US special envoy Witkoff predicts Iran talks as war enters second month

US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Friday he believed Iran would hold talks with Washington “this week” as the US-Israeli war against Tehran entered its second month.

The war began on February 28 when the United States and Israel launched air strikes across Iran, killing supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and sending shock waves across the globe.

A month later the conflict showed no sign of ending, with US-Israeli strikes hitting two Iranian nuclear facilities on Friday and an Agence France-Presse journalist in Tehran reporting around 10 intense blasts and a plume of black smoke early on Saturday.

A brief military statement said Israeli forces were “currently striking Iranian terror regime targets across Tehran”, without elaborating.

The near-closure of the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz has sent markets into turmoil and pushed oil prices to levels not seen since the start of the war in Ukraine.

“We think there will be meetings this week, we’re certainly hopeful for it,” Witkoff told a business forum in Miami. Washington expected Tehran to respond to a 15-point US peace plan, he said. “It could solve it all.”