Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir on Tuesday met senior Iranian officials as Pakistan continued its diplomatic push to end the US-Iran conflict. Pakistan is a ​key mediator between the US and ⁠Iran. Its earlier mediation efforts with ​both parties resulted in an interim peace agreement ​signed in June. But the Islamabad Memorandum quickly faltered, amid new fighting between Iran and ​the US weeks after. According to Tehran Times, Field Marshal Munir met Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian and Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Mohsin Rezaei during his visit. Field Marshal Munir and Iranian President Pezeshkian discussed mediation efforts and regional developments, Iran’s Nournews reported. During a meeting with CDF Munir, Major General Rezaei said Iran would not transfer any of its enriched nuclear material abroad. “Not even the slightest amount of enriched nuclear material will be taken out of Iran,” Rezaei said, describing the material as a major asset and a national treasure of the Iranian people, intended for use within the country. He said the Iranian people and officials were united in their position that negotiations would not take place until the United States took steps to build trust. “The first step towards building that trust is for the United States to fulfil Iran’s conditions,” he said, while emphasising the close ties between the peoples of Iran and Pakistan. Field Marshal Munir also met Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf to discuss the conflict between Iran and the United States. During the meeting in Tehran, Ghalibaf said Washington could not win Tehran’s trust unless it implemented the seven conditions Iran had presented in New York. He added that Iran had nothing new to say on the matter. Earlier, Iranian media reported that CDF Munir arrived in Tehran on Tuesday with a delegation of officials to meet senior Iranian officials, according to Mehr News Agency. According to Tasnim News Agency, he was scheduled to meet Iranian officials to discuss diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict between Iran and the US, as well as broader regional developments. US-Iran negotiations ongoing as regional tensions mount: Qatari official Negotiations between Iran and the US remain ongoing, with both sides continuing to engage as regional tensions deepen, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said on Tuesday. “The negotiation is ongoing. We are seeing engagement from the parties,” Ansari, who also serves as an adviser to the Qatari prime minister, said at the Global Security Forum in Doha. He said discussions were taking place with regional partners and expressed hope that the process would eventually produce an agreement, while warning that conditions on the ground were becoming increasingly difficult. “Escalation left unchecked will mean that we are spiraling towards a regional war that will expand beyond the borders of our region,” he warned. Ansari said the current process followed an earlier attempt to use a ceasefire as a pathway toward negotiations, but that effort ultimately failed and fighting resumed. “Any ceasefire is basically a door that opens towards a destination rather than the destination itself,” he said, adding that the previous ceasefire “broke down again.” On Yemen, Ansari said the conflict could be linked to tensions involving Iran but also had its own dynamics, describing the latest developments as part of an “escalatory ladder” that began in 2023. “The only way to make sure that doesn't continue is to start defusing all of these conflicts at the same time,” he said. The spokesman voiced concern over political statements coming from Israel, saying regional instability should not be used for domestic political purposes. “We are concerned about a lot of the statements coming out, political statements that are coming out, especially from Israel,” he said, adding that exploiting regional instability for political infighting was “not something that any responsible statesman should do.” No peace partner in Israel Turning to Gaza and the broader Palestinian question, Ansari said prospects for a political settlement were being undermined by the absence of a viable peace process. “Sadly, right now we do not have a partner for peace in Israel,” he said, questioning whether Israeli political parties and candidates were offering any path toward peace with Palestinians. “The only thing that we hear coming out of Israel right now is about war and death and destruction,” he said, warning that “war begets war, conflict begets conflict.” Since October 2023, Israel has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians and injured over 175,000 others during its war on Gaza, while around 90% of the enclave's civilian infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed. Ansari said successful mediation did not require the parties to trust one another, but rather to have confidence in the process itself. “It is trust in the process, not trust in each other, that allows for mediation to succeed,” he said. Iran warns any US attack will be met with retaliation, dismisses claims of no-response deal Iran warned on Tuesday that any US military attack would be met with retaliation, dismissing claims that Washington had conveyed a message expecting Tehran not to respond to a potential strike. Speaking at his weekly press conference, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei described suggestions that the US could attack Iran without facing retaliation as an “illusion.” Baghaei rejected claims that Washington had sent a message based on the premise that Iran should refrain from responding to a potential US attack. He said Tehran had demonstrated that it would not leave any military strike unanswered. “If our response is not stronger, it will certainly be equal in force,” he said. The spokesperson stressed that the era of the US carrying out attacks and withdrawing without consequences was over. His remarks came in response to claims concerning a possible US attack on Pickaxe Mountain in Iran. No nuclear negotiations Baghaei said Tehran had not entered nuclear negotiations with Washington and therefore had no details of such talks to discuss with Russia or other countries. “We have not entered nuclear negotiations with the American side to discuss their details with other parties,” he said. He rejected speculations that Iran had softened its positions on the nuclear issue, stressing that Tehran remained committed to its principles and national interests. The spokesperson said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit to Tehran was part of regular consultations between the two countries. He noted that the visit had been planned for months and was aimed at discussing bilateral relations and regional and international developments. According to Baghaei, discussions covered the Caucasus, Europe, the Ukraine conflict, the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, as well as Iran’s nuclear program. He said Russia had played an important role in previous negotiations leading to the 2015 nuclear agreement and continued to express willingness to help reduce tensions. Diplomacy Baghaei said Tehran would continue pursuing diplomatic opportunities despite its longstanding distrust of Washington. He accused the US of repeatedly violating its commitments, including since its withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear agreement in 2018. However, he stressed that Iran’s diplomatic institutions could not abandon negotiations solely because of previous experiences. “If there is even the slightest possibility that diplomacy can prevent an escalation of tensions, we must pursue that path,” he said. Baghaei added that Iran’s priority remained protecting its national interests and security, whether through diplomacy or military defence. OIC resolution on Yemen Baghaei also rejected a resolution adopted at an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) foreign ministers’ meeting in Baghdad expressing solidarity with Saudi Arabia against attacks by Yemen’s Houthis. He said Iran had formally opposed the resolution and did not consider it a valid OIC decision, citing failure to follow the organisation’s procedural rules. According to Baghaei, Tehran also prevented the inclusion of two paragraphs concerning Yemen in the meeting’s final declaration, arguing that their wording would deepen divisions among Muslim countries. He said the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Yemen should be resolved through dialogue and reconciliation rather than military force. “The issue of Yemen cannot be resolved through force and military means,” he said. Baghaei called on neighboring countries to prevent foreign powers from using their territory and military facilities to threaten or attack other states. He said preventing such activities was essential to establishing lasting regional security and maintaining good-neighborly relations. The spokesperson also accused Israel’s policies and territorial expansion of fueling regional instability. He said the war in Gaza had not ended the suffering of Palestinians and reiterated Tehran’s criticism of US and European support for Israel. IRGC says two tankers hit mines, set ablaze south of Hormuz Two tankers were set ablaze and brought to a halt south of the Strait of Hormuz after hitting Iranian mines, the Revolutionary Guards' Navy said in a statement shared by state media on Tuesday, without saying when the tankers were hit. The statement also said a US drone was downed by Iran on Monday night. Iran says it downed US drone over Strait of Hormuz Iran's IRGC on Tuesday said that it intercepted and destroyed a US MQ-9 drone over the Strait of Hormuz, according to the Fars news agency. The Revolutionary Guard said the drone was downed on early Tuesday while flying over the strategic waterway, the news agency reported. It claimed that the aircraft was the 54th US MQ-9 drone it had destroyed, according to the agency. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard cites 7 internet cables under Strait of Hormuz, warns of ‘new targets’ Iran’s IRGC warned on Monday that it would unveil new targets and weapons, drawing attention to major undersea internet cables crossing the Strait of Hormuz amid tensions with the United States. “Seven major internet cables run beneath the Strait of Hormuz,” said IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebbi, claiming that all internet and commercial data traffic passed through them. “We just want them to know that new targets will be unveiled. New weapons will be unveiled,” he added. Mohebbi made the remarks during a ceremony at Tehran’s Sacred Defence Museum, the Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reported. He also vowed to drive what he called the remnants of US power out of the region. Earlier this month, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told Iranian state broadcaster Press TV that Tehran could target undersea internet cables, data centers and artificial intelligence facilities linked to the US if another war broke out. “We have not yet included these assets among our targets,” Rezaei said, warning that such infrastructure could be destroyed in a renewed conflict. Hormuz could be 'redundant' in five years, replaced by new routes, HSBC CEO says Investment in alternative logistics routes in the Gulf to mitigate the impact of ​the Iran war could make the Strait of Hormuz "redundant" in the ‌next five years, HSBC Group Chief Executive Georges Elhedery said on Tuesday. The conflict has highlighted the world's heavy reliance on the strategic waterway, through which a fifth of global oil ​and liquefied natural gas trade previously passed. It is forcing Gulf nations ​to channel resources towards the development of energy pipelines to ⁠ports, investments that Elhedery said will allow the region to weather the fallout ​from the conflict. "We do see this region being able to recover and then ​continue growing. It will mean a lot of investment," the bank CEO said during the HSBC Future Forum event in Dubai. "Of course, we do wish and hope to see ​a resolution to the conflict ... But Hormuz, probably in five years' time, may ​become redundant," he added. The Middle East, North Africa and Turkey are offering $872 billion in individual ‌project ⁠packages, part of a wider $1.4 trillion planned and unawarded infrastructure pipeline, HSBC said in a report on Monday citing data from MEED, a Dubai-based construction industry market intelligence platform. A recent HSBC survey of over 1,600 business leaders and ​around 820 global institutional ​investors, meanwhile, found ⁠that they still considered the Gulf an attractive investment hub. However, after growth of 3.3% in 2025, the World Bank ​last week forecast a deep economic contraction of 1.3% in the ​Middle East, ⁠North Africa and Pakistan region this year due to the war. That should be followed by a strong but uneven rebound in 2027. Elhedery was among global ⁠financiers expected ​to attend Saudi Arabia's flagship investment conference, ​which was planned for next week but postponed to 2027 on Monday following deadly strikes in Riyadh by Yemen's Houthis. Hegseth discusses Iran with Netanyahu in unannounced visit to Israel, officials say US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth discussed Iran with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an unannounced visit to Israel on Monday, three Israeli officials said, as tensions flare between the US and Iran. The officials did not provide further details about the meeting, first reported by Axios. The Pentagon declined to comment. The Israeli prime minister's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Hegseth said in a social media post that he had visited US service members in the Central Command area of responsibility, which covers the Middle East, northeast Africa and parts of Asia. Read: US 'exhausted and worn out', lacks capability to launch new conflict: IRGC Israel's Army Radio reported his meeting with Netanyahu took place at an air force base in Israel's southern desert. Hegseth's visit comes amid rising tensions in the Middle East war as tensions flare between the US and Iran over the Strait of Hormuz and as Yemen's Houthis intensify their attacks on Saudi Arabia. It also came a day after US President Donald Trump endorsed Netanyahu in next week's parliamentary election in Israel, the country's first ballot since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel. Iran summons German ambassador over ‘repetition of baseless accusations’ Iranian officials summoned German Ambassador to Iran Axel Dittmann over the “repetition of baseless accusations by German authorities” against Tehran, Tasnim news agency reported on Monday. Dittmann was summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry by Alireza Yousefi, an assistant foreign minister and director general for Western Europe, who conveyed Iran’s protest, the outlet said. Yousefi “emphasised that making security accusations against Iran was a long-standing practice of the Zionist regime and some Western countries against Iran,” it added. The Iranian move came after Germany summoned the Iranian ambassador earlier on Monday, accusing Tehran of planning assassination attempts against pro-Israel figures and condemning the alleged plots in the strongest possible terms. “We do not tolerate attacks on Jewish life and on those who defend it -- anywhere, and certainly not in Germany,” the German Foreign Ministry said in a statement on social media. US 'exhausted and worn out', lacks capability to launch new conflict: IRGC The IRGC spokesperson Brigadier General Hossein Mohebbi said that the United States forces were "exhausted and worn out," and that they lacked the capability to launch a new conflict, Tehran Times reported on Monday. The spokesperson stated that the US "entered the war with all its might in the past and is certainly not in a position now to launch a new conflict that would yield any additional gains for it." He added that most US bases in the region "have been rendered inactive," and American forces had "withdrawn hundreds of kilometres away from Iran." "From a technical and military standpoint, the United States lacks the capability to launch a new conflict," Mohebbi said, according to Tehran Times. The spokesperson noted, however, that as US midterm elections approach, "it may seek to manufacture some achievements." Read More: EU calls ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant 'binding', urges swift enforcement "We do not rule out any possibilities and are prepared to respond. This time, our response will be much more forceful," he said. On the IRGC's military capabilities, Mohebbi stated, "Our capabilities have undoubtedly increased significantly, both quantitatively and qualitatively, and are now at least 1.5 times greater than in the past." According to Tehran Times, the spokesperson added that the production of missiles, drones, and other equipment Tehran needed was never halted. "We have even expanded production, improving range, accuracy, and destructive power, while also developing new weapons," Mohebbi said, adding that if the war escalated, "the IRGC’s surprises will reveal themselves."