AKIPRESS.COM - Iran said it was ready to respond to a U.S. ground attack, accusing Washington on Sunday of preparing a land assault ​even as it sought negotiations and as regional powers held talks in Pakistan to try to end the fighting, Reuters reports. 

The foreign ministers of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt were set to meet in Islamabad ‌to discuss ways to halt the month-long U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which has killed thousands of people and caused the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies.

Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf accused the U.S. of sending messages about possible negotiations while secretly planning to send in its ground forces, adding that Iran was ready to respond if U.S. troops deployed.

"As long as the Americans seek Iran's surrender, our response is that we will never accept humiliation," he said in a message to the nation.

The war, launched on February 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes ​on Iran, has spread across the Middle East, with Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis launching on Saturday their first attacks on Israel since the start of the conflict.

The strikes point to a potential new threat to global shipping, already ​hit by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, previously a conduit for about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.

Washington has ⁠dispatched thousands of Marines to the Middle East, with the first of two contingents arriving on Friday aboard an amphibious assault ship, the U.S. military has said.

The Washington Post quoted U.S. officials as saying the Pentagon was preparing for ​weeks of ground operations in Iran, possibly involving raids by Special Operations and conventional infantry troops.

Whether President Donald Trump would approve plans for deploying ground troops remained uncertain, the Post said.

Reuters has reported that the Pentagon has considered military options that could ​include ground forces.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the U.S. could achieve its aims without ground troops but was deploying forces to the region to give Trump "maximum" flexibility.

Pakistan, a potential mediator between Washington and Tehran, was hosting Sunday's talks a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar held separate one-on-one meetings in Islamabad on Sunday with his Turkish and Egyptian counterparts ahead of the four-way consultations.

In parallel, military-level contacts are also under way, with Pakistan's army chief Asim Munir in regular ​contact with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, a source familiar with the discussions said.

Separately, a Turkish source familiar with the matter said Ankara was working with other nations on a proposal to open the Strait of Hormuz, which is needed ​for broader de-escalation.

Another diplomatic source said Turkey's priority was securing a ceasefire. "Ensuring the safe passage of ships could serve as an important confidence-building measure in this regard," the source said.

The United States said last week it had offered a 15-point ceasefire plan to ‌Iran, with a ⁠proposal to reopen the waterway and restrict Iran's nuclear programme, but Tehran has rejected the list and put forward proposals of its own.

As efforts to find a negotiated end to the war inched forward, Israel's military continued its relentless air assault on Iran, saying on Sunday its forces had targeted Tehran's weapons manufacturing infrastructure, including dozens of storage and production sites the day before.

Five people were killed in a strike on a pier in the southern port city of Bandar-e-Khamir that also destroyed two vessels, Iranian state media reported.

Israel also hit targets in Lebanon as part of its campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah, killing three Lebanese journalists in a strike on a media vehicle, Lebanon's Al Manar TV reported, ​as well as a Lebanese soldier.

Israel's military said one of ​the journalists had been part of a Hezbollah intelligence ⁠unit and accused him of reporting on the locations of Israeli soldiers. Early on Sunday it said one of its soldiers had been killed during combat in Lebanon.

A building housing Qatar's Al-Araby TV in Tehran was struck by Israel on Sunday, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported, showing an excavator taking rubble away from a damaged multi-storey block.

Iran continued its attacks on Israel and several Gulf states. Air defences shot down a drone near the residence of the leader of the Iraqi Kurdish ruling ​party in Erbil early on Sunday, ⁠security sources said.

Another drone strike targeted the home of the president of Iraq's Kurdistan region a day earlier, the sources said.

With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed, there is also concern about shipping lanes around the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea after Yemen's Houthis entered the fray.

They initially targeted Israel, but during the Gaza war they also hit ships in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a critical maritime choke point leading to the Suez Canal. Analysts say renewed attacks there would pile further pressure on the world economy.

With ⁠U.S. midterm elections ​due in November, the increasingly unpopular war has weighed on Trump's Republican Party. Demonstrators took to city streets across the U.S. on Saturday in protests against the ​conflict.

Trump has threatened to hit Iranian power stations and other energy infrastructure if Iran does not open the Strait of Hormuz, though he has extended a deadline by 10 days.

Iranian threats against ships have kept most oil tankers from attempting the waterway. Iran has agreed to let an additional ​20 Pakistani-flagged vessels pass through the strait, with two ships permitted to transit daily, Dar has said.