On Monday, Donald Trump took to social media to announce that discussions with Iran aimed at halting military actions were showing “great progress.”

However, he warned that if an agreement wasn’t achieved soon and if the vital Hormuz Strait wasn’t reopened promptly, the US might escalate its offensive by “completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells, and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!).”

Meanwhile, the conflict showed no signs of abating: Tehran targeted a significant water and power facility in Kuwait, and an oil refinery in Israel was also hit. In response, Israel and the US initiated a fresh wave of strikes on Iran.

Trump’s social media statement and his earlier remarks in a Financial Times interview, suggesting that American forces might take control of Iran’s Kharg Island export hub, underscore his assertion that negotiations with Iran are ongoing and even progressing well, despite Tehran’s denial of direct talks.

Concurrently, he has intensified his threats, as additional Marines and US troops continue to arrive in the Middle East.

The current status of the diplomatic efforts, facilitated by Pakistan, remains unclear. Iran’s aggressive actions toward its Gulf neighbors could introduce further complications to any negotiations.

The United Arab Emirates — which has long billed itself as a beacon of safety and stability in a volatile region — has been hard hit in the war, and increasingly is signalling it wants Iran disarmed in any ceasefire. Iran’s theocracy likely won’t accept that.

Trump says diplomacy is going well but suggests military expansion is possible

In the interview with the Financial Times, Trump said his preference would be to “take the oil in Iran” — a move that would require seizing Kharg Island — the terminal through which nearly all of Iran’s oil exports pass.

“Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t,” he said.

“We have a lot of options.”

Also in the interview, Trump said that the US had about 3000 targets that it would still like to hit in Iran.

“A deal could be made fairly quickly,” he said.

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One late on Sunday (Monday AEDT) that the US was negotiating “directly and indirectly” with Iran.

“We’re doing extremely well in that negotiation but you never know with Iran because we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up,” Trump said.

Twice during Trump’s second term, the US has attacked Iran while in the middle of negotiations, once with the strikes on February 28 that started the current war and also in June.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei on Monday acknowledged Tehran had been given a 15-point proposal from the Trump administration, but said there had been no direct negotiations with Washington so far.

Earlier, Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, dismissed the talks in Pakistan as a cover to get more than US troops into the area.

He said Iranian forces were “waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners forever,” according to state media.

The US already launched airstrikes once that targeted military positions on Kharg. Iran has threatened to launch its own ground invasion of Gulf Arab countries and mine the Persian Gulf if US troops land on its territory.

To get an amphibious invasion force to Kharg would mean transiting the Strait of Hormuz and most of the Persian Gulf.

Experts say that holding the island would also be a challenge, because in addition to its missiles and drones, it would be well within artillery range from the Iranian mainland.

Iran launches attacks on Israel and hits more than infrastructure targets in Gulf states

Sirens sounded at dawn near Israel’s main nuclear research centre, a part of the country that has been targeted repeatedly in recent days. Israel’s military also said it had taken out two drones launched from Yemen, where the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels entered the war on Saturday with their first missile attack.

Later, a fire broke out at an oil refinery in the northern city of Haifa, one of only two in Israel, either from a missile strike or from debris falling from an interception. The blaze was quickly extinguished.

Iran kept up the pressure on its Gulf Arab neighbours, as Saudi Arabia intercepted five missiles targeting its oil-rich Eastern province, Bahrain sounded a missile alert, and a fireball erupted more than Dubai as an incoming missile was taken out by defences.

In Kuwait, an Iranian attack hit a power and desalination plant, killing one worker and injuring 10 soldiers, the state-run KUNA news agency reported.

Israel’s military launched a new wave of attacks on Iran, saying it was striking “military infrastructure” across Tehran, and explosions were heard in the Iranian capital. Iranian state media reported a petrochemicals plant in Tabriz, in the north, sustained damage after an airstrike and firefighters had to put out a blaze.

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