War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

The Israeli military vowed to hunt down Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, AFP reports.

“We don’t know about Mojtaba Khamenei, we don’t hear him, we don’t see him, but I can tell you one thing: we will track him down, find him, and neutralise him,” military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin has told reporters.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has warned of “bloodlust” following the assassination of Basij commander Gholamreza Soleimani, Al Jazeera reports.

“We warn the evil and terrorist murderers of this high-ranking martyr that the Basij will never abandon the bloodlust of the martyred leader, martyred commanders, and various members of the people’s martyrs,” the IRGC has said.

Instead, their deaths will “double the will of the heroic Iranian nation and all the Basij fighters to continue the path of resistance”, the group added.

Iran’s Fars news agency reports that Gholamreza Soleimani, commander of the Basij paramilitary force, has been assassinated in a US-Israeli strike.

“This cowardly assassination reflects the importance and role of the Basij in the comprehensive battlefield against the terrorist army of the United States and the Zionist regime and their mercenaries, especially in the recent war,” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has said in a statement.

The Saudi defence ministry has said that a ballistic missile was intercepted and destroyed over the Al-Kharj governorate.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has encouraged the international community to raise their voices against US-Israeli strikes on Iran, after a top US counterterrorism official resigned in protest of the war.

“A rising number of voices — including European and US officials — exclaim that the war on Iran is unjust. More members of the international community should follow suit,” Araghchi has said on X.

Araghchi has also warned that the “wave of global repercussions has only begun and will hit all — regardless of wealth, faith, or race”.

“Our foe is one,” he has stated.

Iran is selecting ships from friendly countries to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial trade waterway cut off by the Middle East war, AFP reports citing data trackers.

At least five ships exited the strait via Iranian waters on March 15 and 16, maritime intelligence firm Windward has said in an analysis report on Tuesday.

“The new route illustrates how Iran’s selective blockade has evolved to allow allies and supporters to transit”, it said, citing its tracking as “rising evidence that Iran is exerting permission-based transit and control of the strait”.

Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has said, “The Strait of Hormuz situation won’t return to its pre-war status.”

Iran’s Mizan news agency reports that around 7pm local time, a “projectile” struck the nuclear power plant in Bushehr “leaving no financial, technical, or human damage and causing no harm to any of the plant’s sections”.

The Kataeb Hezbollah group in Iraq has demanded that every “foreign soldier” leave the country, AFP reports citing a statement from its security chief.

“Iraq’s instability is due to the malicious American presence, and security will not be achieved until the last foreign soldier leaves Iraqi territory,” the group’s new security chief, Abou Moujahed al-Assaf, has said.

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight 178, which took off from Fujairah and was bound for Lahore, experienced a “snag” related to cabin pressurisation and was diverted to Karachi, according to the flag carrier.

“PIA flight 178 … is safe and sound and has landed at Karachi,” the carrier has said on X. “During flight, it developed a cabin pressurisation-related snag, and as per procedure, it reduced altitude to 10,000 feet.”

PIA added that engineers are currently working to repair the aircraft, which is set to continue to its final destination of Lahore.

Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul says it is not realistic to expect controlled regime change in Iran and adds that the war cannot have only a military solution, Reuters reports.

“There will be no military solution. And to have a controlled regime change, is, I would say, a hypothetical idea, which is not realistic,” he has said, speaking alongside his French counterpart in Berlin at an event hosted by the ZEIT media group.

“So chaos in Iran, as bad as the regime is, is also not in our interest and not in the interest of the region and, of course, in the interest of the people living in Iran.”

Pir Hossein Kolivand, President of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS), has said the IRCS’s psychosocial support teams are working at “full potential to help people feel safer and foster greater empathy and solidarity during the war”.

Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry has said that seven drones were intercepted and destroyed over the country’s eastern region over the past few hours.

The Iraqi president is pushing for cooperation between the federal government and Kurdish leaders to restart crude oil exports, Al Jazeera reports.

“Finding a way to export Iraqi oil is an important matter that serves the country’s best interests,” the president’s office has said in a statement carried by the Iraqi News Agency.

When asked by Al Jazeera about how the Trump administration plans to deal with ongoing economic challenges such as rising food and petrol prices, presidential aide Kush Desai says that Trump is “working very closely” with countries including Venezuela and Morocco to “shore up production of certain fertiliser inputs, to make sure that our supply chains are resilient”.

“The president has a lot of tools in his tool belt to deal with these disruptions, and we’re seeing the administration take a very robust, very nimble and very multifaceted approach to deal with these issues,” he has said.

Al Jazeera is speaking with Kush Desai, special assistant to US President Donald Trump and senior deputy press secretary at the White House.

“We’re very confident we’re going to see a military resolution here in a four to six week timeline”, Desai says, claiming the US has made “astonishing” progress in Iran.

Trump is “working on a plan” to mitigate economic impacts, Desai added, including providing political risk insurance so that cargo ships can begin moving through the Strait of Hormuz.

Rocket and drone attacks on the US embassy and a diplomatic facility in Iraq have resumed after a series of strikes earlier today, Al Jazeera reports citing security sources.

Rockets and an explosive drone targeted the embassy in Baghdad, triggering sirens, and an explosion was heard near the compound.

At least three explosive drones also targeted a US diplomatic facility near Baghdad International Airport, activating the counter-rocket artillery and mortar (C-RAM) air defence systems, the sources added.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The Iranian women’s football team has arrived in Istanbul on their way home from Malaysia, after five players withdrew asylum claims they had lodged in Australia, Reuters reports.

Australia granted humanitarian visas to six players and one support staff member after they sought asylum, saying they feared persecution if they returned to Iran.

Concerns over their safety surfaced after several players failed to sing the national anthem at a women’s Asian Cup match earlier this month.

Five of the group have since changed their minds and decided to return home, with Australian media reporting the latest withdrawal on Monday.

They rejoined the rest of the squad in Kuala Lumpur, where the team had been staying since leaving Sydney last week, leaving only two players still in Australia.

A diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, Anwar Gargash, says his country could join an international effort led by the US to ensure the safety and security of the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reports.

Speaking in an online event organised by the Council on Foreign Relations, an American-based think tank, Gargash has said that the UAE does not currently have active talks with Iran.

Saudi Interior Minister Abdulaziz bin Saud has discussed recent developments and attacks on the Gulf countries and the region in a call with his Omani counterpart Hamoud bin Faisal Al Busaidi.

“I affirmed to His Excellency that the Kingdom stands by the sisterly Sultanate of Oman in everything that ensures its security, stability and the safety of its citizens and residents,” the Saudi interior minister said on X.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar says Tel Aviv has effectively won its war with Iran, but has not indicated when the conflict might end, saying only that the campaign would continue until its objectives were achieved, Reuters reports.

Speaking at a news conference, Saar said Israel was seeking to remove “existential threats”, but did not say how the government would determine when those goals had been met.

“One must be patient,” he said, speaking on the 18th day of a war that has killed more than 2,000 people, most of them in Iran and Lebanon, but also in Israel, Iraq and across the Gulf.

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Trump says rising oil and gas prices amid the US-Israel war on Iran are temporary, according to Al Jazeera.

“As soon as that war’s over — which will be soon — your prices are gonna drop like a rock,” he said. “You watch.”

US Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders says he agrees with Joe Kent’s decision to resign as Washington’s national counterterrorism chief over the Iran war.

“Kent and I don’t agree on much, but he is right: ‘Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,’” Sanders has written on X.

Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has lashed out at Israel after it claimed to have killed Iran’s national security chief Ali Larijani, denouncing its targeting of Tehran’s leaders as “illegal”, Al Jazeera reports.

“Israel’s political assassinations, especially those targeting Iranian statesmen and politicians, are truly illegal activities outside the normal laws of war,” Fidan has told a news conference.

Larijani’s death has not been confirmed by Iran.