Pentagon cancels scheduled Tuesday briefing - reports

The strikes were spread across 20 provinces, according to the Washington-based monitoring group Human Rights Activists News Agency, and represented the highest rate of attacks recorded in the past 10 days.

Among those killed were four children and two women, HRANA said, adding that the figures remain preliminary and could rise as more information emerges.

In total, the group documented at least 573 individual strikes across 215 separate incidents during the past day, a scale of bombardment that analysts say reflects a widening focus on strategic sectors of Iran’s economy.

Many of the attacks targeted infrastructure linked to the country’s core industries, including elements of Iran’s energy sector, HRANA reported.

The latest wave of strikes comes as President Trump has warned that the United States could launch sweeping new attacks on Iranian infrastructure if Tehran does not agree to negotiations by Tuesday evening.

In a statement Monday, the White House said Iran would be “sent back to the stone ages tomorrow night if they fail to engage in a serious way” with diplomatic efforts.

The war, now in its sixth week, has already inflicted heavy losses across the region.

Iranian authorities and monitoring groups estimate that more than 2,000 people have been killed inside Iran since the conflict began. Israeli officials say at least 26 people have been killed there, while missile and drone attacks launched by Iran have also caused dozens of casualties in the Persian Gulf countries.

With negotiations uncertain and attacks intensifying on both sides, Tuesday is shaping up as one of the most consequential moments in the conflict since it began more than five weeks ago.

Iran’s deputy minister for youth affairs said a nationwide symbolic event will see young people form human chains around power plants across the country.

Alireza Rahimi said the initiative, titled “Iran’s Youth Human Chain for a Bright Future,” aims to demonstrate national solidarity and support the armed forces’ actions against what officials describe as aggressors.

He said the event, organized with the participation of young people across the country, also seeks to convey a message from Iran’s youth to the international community and protest what he called "war crimes" by the United States and Israel.

The mission to rescue an American pilot downed in Iran showed how a tactical success can open wider strategic possibilities, sharpening debate over how far the United States may expand its footprint inside Iran.

The operation may have cost the United States several military assets, but it also forced Iran to reveal what it considers key terrain, according to former intelligence officer Michael Pregent.

“You can see movement of assets to protect key terrain that we may not have thought was key terrain but the regime does, and that gives an opportunity to exploit the situation," Pregent told Iran International.

That reading is echoed, though more cautiously, by Farzin Nadimi, a defense and military expert on Iran at the Washington Institute.

“It was a very successful operation… It showed real reach, real flexibility, and real results. But at the same time, it also showed… that the mission could very well have failed. And that would leave almost 100 troops in the middle of Iran," he told Iran International.

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The New York Times has reported details of what it says is a 10-point Iranian proposal aimed at ending the war, which includes a fee to pass the Strait of Hormuz and ending Israeli attacks on Hezbollah.

The plan was reportedly conveyed through Pakistan, which has been acting as a key intermediary in the conflict, but appeared unlikely to resolve major issues ahead of President Donald Trump’s Tuesday evening deadline for new attacks on Iran.

Two senior Iranian officials, speaking anonymously to discuss the sensitive negotiations, said the proposal includes guarantees that Iran would not face further attacks, an end to Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon and the lifting of all sanctions on Tehran.

In return, Iran would lift its de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping route through which a large share of global oil supplies passes.

Under the proposal, Iran would also impose a fee of roughly $2 million per ship transiting the strait, splitting the proceeds with Oman, which sits across the waterway.

Tehran would use its share of the funds to rebuild infrastructure damaged in US and Israeli strikes, rather than seek direct compensation, according to the plan.

Reuters reports that the UN Security Council is expected to vote Tuesday on a resolution aimed at protecting commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, but in a significantly watered-down form after China opposed authorizing the use of force.

Efforts by Bahrain, the current chair of the 15-member council, to secure a resolution have involved multiple drafts as negotiators tried to overcome opposition from veto powers China and Russia.

The latest text, seen by Reuters, removes any explicit authorization of force.

Instead, it “strongly encourages states interested in the use of commercial maritime routes in the Strait of Hormuz to coordinate efforts, defensive in nature, commensurate to the circumstances,” to help ensure safe navigation.