Iran's energy ministry called on citizens to reduce electricity use on Friday after the power grid came under strain following U.S. strikes on energy infrastructure in the south.

The ministry in a statement urged people to switch off air conditioners in peak hours "to help ensure a stable electricity supply in the southern provinces, which are currently facing extreme heat and attacks on electricity supply facilities".

The expanding U.S. military campaign against Iran has put three small islands that sit at the confluence of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz in the crosshairs once again.

The islands of Abu Musa and Greater and Lesser Tunb — which were seized in 1971 by Iran from what would become the United Arab Emirates — have become a garrison for Iran, helping it exert significant control over the strait, through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas passes in peacetime.

Fighting between the U.S. and Iran has intensified over control of the Strait of Hormuz, but hopes for a possible diplomatic solution have shown stubborn signs of life.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry on Thursday rejected suggestions that Islamabad had abandoned efforts to bring Washington and Tehran back to the negotiating table after brokering an initial ceasefire agreement last month that has now collapsed.

The United States expanded its airstrike campaign against Iran early Friday by hitting more bridges, electrical equipment and collapsing a tower at a key Iranian port, part of U.S. President Donald Trump's threats to start striking infrastructure to pressure Tehran to ease its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz. Iran launched new missile attacks against U.S.-allied nations in the Middle East, including Qatar, a key mediator in the war.

The interim ceasefire agreed to last month has collapsed, and the region has endured days of back-and-forth attacks by the U.S. and Iran as they battle for control of the strait. Iranian officials say U.S. strikes have killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds of others, with new casualties reported in Friday's strikes.

Deadly U.S. strikes overnight hit an airport, a railway station in the port city of Bandar Abbas and two bridges in southern Iran near the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state media said Friday.

The U.S. State Department said Wednesday it has approved the sale of an estimated $1.96 billion in weapons to bolster Saudi Arabia's air defenses, as the war ramps up in the Middle East.

Pakistan said on Thursday it would encourage the United States and Iran to stop violence and resume talks under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) it helped mediate last month.

A drone struck a ship located off the port in Iraq's southern province of Basra on Thursday, a security official told AFP.

Tehran warned Thursday it would target regional infrastructure if the United States carried out threats to attack Iran's infrastructure, as the war in the Middle East resumed.

The spokesman for Iran's military headquarters said that if the U.S. followed through on its threats, "all infrastructure in the region" would be "crushed under the steel blows" of Iran's armed forces.

More than half the House Democrats voted Wednesday to strip $3.3 billion in U.S. aid from Israel, the most substantial signal yet that once rock-solid bipartisan support for the country is disintegrating in the aftermath of its war in Gaza that has killed thousands of Palestinians.

The vote tally, 104-314, was not enough to attach the amendment to a broader national security spending bill, but stands as a stark accounting of the shifting attitudes that are dividing the Democratic Party and the nation over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war strategy, now approaching its third year.