Diplomatic efforts to end the more than month-long U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran have hit a major impasse this week, after an Iranian official confirmed Friday that Tehran has formally turned down a U.S.-brokered proposal for a 48-hour bilateral ceasefire. Iranian state-aligned Fars News Agency, quoting an anonymous senior official source, announced the rejection, adding the U.S. had tabled the offer Wednesday through an unspecified third-party intermediary. It remains unclear whether the proposed truce would have also required Israel, a key U.S. partner in the ongoing campaign, to halt military operations.
The rejection marks the second high-profile breakdown of ceasefire efforts in recent days, following a report from The Wall Street Journal Friday that Pakistani-mediated talks had collapsed. The deadlock came after Iran refused to send delegates to meet U.S. officials in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, citing what Tehran called non-negotiable, unacceptable terms set by Washington. Iran has laid out two non-negotiable conditions for any lasting ceasefire agreement: a full withdrawal of all U.S. military forces from bases across the Middle East, and financial compensation for extensive damage to Iranian civilian infrastructure, including schools, hospitals and other critical public facilities that have been destroyed in the joint campaign.
Multiple regional states with close ties to the Trump administration—including Turkey, Egypt and Qatar—have been approached to lead new mediation efforts, but Qatari officials have so far resisted public and private pressure from Washington and regional actors to take on the mediating role, the WSJ report added.
The development comes amid a broader public dispute between U.S. and Iranian officials over ceasefire overtures: Earlier this week, former U.S. President Donald Trump claimed Iran had been the first party to request a truce, a claim Iranian officials have outright denied.
U.S. intelligence assessments suggest Iran has long prepared for a protracted conflict, retaining significant military capacity even after weeks of intensive bombardment. A U.S. intelligence review first reported by CNN Thursday found that roughly half of Iran’s original missile launcher fleet and kamikaze drone inventory remains intact after more than 30 days of fighting. That assessment directly contradicts repeated public claims from Trump and Israeli government leaders, who have consistently used rhetoric describing an effort to totally “obliterate” Iran’s military capabilities, with the most recent such comments coming as late as this Wednesday.
On Friday, the conflict escalated dramatically after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps air defenses shot down a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle over southwestern Iran. Semi-official Iranian news agency Tasnim carried confirmation of the downing from a spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the country’s top military command, who said the aircraft had been “completely destroyed.” Iran initially misidentified the jet as an F-35 stealth fighter before U.S. military officials confirmed the platform to be an F-15E.
The two-person crew ejected before the crash, and CBS News reported Friday that one crew member has already been recovered by U.S. search and rescue forces, while operations to locate the second pilot remain ongoing. Iranian state-affiliated local media reports the jet was targeted over Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, a remote, mountainous rural region in central-southwestern Iran.
Shortly after the first downing was confirmed, The New York Times reported Friday that a second U.S. combat aircraft, an A-10 Warthog ground attack plane, had been shot down near the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf region. The single-seat aircraft’s pilot was successfully rescued by U.S. forces, the outlet added.