Iran said it has rejected the US proposal for a 48-hour ceasefire between both sides, the Fars News Agency said on Friday, citing an unnamed official source.
It’s unclear whether Israel would also have been part of that agreement.
Fars’ source said the US proposal was made on Wednesday through a third country that was not named.
Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump said Iran was the one asking for a ceasefire. Iran has denied that claim.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Pakistan’s efforts to mediate a ceasefire have hit a dead end after Tehran insisted it was unwilling to meet US officials in Islamabad, given what they called unacceptable American demands.
For its part, Iran wants a US withdrawal from all its Middle Eastern bases, and compensation for the destruction that has been wrought on schools, hospitals, and other integral infrastructure.
Turkey, Egypt, and Qatar are all reportedly trying to forge a mediation effort, given their strong ties to the Trump administration.
The WSJ also reported that Qatar is resisting pressure to become a mediator in any potential ceasefire talks. WSJ said that the US and regional countries were leaning on it to play that role, but it has so far refused.
Iran has likely planned for a drawn-out conflict.
More than a month into the joint US-Israeli war on the Islamic Republic, the Iranian military is still in possession of about half of its missile launchers and half of its Kamikaze drones, a US intelligence assessment said, first reported by CNN on Thursday.
The assessment flies in the face of the language of obliteration that US President Donald Trump and the Israeli government have often used to describe Iran’s capabilities, from the opening days of the war until as recently as Wednesday.
Two US combat planes downed
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps air defences shot down a US F-15E fighter jet over southwestern Iran on Friday.
A spokesperson for Iran’s military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said the jet had been “completely destroyed”, in comments carried by the semi-official Tasnim News Agency.
Iran initially stated the jet was an F-35, but US military sources later briefed media that it was an F-15E that had been downed.
Both the US and Iranian militaries launched a search for the pilot, with CBS News reporting on Friday that one member of the two-man crew had been rescued by US forces. The search for the second pilot is ongoing.
A local channel affiliated with state TV said the aircraft was targeted over central Iran and may have gone down in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, a rural and mountainous region.
Later on Friday, The New York Times reported that a second US combat plane was downed somewhere in the Gulf region, and that its lone pilot was rescued. The A-10 Warthog went down near the Strait of Hormuz, according to the NYT report.
