War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Being in Makkah has been nothing short of blissful for Hassan Qadiri, where participating in the festivities of the Haj pilgrimage is a welcome relief after weeks of devastating war back home in Iran, according to AFP.

Qadiri and his family took cover as intense Israeli and American bombing raids targeted his native city of Isfahan in central Iran until an April ceasefire began.

“We hear the call to prayer every day, not explosions here,” he tells AFP. “I’m very happy.”

Like many Iranians at this year’s Haj, Qadiri and his family are staying in a hotel near the Grand Mosque under the protection of Saudi security personnel, who actively prevent others from approaching the grounds to meet or speak with the pilgrims. The protocol is not provided to other visiting pilgrims.

“The Saudi treatment of us is good and everything is fine,” Qadiri adds.

His wife, who did not give her name and wore a black abaya with a turquoise vest that read “Isfahan”, agrees.

“Being here makes the war easier for us to bear,” she adds.

Oman’s top diplomat Badr bin Hamad Al-Busaidi, has spoken to Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani this morning by phone, Al Jazeera reports according to Oman’s foreign ministry.

The ministry said the call took place within the framework of ongoing regional consultations and the “coordination of visions”.

It added that the officials discussed ways to support efforts to achieve the “desired consensus” on several issues, including resuming maritime navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.

An Iranian official says the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz would proceed in phases, with an initial stage involving the release of frozen Iranian assets by the United States, the start of minesweeping operations and the easing of the current US blockade, Anadolu reports, citing a report published by The Washington Post.

Speaking anonymously to the paper, the Iranian official says the first phase will include the release of $12 billion in frozen Iranian assets, minesweeping operations in the Strait of Hormuz and the lifting of the US blockade.

The official adds that the proposed memorandum of understanding will not constitute a nuclear agreement, but rather a commitment to conduct future negotiations on nuclear-related issues. The official further says that a more detailed announcement could be made later today.

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Israel’s military has warned residents of 10 villages, most of them in southern Lebanon, to evacuate their homes ahead of expected strikes against alleged Hezbollah targets, AFP reports.

“In light of Hezbollah’s violation of the ceasefire agreement, the Israel Defence Forces are compelled to operate against it with force,” the military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Colonel Avichay Adraee, says in a social media post, listing the names of the villages.

“For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move at least 1,000 metres away from these towns and villages to open areas.”

Adraee has issued another evacuation warning directed at residents of a building in Rashidiyeh and two buildings in Burj al-Shamali, near the city of Tyre.

“We urge residents of the building marked in red on the attached map, as well as nearby buildings: you are located near a facility used by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation,” he writes on X.

Iran claims to have shot down a hostile drone over the Persian Gulf using a new air defence system, the Fars news agency reports.

“Iranian fighters, unveiling the new Arash-i-Kamangir systems, successfully shot down a hostile drone over the strategic waters of the Persian Gulf,” the agency reports.

“This operation, carried out using a system with stealth capabilities, is considered a clear and decisive message from Iran,” the report adds. “Relevant officials emphasised that ‘this is a sign from us that no stealth drone will be able to penetrate the skies of the Persian Gulf anymore.’”

An Iranian health ministry official says the injuries suffered by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes in late February are only “superficial”, offering a rare account of the day he was wounded, AFP reports.

The 56-year-old has not appeared publicly since he was named as Iran’s supreme leader on March 8, issuing only written statements, fuelling speculation about his health.

Health ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour describes the day Khamenei was wounded and his arrival at a hospital, which he did not identify. He said the supreme leader arrived at the hospital around 1pm on February 28 and “entered the operating room along with several other wounded individuals”.

“Apart from superficial injuries to the face, head and legs, which caused neither amputation nor any particular medical problem, nothing major had happened,” Kermanpour tells the ILNA news agency. “From my perspective as a physician, these were not considered serious injuries and required no special procedures apart from one or two stitches.”

He adds that Khamenei, who was fasting until nightfall during Ramazan, “refused to break his fast and kept fasting until iftar, which itself showed his good health”.

Kermanpour says he was discharged from the hospital at around 2am on March 1, but did not say where he was moved.

Iran has said that 32 ships have passed through the Strait of Hormuz after “obtaining permission with the coordination and security of the IRGC Navy”, Al Jazeera reports.

In a report published by the semi-official Tasnim news agency, the navy notes that the ships include oil tankers, container ships, and other commercial vessels.

A high-level Iranian delegation that includes the country’s top negotiator and central bank chief are in Doha to discuss a peace agreement with the US and the release of frozen funds, a source briefed on the matter told AFP.

“Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Doha earlier today for talks on ongoing diplomatic efforts to end the conflict,” the source said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

The visit will focus, the source added, “on issues relating to the Strait and highly enriched uranium. The Central Bank governor is part of the delegation to discuss the issue of frozen funds, which is addressed in the MoU as part of an eventual final deal.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has declared that Iran will not surrender to US pressures and excessive demands, saying the country’s negotiators will ensure the full restoration of the nation’s rights through the diplomatic process, Press TV reports.

Speaking at a meeting with members of the Chamber of Commerce, Pezeshkian noted that after failing on the military front, the enemy has now concentrated its efforts on economic warfare.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will not surrender to excessive pressures and demands under any circumstances,” he said.

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, calls for a return to “intensive” fighting in Lebanon, despite a ceasefire aimed at halting hostilities between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, AFP reports.

“It is time for the prime minister to take a firm stand with Donald Trump and tell him that Israel is returning to war in Lebanon,” Ben Gvir says on X.

“Electricity to Lebanon must be cut off, the Zahrani must be seized, and intensive warfare resumed,” he adds, referring to a river in southern Lebanon which runs further north than current Israeli ground operations.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, says Israel must “put an end to the threat of Hezbollah’s explosive drones”, Al Jazeera reports.

He notes the approval of a special budget of approximately 2 billion shekels ($692 million) for technological solutions to address the drone threat earlier this week.

Citing the killing of an Israeli soldier in a Hezbollah drone attack in southern Lebanon, the Religious Zionist Party leader says, “For every explosive drone, 10 buildings must fall in Beirut. The response to a significant threat must be significant.

“You don’t counter a strategic threat with shielding alone, but by changing the rules and the equation. We cannot shield ourselves forever. Only exacting a deterrent and disproportionate price from the enemy will reshape the equation against our foes on all fronts,” he adds in a post on X.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei has confirmed that Qatar’s secretary of the Supreme National Security Council visited Iran as part of diplomatic efforts mediated by Pakistan, according to semi-official news agency Tasnim.

Tasnim further clarifies that the Qatari emir did not undertake the visit.

Two Israeli drones have targeted the municipality of al-Shahabiya and the outskirts of the municipality of al-Bazouriyah in southern Lebanon’s Tyre district, according to Al Jazeera.

Separately, the Israeli army has also targeted the municipalities of ad-Doueir and Kafr Reman in the Nabatieh district.

Iran’s Central Bank Chief Abdolnaser Hemmati has travelled to Qatar, according to Iranian state media.

It reported that the visit followed talks with a Qatari delegation in Tehran regarding Iran’s frozen funds.

Iran has been pushing in negotiations for its frozen funds abroad, including in Qatar, to be released

Trump also slammed democrats in his Truth Social post, who he said “know nothing of the potential deal I am making with Iran,” naming US Senators Thom Tillis, Bill Cassidy and Congressman Thomas Massie.

He said that the Democrats had “totally lost their way, constantly supporting bad policy and even worse candidates, but are constantly critical of each and every fantastic win I have”.

“In other words, they are losers!“ the president said.

US President Donald Trump says that the Iran deal “will either be a great and meaningful one, or there will be no deal”.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the deal will be the “exact opposite of the JCPOA disaster by the Obama administration”.

The US president maintained that the deal was a “direct and open path to a nuclear weapon for Iran. No, I don’t do deals like that!”

Chinese President Xi Jinping has appreciated Pakistan’s “constructive role” in US-Iran negotiations, Reuters reports.

“I know that you have just returned from Iran and made positive efforts for the current peace. We still appreciate the constructive role played by Pakistan,” Xi said.

During his official visit to China, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has been accompanied by CDF and COAS Field Marshal Asim Munir, who was recently in Tehran for meetings with the Iranian leadership.

President Masoud Pezeshkian has said that Iran “will not give in to the excesses of the enemy”, state broadcaster IRIB reports.

“The rights of the Iranian nation must be fully enforced,” he was quoted as saying.

Pope Leo XIV has labelled “outdated” the concept of a “just war” put forward by US President Donald Trump’s administration, warning that “humanity is slipping into a violent culture of power”, reports AFP.

“Today, more than ever, without prejudice to the right to self-defence in the strictest sense, it is important to reaffirm that the ‘just war’ theory, which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated,” he wrote in an encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas” (Magnificent Humanity).

Iran’s internet blackout has entered its 87th week after passing 2,064 hours, according to NetBlocks.

Esmaeil Baqaei further expressed Tehran’s intention to continue its drone and missile programmes, contrary to earlier demands made by Washington.

“We will definitely spend part of our money on the development of Iran’s drone and missile programme, and we will not ask permission from anyone for that,” state broadcaster IRIB quoted Baqaei as saying.

“If we didn’t do this, the bullies of the world, including America, would dominate us,” he stressed.

China urged the US and Iran to continue the “momentum of de-escalation” as potential signs emerged that the war between the two sides could wind down following recent diplomatic contacts, Anadolu reports.

“China’s position on the Iranian situation is very clear. This is a conflict that should never have happened and there is no need for it to continue,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing.

“An earlier solution serves the interests of both the US and Iran, as well as regional countries and the world at large,” she said.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei has raised concerns over “contradictory views” that he said were emerging from within the American leadership.

“US politics is suffering from indecision. Facing contradictory views from US officials within just a few hours makes the process of any dialogue difficult,” IRIB quoted Baqaei as saying.

His remarks come after Trump last night said a deal with Iran was not “fully negotiated yet”, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio hinted that it could materialise “maybe today”.