well as the Basij, a paramilitary force affiliated with the Guards, according to state TV.

“Enhancing combat capability to confront any movement of the American-Zionist enemy was one of the goals and scenarios implemented in this drill, which was successfully carried out,” Brigadier General Hassan Hassanzadeh, commander of the Tehran Revolutionary Guards, was quoted as saying by state TV.

The war, which started more than two months ago with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, spread across West Asia and damaged the global economy, affecting hundreds of millions worldwide.

Qatar’s premier and Foreign Minister said his recent visit to Washington sought to bolster mediation efforts seeking to end the U.S.-Iran war

.“The visit focused primarily on supporting the Pakistani diplomatic efforts and ensuring a positive response to these efforts to reach a solution as quickly as possible,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said during a press conference in Doha with Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

Iran should not use the Strait of Hormuz, which it has blocked since the start of the Middle East war, as a means to blackmail Gulf states, Qatar’s top diplomat said Tuesday.

“Iran should not use this strait as a weapon to pressure or to blackmail the Gulf countries,” said Qatari Foreign Minister and Premier Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed 380 people since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war began on April 17, Lebanon’s health ministry toldAFP.

A ministry official said that “380 people, including 22 children and 39 women, have been killed in strikes on Lebanon since the ceasefire came into effect”, out of a total of around 2,900 people killed since the war erupted on March 2.

Under the terms of the truce released by Washington, Israel reserves the right to act against “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks”. In addition to carrying out ongoing airstrikes, Israeli troops have been operating behind a so-called “yellow line” that runs around 10 kilometres (six miles) north of the border between the two countries.

The United Nations condemned the toll from “escalating” Israeli military operations and settler attacks in the occupied West Bank on children, with 70 Palestinian children killed since the start of 2025.

“Children are paying an intolerable price for escalating military operations and settler attacks across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” UN children’s agency spokesman James Elder told reporters.

Since the start of 2025, when Israel began a large-scale military operation in the West Bank, “at least one Palestinian child has been killed on average every single week” there, adding that another 850 children had been injured during that period.

Iran’s chief negotiator issued an ultimatum to the United States to accept the conditions in Tehran’s 14-point proposal for peace in the West Asia war or face “failure”.

The defiant message came after U.S. President Donald Trump rejected the latest counteroffer from Iran and said that a fragile ceasefire in place since April 8 was on “life support”.

But Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Washington had to accept Tehran’s “rights” if it wanted to end more than two months of conflict, as peace talks remain deadlocked after an initial round failed to produce a breakthrough last month.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth will face a new round of questioning from lawmakers over the Iran war on Tuesday (May 12), including some Republicans who have expressed concerns over the length of the conflict and its lack of congressional approval.

The powerful House and Senate subcommittees that oversee defence spending are holding back-to-back hearings to review the Trump administration’s 2027 military budget proposal, which calls for a historic allocation of $1.5 trillion. But the discussions are expected to veer into the handling of a war that appears locked in a stalemate, as higher fuel prices pose political problems for Republicans in the midterm congressional elections.

Iran’s Chief Negotiator on Tuesday (May 12) issued an ultimatum to the United States to accept the conditions in Tehran’s 14-point proposal for peace in the West Asia war or face “failure”.

The defiant message came after U.S. President Donald Trump rejected the latest counteroffer from Iran and said that a fragile ceasefire in place since April 8 was on “life support”.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said ‌on Tuesday (May 12) that Israel had sent an Iron Dome battery ⁠and personnel to operate the air defence system to the United Arab Emirates.

“Israel ‌just sent (the UAE) Iron Dome batteries and personnel to ‌help them operate them. How ‌come? ⁠Because there’s an extraordinary relationship ⁠between the UAE and Israel based on the Abraham Accords,” Mr. Huckabee said at an event in Tel ‌Aviv, referring to a 2020 deal that saw Israel establish ties with the UAE.

Pakistan plans to ⁠increase oil imports ‌from ‌Russia ‌amid ⁠the ⁠crisis in the Strait ‌of Hormuz, Russia’s state-run ‌TASSnews agency ⁠reported, citing ‌Pakistan’s ambassador to Russia, ‌Faisal Niaz Tirmizi.

Russia resumedstrikes on Ukraine as a three-day truce expiredon Tuesday (May 12, 2026), attacking the capital with drones and killing one person in the eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian authorities said.

The Russian military meanwhile said it had shot down 27 Ukrainian drones after the ceasefire expired.

Kyiv faces drone attacks after a truce ends, with authorities urging residents to stay safe amid the ongoing threat.

Iran could ‌enrich uranium up to 90% ⁠purity, a level considered ‌weapons-grade, if ‌the country is ‌attacked ⁠once ⁠more, parliamentary national security and foreign ‌policy commission spokesperson Ebrahim Rezaei said ‌on Tuesday (May 12).

“One of Iran’s options in ⁠the event of ‌another attack could be 90% enrichment. We ‌will review it in the ⁠Parliament,” Mr. Rezaei posted on ⁠X.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday (May 12) is set to leave for Beijing to meet with President Xi Jinping after weeks of trying, and failing, to persuade the Chinese government to use its considerable leverage to prod Iran to agree to U.S. terms to end the two-month-old war, or at the very least, reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz.

Mr. Trump has veered between venting that China, the world’s biggest buyer of Iranian oil, hasn’t done more to get the Islamic Republic in line, and acknowledging that Xi’s government helped de-escalate the conflict last month by nudging Tehran back to ceasefire talks when negotiations wobbled.

Iran executed ‌a member of the Sunni ⁠militant group Ansar al-Furqan ‌active in ‌the ‌country’s southeastern ⁠province of ⁠Sistan Baluchestan, the semi-officialTasnimnews ‌agency reported on Tuesday (May 12).

The defendant, named ‌Abdoljalil Shahbakhsh, was convicted ⁠on charges including armed rebellion ‌against security forces and membership in a ‌terrorist group, with the death sentence ⁠upheld by the ⁠Supreme Court.

Israeli strikes on a town in southern Lebanon killed six people and wounded seven others, state media said Tuesday (May 12), as fighting continued despite a ceasefire agreement.

Lebanon’s state-runNational News Agency (NNA)reported that Israeli strikes on Monday night (May 11) hit a house in Kfar Dounine, a town about 95 kilometres (59 miles) from the capital, Beirut.

TheNNAreported the wounded were transported to hospitals in the coastal city of Tyre.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has extended the countrywide austerity drive till June 13 in the wake of uncertainty caused by the U.S. and Iran’s failure to strike a deal to end the conflict in West Asia amid a fragile ceasefire.

The government announced several measures on March 9 following the disruption in the energy supplies after the U.S. and Israel launched an attack against Iran on February 28.

The austerity measures were initially announced for two months.

President Donald Trump said Monday (May 12) he was ready to discuss U.S. arms sales to Taiwan during his visit this week to Beijing, as he suggested his personal chemistry with counterpart Xi Jinping would prevent a Chinese invasion of the island.

The White House said Mr. Trump will bring along top US executives, including his former nemesis Elon Musk and Apple’s Tim Cook, for a trip expected to focus heavily on the U.S. President’s hopes to ramp up trade.

China said it hoped to achieve greater stability between the world’s two largest economies during the visit lasting Wednesday through Friday (May 13), the first by a U.S. president since Trump went in 2017.

Hopes for a peace deal on Iran faded on Tuesday (May 12) after Donald Trump said a ceasefire with ‌Iran was “on life support” as Tehran rejected a U.S. proposal t