Benjamin Netanyahu presses Donald Trump for renewed strikes against Iran

Israeli leader and US president talk on phone as mediation efforts led by Qatar seek to broker interim deal between Washington and Tehran

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing US President Donald Trump for a swift resumption of the US-Israeli war against Iran after elections in the US this week, according to people familiar with the situation.

The US and Israel launched a huge offensive against Iran in February, and officials in the Middle East warned over the weekend that renewed fighting would probably be more intense than previous rounds, which have destabilised the region and caused turmoil in international energy markets.

In a call on Saturday, Netanyahu urged Trump to restart the fighting after Tuesday's midterm elections, but the US president has yet to make a decision, according to two people familiar with the situation.

"The US is giving a last-ditch chance for diplomacy to succeed, and the Netanyahu government really doesn't want to see an agreement -- they want a military resolution to the Iran problem," one of the people said.

A US official confirmed the two men had spoken and that Netanyahu, who faces a battle to remain in power after an inconclusive election in Israel last week, wanted a resumption of hostilities but that Trump was "not there yet". Details of the call were first reported by Axios.

Trump, who said last week that he had "a decision to make" about launching another military offensive, has previously attacked Iran twice while his administration was holding talks with Tehran.

Regional mediation efforts, led by Qatar, have been trying to broker an interim deal between the US and Iran, based on a version of an Iranian seven-day plan presented at the UN General Assembly last month. Iranian officials held talks with mediators in Doha over the weekend after a team of Qatari negotiators had held a day of negotiations in Tehran on Friday.

Under the proposal, Iran would allow shipping to move freely through the Strait of Hormuz if the US lifted its blockade on Iranian ports, allowed Tehran to export oil and granted it access to some of its frozen assets held overseas.

The parties would then restart negotiations on a final deal. But there have been limited signs of progress as Washington and Tehran, which harbour deep distrust of each other, haggle over the sequencing and the fate of Iran's 440kg stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

The US wants Iran to agree to a schedule for International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to visit its main nuclear facilities, where Tehran's stockpile is believed to be stored, a people briefed on the talks said.

The Trump administration has also repeatedly insisted that Iran give up its nuclear stockpile and transfer it offshore. But Iranian officials publicly reject any such move.

A person briefed on efforts to mediate a deal said both the US and Iran wanted a deal and were showing signs of more flexibility, but it was still not clear the diplomatic effort would be able to bridge the gaps. Mediators were pushing for Trump to give diplomacy more time, the person added.

Iranian officials have warned that the republic would launch a ferocious response to any renewed attack, but are also keeping the door open to diplomacy.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday that "if Iran's demands are met, it would be possible to restore security to the Strait of Hormuz and start the negotiation process within a short period".

He added: "As far as we are concerned, the exchange of messages is still ongoing." Iran had already conveyed its "legitimate demands" to the American side and it was now up to the US to make a decision, he said.

An Israeli military official, briefed on the early findings of a preliminary intelligence estimate, said recent intercepts and surveillance had led the IDF to believe this current round of negotiations had the potential to yield enough progress to convince the US to delay strikes, at least momentarily.