Missile strikes ripped across the Middle East over the weekend as Iran and its proxies lobbed attacks at US allies, with neither Washington nor Tehran publicly accepting Pakistan's offer to host talks to end the conflict.
The arrival of a US amphibious assault group and the entry of Iran-backed Houthi forces heightened fears of escalation as the war entered its second month, even as Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey met to seek a diplomatic off-ramp.
President Donald Trump said he's ready to make a deal with Iran, telling reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One that an agreement could come soon.
He said Iran "gave" the US most of the 15 demands it issued, without offering specifics.
It remains unclear whether either side is negotiating.
Iran has rejected that 15-point proposal and disputed the US president's claims about negotiations.
Tehran has insisted on war reparations in its own five-point plan that includes demands Trump is unlikely to accept.
In a separate interview Sunday with the Financial Times, Trump said he wants to "take the oil in Iran," which would involve occupying the country's main oil export hub of Kharg Island.
Trump is also considering a military operation to seize Iran's near-bomb-grade uranium, three diplomatic officials briefed on the matter told Bloomberg News this month.
The Washington Post reported the Defence Department was preparing for potentially weeks of ground operations, citing unidentified US officials.
Any mission would likely begin with reopening the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global seaborne oil once flowed.
Energy supplies transiting the waterway has slowed to a trickle, causing the largest supply disruption in oil market history.
Trump has pushed for negotiations as US gas prices soar in a congressional election year.
He delayed his deadline to April 6 for Tehran to agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or have its power plants demolished.
Oil advanced and Brent - on track for a record monthly gain - surging more than 3 per cent at the open and trading above $116 a barrel after the Houthis fired missiles at Israel over the weekend.
The group said it would continue operations until attacks on Iran and its proxy forces cease.
Iran's weekend strikes on Middle Eastern aluminium plants are threatening to send a fragile market into crisis, raising the prospect of record prices for the metal used in everything from airplanes to food packaging and solar panels.
Electricity supply was cut in parts of Tehran and nearby Alborz province after attacks on facilities in the area, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported Sunday.
It was largely restored within an hour.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said Sunday that Iran's Khondab heavy water plant sustained severe damage. Heavy water is used in nuclear power and for weapons-grade plutonium.
One stated aim of the war is to destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities.
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued remarks for the first time in about a week on Saturday, thanking Iraqi religious authorities for their support, according to the state-run Hamshahri newspaper.
Khamenei, who took over when his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed during the initial hours of the war, still hasn't been seen in public since his appointment and the US says he's injured, perhaps badly.
"Our men are waiting for American soldiers to enter on the ground," Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The strait has emerged as Iran's main leverage in the war, and Tehran is drafting a law to govern passage.
It would cover shipping security, fees and a "regional development and progress fund," lawmaker Alireza Salimi told the semi-official Fars news agency.
Saudi Arabia has managed to reroute some of its oil around the strait, with its East-West pipeline now operating at its full capacity of 7 million barrels a day, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The Houthis could complicate that.
The Red Sea port of Yanbu, through which 5 million barrels of Saudi exports now flow, is within their missile range.
In a sign of the conflict's long reach, French anti-terrorism authorities are investigating a foiled bombing near the Bank of America Corp. headquarters in Paris that they said appeared to be linked to the Middle East conflict.
A strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia on Friday wounded at least 15 US troops and damaged a US E-3 Sentry, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The aircraft, which costs about $300 million, is equipped with radar to track drones and missiles. Unverified photos showed its tail severed, rendering it unflyable.
One person was killed in an Iranian attack on Tel Aviv, according to Israel's emergency services. Israel's invasion of southern Lebanon continued over the weekend.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the military to widen the buffer zone in southern Lebanon, saying in a video he is "determined" to restore security in the north and defeat Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The US military said in a social media post on Saturday that it had struck more than 11,000 targets and destroyed more than 150 Iranian vessels since the conflict began.
The Israel Defence Forces said a wide-scale wave of strikes overnight targeting missile production and storage sites in Tehran had been completed.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
