A TOP Iranian official warned the US against a ground invasion today, saying US troops would be set “on fire,” as regional diplomats gathered in Pakistan in a push to broker an end to the month-long war.

Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, dismissed weekend talks as a cover while the US dispatches additional troops to the Middle East.

“The enemy is openly sending a message of negotiation and secretly planning a ground attack,” Iranian media quoted Mr Qalibaf as saying.

“Our men are waiting for the arrival of American soldiers on the ground to set them on fire.”

The remarks came as Pakistan said the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt were holding talks in Islamabad without US, Israeli or Iranian participation.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif earlier said he and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had held “extensive discussions” on the regional hostilities.

Yet there were few signs of progress as Israel and the US kept up strikes on Iran, and Tehran responded by firing missiles and drones across the region.

More than 3,000 people have been killed throughout the month-long war, which began when the US and Israel launched unprovoked attacks on Iran, triggering Iranian attacks on Israel and neighbouring Gulf Arab states.

Israel warned of waves of incoming strikes from Iran today and explosions could be heard throughout Tehran.

The United States has dispatched thousands of additional troops to the Middle East. And the Iran-backed Houthis, who govern parts of Yemen, launched missiles toward what they called “sensitive Israeli military sites” for the first time on Saturday.

After Israeli air strikes hit several universities this weekend, the Revolutionary Guard warned in a statement today that Iran would consider Israeli universities and branches of US universities in the region “legitimate targets” unless offered safety assurances for Iranian universities.

“If the US government wants its universities in the region spared, it should condemn the bombardment of (Iranian) universities by 12pm Monday, March 30, in an official statement,” it said.

In Lebanon, where Israel has started an invasion in the south while targeting the Hezbollah militant group, officials said more than 1,100 people have been killed in the country since the start of the war.

An Israeli air strike on southern Lebanon on Saturday killed three journalists.

Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV said its longtime correspondent Ali Shoeib was killed in southern Lebanon. Israel’s military admitted to targeting Mr Shoeib, accusing him of being a Hezbollah intelligence operative, without providing evidence.

A well-known Lebanese war correspondent, Mr Shoeib had covered southern Lebanon for al-Manar TV for nearly three decades.

Meanwhile, Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV said reporter Fatima Ftouni was killed in the same air strike in the southern district of Jezzine along with her brother Mohammed, a video journalist. She had just been on air with a live report before the strike.

Top officials in Lebanon condemned the strike, with President Joseph Aoun calling it a “flagrant crime that violates all laws and agreements that protect journalists.”