“RESIST UNTIL THE END”
Trump has recently raised the possibility of a deal to end the war, which has pushed up fuel prices in the US and around the world, and pushed down his approval ratings.
He said talks could be possible with Iran’s new leadership, which he described as “less radical and much more reasonable” than their predecessors.
But Tehran has dismissed Washington’s ceasefire overtures, describing US demands to end the conflict as “maximalist and irrational”.
“Messages have been received through intermediaries, including Pakistan, but there is no direct negotiation with the US,” said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, quoted by the ISNA news agency on Thursday.
Trump warned that if no agreement with Tehran was struck, Washington had “our eyes on key targets including the country’s electric generating plants”.
Pro-government Iranians voiced defiance as they marched in Tehran at the funeral of a Revolutionary Guards naval commander killed in an Israeli strike.
“This war has lasted a month. However long it takes, we will continue,” said Moussa Nowruzi, a 57-year-old pensioner.
“We will resist until the end.”
The country’s health ministry said the Pasteur Institute of Iran, a century-old medical centre in Tehran, had been extensively damaged in a strike.
In Lebanon, militant group Hezbollah said its fighters launched drones and rockets at northern Israel on Thursday, with the Israeli military’s Home Front Command saying air raid sirens were activated.
A day earlier, Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander, two sources told AFP, in a Beirut strike that the Lebanese health ministry said killed seven people.
Authorities in Lebanon say Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,300 people in the country since the war erupted between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah on Mar 2.
