Iran | Pakistan

QUETTA - Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti on Tuesday has termed the large-scale repatriation of Pakistani citizens from Iran as a result of an organized and coordinated government effort.

A senior US counter-terrorism official resigned on Tuesday to protest the US-Israeli war against Iran and said the Islamic Republic posed no imminent threat to the United States. “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Joseph Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Centre, said in his resignation letter to President Donald Trump. Kent — a former member of the Green Beret special forces who served multiple combat tours — said “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.” Kent is the first senior US official to resign from the Trump administration to protest the war against Iran. “Until June of 2025, you understood that the wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation,” Kent said in his letter to Trump. “Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influen...

The Israeli claim of killing Iran’s top security official Ali Larijani, if confirmed, would mark the most consequential setback for Iran since the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei at the start of the US-Israel war on the Islamic republic, which is now in its 18th day. Larijani is one of the few remaining figures who straddle the political, security and diplomatic layers of the Iranian system at a time of war. He is not merely a senior insider, but part of a small cohort that can reconcile competing power centres within the state and translate battlefield developments into coherent political signalling. His role extends beyond messaging to quietly shaping external engagement, including maintaining channels that could, if required, support de-escalation. His loss, if confirmed, would not fracture the system. It would rather narrow the space within which strategy is formulated, tilting the balance further toward a security-driven approach and reducing flexibility for any future political exit. ...

From sea turtles to birds and the gentle dugong, the Persian Gulf’s diverse but fragile marine life is threatened by the bombs and oil of the war in the Middle East. The ecosystem was already under pressure from climate change and maritime traffic before the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran at the end of February. More than 300 incidents involving environmental risks — including attacks on oil tankers — have been recorded in the region since the conflict broke out, according to a March 10 report by the Conflict and Environment Observatory, a UK non-governmental organisation. The geography of the Gulf makes its ecosystem particularly vulnerable. A semi-enclosed and shallow sea about 50 metres deep on average, it is connected to the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Hormuz. Its slow water renewal — every two to five years — limits the dispersion of oil or other pollutants. The region hosts the world’s second-largest population of dugongs — herbivorous marine mammals known as “sea cows” that ...

China said on Tuesday it will provide humanitarian assistance to Middle Eastern countries, including Iran and Lebanon, targeted in US and Israeli strikes in the conflict now in its third week. China’s foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said the war had caused “grave humanitarian catastrophes” in Iran and other Middle Eastern nations. “China has decided to provide emergency humanitarian assistance to Iran, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. It is hoped this will help alleviate the humanitarian plight faced by the local populations,” Lin told a press conference, without providing further details. “China will continue to make every effort to promote peace and stop the war … and to prevent further spreading of the humanitarian crisis,” he added. China has sought to mediate in the war, with its special envoy to the Middle East, Zhai Jun, urging de-escalation when he recently met Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister for talks. China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, has also said that the war “should never have happened” and called for ...

Pakistan’s Ambassador to Iran, Mudassir Ali Tipu, has expressed gratitude to the Iranian government for ensuring smooth transit trade between the two countries during challenging times.

A total of 5,615 Pakistani citizens have returned from Iran since the outbreak of the ongoing conflict on February 28, Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti said on Tuesday.

Another Pakistani national was killed due to “falling debris” following the interception of a ballistic missile in the United Arab Emirates, the country’s media office said on Tuesday. The development marks the third instance of a Pakistani national losing their life in an attack in the UAE during the ongoing war between Iran, the US, and Israel. The Abu Dhabi Media Office, in a statement on X, said that the authorities “responded to an incident involving falling debris in the Baniyas area, following the interception of a ballistic missile by air defence systems”. “The incident resulted in the death of a Pakistani national,” it said. The Pakistan Embassy in the UAE, in a statement on X, expressed sorrow at the death and said it was in “close coordination” with local authorities. The embassy said that it will extend “all possible support to the bereaved family,” and added that the embassy will “facilitate the repatriation process at the earliest possible time”. “In this hour of grief, we share in the family’s ...

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi have reportedly resumed direct communication in recent days, Axios reported, citing a US official and a source familiar with the matter. Both officials had previously managed negotiations between Washington and Tehran before Israel and the United States launched an attack on Iran. Axios noted that it is unclear how substantive the messages exchanged were, but the contacts mark the first known direct communication between the parties since the conflict began. According to the US official and the source, Araghchi sent text messages to Witkoff focused on ending the war. However, Drop Site News reported on Monday that Witkoff had sent messages to Araghchi, quoting Iranian officials who said the foreign minister was ignoring the White House envoy’s messages. The US official told Axios that it was Araghchi who was attempting to engage, but the US “is not talking” to Iran. Neither source provided details...

Islamabad - Pakistan’s diplomatic outreach during the ongoing tensions in the Middle East has drawn appreciation from Iran, highlighting Islamabad’s attempt to maintain a balanced foreign policy in a highly sensitive regional environment.

The envoys from US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” have met representatives of Hamas in Cairo in an effort to safeguard the Gaza ceasefire, under serious strain since the United States and Israel began bombing Iran, three sources told Reuters. The weekend meeting is the first publicly reported since the start of the Iran war between Hamas and the board, a new international body personally headed by Trump, which has been tasked with overseeing post-war Gaza. Following the meeting, Israel announced on Sunday that it would soon reopen the sole crossing for pedestrians between Gaza and Egypt, shut since the Iran bombing campaign began. One of the sources said he believed the Israeli announcement was a direct result of the meeting between Hamas and the board. Prior to the war in Iran, Trump’s plan for Gaza was his flagship initiative for the Middle East. The sources said the Hamas representatives warned the board that they could back away from its previous promises under the Gaza ceasefire if Israel main...

On March 2, just a few days into the ongoing war, the United States and Israel carried out attacks on Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility. After initially disputing the claims, the IAEA later confirmed damage to the entrance buildings of the underground fuel enrichment plant at Natanz, located on the outskirts of Qom. The attack came several months after the 12-day standoff between Iran and Israel, when a similar attack was carried out on the Natanz uranium enrichment site’s underground structures. These attacks have established a dangerous new precedent in global nuclear politics. The targeting of Iranian nuclear facilities — Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan — operating under the IAEA safeguards renders irrelevant the very system designed to ensure nuclear programmes remain peaceful. “Again, they attacked Iran’s peaceful safeguarded nuclear facilities yesterday. Their justification that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons is simply a big lie,” said Reza Najafi, Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Ener...

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the United States could soon reach a deal with Cuba or take other action, signaling that developments in the long-strained relationship may come quickly. “Cuba also wants to make a deal, and I think we will pretty soon either make a deal or do whatever we have to do,” Trump said to reporters on Air Force One. “We’re talking to Cuba, but we’re going to do Iran before Cuba.” The comments come as tensions between Washington and Havana remain elevated following years of sanctions, diplomatic friction and disputes over migration and security, with regional allies and investors watching closely for signs of a policy shift. Cuba’s President Miguel Daz-Canel said on Friday that the country opened talks with the United States as the island faces one of its most severe economic crises in decades. “These talks have been aimed at finding solutions through dialogue to the bilateral differences we have between the two nations,” Diaz-Canel said in a video aired on state televisi...

On the sixteenth day of the US–Israel war on Iran, the conflict continued to rage across multiple theatres as Tehran and its regional allies sustained pressure through missile strikes, proxy attacks and maritime disruption. Meanwhile, the US and Israeli campaign showed limited progress in compelling Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which now appears to be their immediate objective. The overall pattern of the war now points to a steady widening of the battlefield. While US and Israeli forces retain clear superiority in the air and continue to conduct deep strikes inside Iran and across Lebanon, Iranian retaliation has not diminished, and the network of allied groups aligned with Tehran is gradually drawing additional fronts into the confrontation. During the past 24 hours, American and Israeli forces carried out further missile and air strikes against targets in central and western Iran, including industrial facilities, an airbase associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and infrastruct...

• Pete Hegseth calls reporting ‘patently ridiculous’ • Thompson says network will keep reporting ‘the truth’ WASHINGTON: The Pentagon and White House slammed CNN over its Iran war coverage on Friday — with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth saying he looked forward to an ally of President Donald Trump taking over the news network. Hegseth spent part of a news conference on US military operations against Tehran criticising the media and CNN in particular, urging for what he called an “actual patriotic press”. The former Fox News host was particularly incensed by a story the channel ran suggesting Washington had underestimated Iran’s ability to disrupt global oil traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. “Patently ridiculous,” Hegseth told reporters, before adding: “The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.” David Ellison is the head of Paramount Skydance, which is set to complete a landmark takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, the current owner of CNN, after beating Netflix in a bidding war. Earlier this...

• US bombs Kharg Island, key to 90pc of oil exports • Tehran warns it will target any facility in region linked to US • Trump says warships from several countries to guard Hormuz • US embassy in Baghdad urges Americans to leave Iraq • Iran Guards say targeted US forces at Saudi base with missiles • Iranian military claims US aircraft carrier ‘neutralised’ DUBAI: After the United States on Saturday bombed Iran’s main energy hub and President Donald Trump predicted “many countries” would send warships, Tehran threatened to escalate the war raging in the Middle East by targeting any facility in the region with US ties. As the conflict entered its third week, Iran projected defiance after US forces hit military sites at Kharg Island, which handles 90 per cent of Iranian oil exports. A drone attack had already disrupted a United Arab Emirates energy hub and the US embassy in Baghdad warned US citizens to leave Iraq. Since Israel and the United States began attacking Iran on Feb 28, the war has killed more than 2,0...

ISLAMABAD: The PTI has expressed deep alarm over the rapidly deteriorating regional security environment and called upon the government to immediately convene an emergency meeting of the OIC to forge a united response and foil any attempt to once again drag the region and the Ummah into a foreign-imposed and catastrophic conflict. In a statement issued on Saturday, PTI Central Inf­ormation Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram said urgent diplomatic action was imperative to prevent the Muslim world from being dragged into another devastating war. He warned that rapidly escalating tensions could destabilise the entire Middle East and have grave consequences for global peace, economic stability and the security of the Ummah. He said the unprovoked American and Israeli attacks on Iran constituted a blatant violation of international law and the sovereignty of a neighbouring Muslim state, warning that such reckless military actions risk igniting a wider regional conflict with catastrophic consequences for the Middle East ...

On the 15th day of the US-Israel war against Iran, strategic signalling between the warring sides intensified after American forces struck Kharg Island, Iran’s principal oil export hub, while Tehran and its regional allies increased pressure across multiple theatres stretching from the Gulf to Iraq and Lebanon. US aircraft conducted strikes on Kharg Island on the night of March 13, targeting what Washington described as military facilities associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy. The attacks reportedly hit a short airstrip, air defence positions, docks linked to the Joushan naval base, a control tower and helicopter hangars. Iranian state media acknowledged damage but said air defences were restored shortly afterwards and confirmed that oil export infrastructure was deliberately spared. Reports on Saturday afternoon suggested that oil exports from Kharg Island remained unaffected and at least two ships had docked for loading. US President Donald Trump described the raid as one of the most “...

Just over two weeks before President Donald Trump is due to meet his counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing, Chinese uncertainty over the US leader’s goals and the impact of the Iran war hangs over the highly anticipated state visit. Trump’s trip, his first to China in his second term, is aimed at sealing a trade war truce the two leaders shook hands on when they met in South Korea in October. But for Beijing, which likes to carefully choreograph such events to avoid any possibility of embarrassment, Trump’s free-wheeling style is proving a challenge. A source familiar with negotiations told AFP that Chinese officials were expecting more ambitious preparations for such a summit between the leaders of the rival superpowers. The White House insisted, however, that preparations were going well for the visit from March 31 to April 2, with regular contacts and interactions with Beijing. “Unlike the autopen Biden administration that prized performance over outcomes, the Trump administration is very comfortable with trip...

President says US military deliberately avoided striking Iran’s oil infrastructure on the island