Strikes in Middle East intensify as stances harden

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) announced that it launched precision-guided missiles at more than 70 sites across Israel-controlled areas, Iran's state-run Press TV reported on Wednesday.

According to a statement released Wednesday by the IRGC's Public Relations Department, the strikes in the 81st wave of Operation True Promise 4 hit locations in Haifa, Dimona, Al-Khudriyya near Haifa, as well as regions north and south of Tel Aviv, Press TV reported.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Wednesday that the Israeli Air Force had successfully struck Iran's only submarine development facility on Tuesday as part of a broader wave of attacks on weapons production centers in the Isfahan region.

The military added that the air force also struck several weapons manufacturing sites in Tehran overnight. According to the IDF, the facilities were used to produce various aerial and naval weapons, The Times of Israel reported.

Iranian conditions for ending conflict

Iran is reviewing a US proposal to end the war in the Gulf but has no intention of holding talks to wind down the conflict, the country's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Wednesday.

The comments suggested willingness by Tehran to negotiate an end to the war if its demands were met. However, Iran insists the war will end only on its terms and according to its timeline.

According to Press TV, a senior political-security official familiar with the matter listed Iran's five conditions for ending the war: a complete end to aggression and assassinations by the United States and Israel; guaranteed mechanisms to prevent future attacks; guaranteed and clearly defined payment of war damages; stopping the war across all fronts and for all resistance groups involved in West Asia; and recognizing Iran's sovereign right over the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has reviewed a US-proposed 15-point plan on ending the Middle East war and sees it as "excessive and disconnected from the realities on the battlefield," Iran's state-run Press TV reported Wednesday.

US warns of escalation

The US will hit Iran harder if Tehran fails to accept that the country has been "defeated militarily," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday.

Leavitt told reporters at a press briefing that Trump is "prepared to unleash hell" while she also mentioned that talks with Iran were ongoing. "Talks continue. They are productive, as the president said on Monday, and they continue to be," she added.  

When asked about the 15-point proposal, Leavitt noted that "the White House never confirmed that full plan. There are elements of truth to it, but some of the stories I read were not entirely factual."

Israel threatens military campaign

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel is creating an expanded buffer zone in southern Lebanon to push Hezbollah forces further from the border. He made the remarks while speaking to heads of northern municipalities near the Lebanon border.

Earlier in March, Lebanese leaders publicly proposed negotiations and accepted a French-drafted framework as a basis for talks with Israel. Israel has not officially responded.

Netanyahu also suggested that a ceasefire with Iran, recently suggested by Trump, may not be imminent, saying Israel's military campaign against Iran "is still in full swing, contrary to what is being reported in the media."

Potential wider conflicts amid mounting threats

Iran could open another battlefront against the United States in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the world's strategic waterways, if Washington seeks "stupid" actions on the ground to open the Strait of Hormuz, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.

Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Wednesday certain data demonstrate that the "enemies" are preparing for an operation to occupy an Iranian island with the support of a regional state.

The developments come as the Pentagon is reportedly expected to send thousands of soldiers from the US Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East.

(With input from agencies)