The Albany Gazette - Trump says Iran deal may be reached 'soon'

Iran launched strikes on Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, meanwhile after Iranian electrical facilities came under attack, cutting power to parts of Tehran and surrounding areas.

As Israel continued to press its offensive against Iran-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, the UN Force in Lebanon said a peacekeeper had been killed on Sunday and another critically injured by a projectile that hit a UNIFIL position.

UNIFIL said they did not know the origin of the projectile but were investigating.

Trump, citing the number of Iranian leaders who have been killed in the month-long US-Israeli war against Iran, said regime change has already been achieved and the new leadership is "much more reasonable".

"We've had regime change," he told reporters aboard Air Force One. "We're dealing with different people than anybody's dealt with before. It's a whole different group of people. So I would consider that regime change."

Asked whether there could be a deal with Iran this coming week, Trump said: "I do see a deal in Iran. Could be soon."

In Pakistan, the government is looking to capitalise on its links with Teharan and the Gulf states, as well as a budding rapport with Trump, to broker peace talks.

"Pakistan is very happy that both Iran and the US have expressed their confidence in Pakistan to facilitate the talks," Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said.

But the speaker of Iran's parliament has accused Washington of using diplomacy as a smoke screen.

"The enemy publicly sends messages of negotiation and dialogue while secretly planning a ground attack," Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency.

"Our men are waiting for the arrival of the American soldiers on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional allies once and for all," he added.

- Strikes on Kuwait, Saudi Arabia -

Weeks of unrelenting strikes have taken a heavy toll on ordinary people in Iran.

"I miss a peaceful night's sleep," an artist in Tehran told AFP, saying night-time strikes were "so intense it felt like all of Tehran was shaking".

The war has escalated into a regional conflagration as Tehran retaliates with attacks on Gulf states and virtually seals the critical Strait of Hormuz oil shipping lane, sending energy markets into a tailspin and threatening the world economy.

An Iranian strike on a power station and water desalination in Kuwait killed one Indian worker and damaged a building at the site, the Gulf state's electricity ministry said Monday.

Saudi Arabia's defence ministry said its forces detected and intercepted five ballistic missiles.

Iran's energy ministry reported power outages in the capital on Sunday, its surrounding region and Alborz province "following attacks on electricity industry facilities."

Trump has previously threatened to strike Iranian power stations if Tehran does not negotiate, before repeatedly extending a deadline to do so.

Iran says it has closed the Strait of Hormuz, which previously accounted for a quarter of the world's seaborne oil trade and a fifth of liquefied natural gas shipments, to vessels from hostile nations.

The war has sent oil prices soaring, with benchmark US oil contract, West Texas Intermediate, once again surpassing $100 a barrel early Monday, while Brent climbed above $115.

And in Israel, the parliament approved a 2026 budget that provides for a massive rise in military spending, increasing the defence budget by more than $10 billion to over $45 billion.

- Pakistani-brokered talks -

On the diplomatic front, Pakistan, acting as a go-between for Washington and Tehran, hosted foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt in Islamabad for talks on the crisis.

Trump has repeatedly spoken of diplomatic contacts with Iran, although these claims have been denied by Tehran.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Dar said the visiting diplomats had discussed how to "bring an early and permanent end to the war."

He said Iran and the United States had expressed "confidence in Pakistan to facilitate the talks" and that he had spoken to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi as well as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and other foreign ministers who also backed the idea.

Despite making diplomatic overtures, including proposing a 15-point plan to end the war, the United States has also been sending more military assets into the region.

The USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship carrying around 3,500 Marines and sailors, arrived in the Middle East on Friday.

According to The Washington Post, the Pentagon was preparing plans for weeks of ground operations -- potentially including raids on sites near the Strait of Hormuz -- though Trump has yet to approve any deployment.

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(W.Williams--TAG)