Electricity cut in parts of Tehran after attacks on infrastructure, energy ministry says
Electricity was cut in parts of the Iranian capital Tehran and in Alborz province after attacks on infrastructure, Iran’s state media cited the country’s ministry of energy as saying on Sunday.
Shrapnel hit a part of the electricity grid in Alborz province, causing power to be cut in several areas of Tehran and the city of Karaj. Authorities were working on reinstating it, state media added.
Series of explosions heard in northern Iran
Iran Guards say struck industrial complex in southern Israel
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they struck an industrial complex in southern Israel with ballistic missiles.
In a statement carried by state TV, the Guards said the strike was in response to “attacks of the American-Zionist axis on the industrial centres” in the Islamic republic.
Spanish PM denounces block on Latin Patriarch from Holy Sepulchre
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez denounced Israel’s stopping the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from celebrating Palm Sunday Mass in the Church of the Sepulchre as an attack on religious freedom.
“Netanyahu has prevented Catholics from celebrating Palm Sunday at the holy sites in Jerusalem,” he posted on X. “With no explanation whatsoever. With no reasons or justification.
“We condemn this unjustified attack on religious freedom and demand that Israel respect the diversity of faiths and international law. Because without tolerance, coexistence is impossible,” he added.
Israeli military says no negligence in probe into accidental killing of farmer near Lebanon border
The Israeli military said no negligence was found nor any ethical failure on the part of officers involved in the accidental killing of Israeli farmer Ofer Moskovitz near the Lebanese frontier earlier this month.
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt discuss ways to bring permanent end to Iran war, Pakistan says
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt discussed “possible ways to bring an early and
permanent end to the war” in the Middle East on Sunday, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said.
The four nations held joint talks to seek a de-escalation in the US-Iran war in Islamabad.
In a video-recorded statement, Dar said all sides had expressed confidence in Pakistan’s facilitation and that China “fully supports” the initiative to host the potential U.S.-Iran talks in Islamabad.
🎥Lebanon mourns three journalists killed in Israeli strikes
Hundreds of mourners gathered at a cemetery south of Beirut on Sunday to attend the funeral of journalists Ali Shoeib, Fatima Ftouni, and Mohammed Ftouni, who were killed in an Israeli strike a day earlier. Israel has acknowledged carrying out the attack, claiming that Shoeib was affiliated with a militant group, but the incident has sparked widespread outrage within Lebanon, where officials have condemned it as a clear breach of international law. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the deaths bring the number of media workers killed in Lebanon since the start of the Israel–Gaza war to eleven, as Eliza Herbert reports.
Lebanon says Israeli strikes killed more than 1,200 since March 2
Lebanon’s health ministry said on Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed 1,238 people in the country since the start of the latest war with Hezbollah on March 2.
The toll included 124 children, while more than 3,500 people had been wounded, the ministry said in a statement. On Saturday and Sunday alone, 49 people were killed, it said, including 10 rescue workers and three journalists.
Israeli PM says ordered military to ‘further expand’ security zone in Lebanon
Netanyahu said he had instructed the military to further expand the existing security buffer zone in southern
Lebanon, vowing to fundamentally change the security situation there.
“I have just instructed to further expand the existing security buffer zone. We are determined to fundamentally change the situation in the north,” Netanyahu said in a video statement from the Northern Command.
He said the decision aimed to strengthen Israel’s security posture along the northern frontier, amid ongoing tensions along Israel’s northern border, where cross-border hostilities have raised fears of a broader regional escalation.
University in Iran’s Isfahan says was hit by US-Israeli strike
A university in Iran’s central city of Isfahan said it was hit by US-Israeli airstrikes for the second time since the war between the foes erupted a month ago.
“Around 2:00pm (1030 GMT) today, Isfahan University of Technology was targeted for the second time (during the war) by a brutal airstrike of Zionist-American aggressors,” the university said in a statement carried by Fars news agency.
“According to initial reports, the attack on one of the university’s research institutes also caused damage to several other buildings and resulted in minor injuries to four university staff members,” it added.
Iranian ambassador won’t leave Lebanon despite expulsion order, according to diplomatic source
Iran’s ambassador will not leave Lebanon despite being declared persona non grata and ordered to leave the country by Sunday, an Iranian diplomatic source told AFP.
“The ambassador will not leave Lebanon, in accordance with the wishes of the speaker of parliament Nabih Berri and of Hezbollah,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Hezbollah has denounced the decision while Berri’s Amal party joined Hezbollah ministers in boycotting a cabinet session this week in protest at the expulsion order.
Ten Kuwaiti troops injured in Iranian missile attack on army camp, Kuwait says
Ten Kuwaiti military personnel were injured in an Iranian missile attack on a military camp in the
Gulf country, the Kuwaiti army said on Sunday, without giving a location.
The camp sustained material damage, the army said in a post on X, adding that Kuwait had dealt with 14 ballistic missiles and 12 drones over the past 24 hours.
Iran warns US ground troops would be ‘set on fire’ as regional diplomats meet on the war
A top Iranian official warned the US against a ground invasion, saying its troops would be set “on fire,” as regional diplomats met Sunday in Pakistan in hopes of opening direct US-Iran talks and ending the monthlong war.
Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said Iranian forces were “waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners forever,” according to Iranian state media. He also dismissed the talks as a cover after some 2,500 US Marines trained in amphibious landings arrived in the Middle East.
Israel PM says ‘no malicious intent’ in preventing Latin Patriarch from entering Holy Sepulchre
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Israeli police had “no malicious intent” when they prevented the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Palm Sunday mass.
“Today, out of special concern for his safety, Jerusalem police prevented the Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pizzaballa from holding mass this morning at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,” Netanyahu said on X.
“Again, there was no malicious intent whatsoever, only concern for his safety and that of his party.”
ADAMA plant in southern Israel hit by Iranian missile or debris
Israel’s ADAMA, a maker of active ingredients and crop protection materials, said its Makhteshim plant in southern Israel had been hit by either an Iranian missile or debris from a missile, but no injuries were reported.
ADAMA, part of the Chinese-owned Syngenta Group, said the damage to the plant was not immediately known.
Iran Guards threaten to hit US universities in Mideast
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps has threatened to target US universities in the Middle East after saying US-Israeli strikes had destroyed two Iranian universities.
“If the US government wants its universities in the region to be free from retaliation… it must condemn the bombing of the universities in an official statement by 12 noon on Monday, March 30, Tehran time,” said the statement published by Iranian media.
The statement added: “We advise all employees, professors, and students of American universities in the region and residents of their surrounding areas” stay a kilometre away from campuses.
Several US universities have campuses scattered throughout the Gulf region, such as Texas A&M University in Qatar and New York University in the United Arab Emirates.
Strikes overnight Friday to Saturday hit Tehran’s university of science and technology in the northeast of the capital, damaging buildings but not causing any casualties, according to media reports.
🎥’How can anyone get both parties to sit down?’
The United States is plotting a ground attack on Iran even as it claims to be engaging in diplomatic efforts, Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Sunday, as more American marines arrive in the region. The Israeli army earlier announced the death in combat of a fifth soldier in south Lebanon. Adjunct Senior Lecturer at Lunds University in Stockholm, Rouzbeh Parsi, shares further insights on US-Iran negotiations.
Israel army says hit key ballistic missile unit in Iran
The Israeli military said that overnight it had attacked a key production facility in Tehran used by Iran’s defence ministry to manufacture components for ballistic missiles.
“The site is one of only two of its kind in Iran where critical components were developed for the assembly and operationalisation of missiles set to launch toward the state of Israel,” the military said.
The strikes also targeted facilities linked to ballistic missile engines, drone manufacturing, air defence systems and missile storage.
Since the US-Israel war on Iran began on February 28, Israel has attacked several weapons production facilities in the Islamic republic, as well as nuclear sites.
American University of Beirut moves to online learning after Iran threats
The American University of Beirut (AUB) said that it would operate remotely over the next two days, following the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ threat to target American universities in the region.
“At this time, we have no evidence of direct threats against our university, its campuses or medical centres. At the same time, out of an abundance of caution, we will operate fully online on Monday and Tuesday, with the exception of essential personnel,” AUB President Fadlo Khouri said in a statement.
Earlier on Sunday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard threatened to target American universities in the Middle East after saying US-Israeli strikes had destroyed two Iranian universities.
