Iran | Pakistan

US President Donald Trump indicated for the first time on Monday that US military operations in Iran could be coming to an end, saying the war was “very complete” and progressing ahead of schedule. The war had sent stock markets slumping and oil prices soaring again on Monday as Tehran, under new leader Mojtaba Khamenei, fired a new barrage of missiles at its Gulf neighbours and signalled that the strategic Strait of Hormuz would likely remain closed. But Wall Street vaulted into positive territory on Monday after Trump’s remarks, despite the lack of details on any solution to the conflict still raging in the Middle East. “I think the war is very complete, pretty much. They have no navy, no communications, they’ve got no air force,” Trump told CBS News by phone, repeating battle damage assessments that he has given in previous days. Trump told the US broadcaster that the United States was “very far” ahead of his initially stated timeframe for the war of four or five weeks. On the first day in power for the 56...

KARACHI: The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) on Monday cautioned that the pollution resulting from the recent US-Israeli attacks on Iran’s oil sites could worsen air quality in western parts of the country. “Due to [the] recent situation in Iran, the winds may carry pollutants and deteriorate air quality in the western parts of the country,” read a press release issued by the PMD. Iran, Pakistan’s western neighbour, has been embroiled in a war with the United States and Israel since the latter’s February 28 strikes that assassinated its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Major airstrikes on Tehran’s refineries and fuel depots on March 7 plunged the Iranian capital into a toxic gloom as black, oily rain fell on Sunday. In Tehran, the sun was blotted out by thick black smoke billowing from oil facilities that continued to smoulder. CNN correspondent Frederik Pleitgen described the scene at Tehran’s Shahran oil depot as “apocalyptic”, adding that “breathing the air feels quite toxic”. The Iranian Re...

The 10th day of the war began with a development that may shape the trajectory of the conflict more than any exchange on the battlefield. Early on Monday, Iran’s Assembly of Experts selected Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei as the country’s new supreme leader. The transition that happened without any disruption signalled both institutional continuity and a consolidation of authority at a time when Iran remains under sustained military pressure. Within Iran, the appointment was immediately endorsed by the revolutionary core and the political and military elite that publicly pledged allegiance, while state media framed the succession as a stabilising step that ensured the continuity of the political system despite the wartime environment, and there were no signs of unrest in cities, suggesting public acceptance as well. The acceptance of the new supreme leader extended beyond Iran’s borders as well, particularly among actors aligned with Tehran’s regional network of allies in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen who moved quickly...

Qatari authorities have arrested more than 300 people for sharing images and what they described as “misleading information” during days of attacks by Iran, the interior ministry said on Monday. The arrests echo measures across the Gulf as Iran targets airports, military bases, energy installations and residential areas with daily drones and missiles. Those arrested “filmed and circulated video clips and published misleading information and rumours that could stir public opinion”, a statement said. The people of “various nationalities” were held by the Department for Combating Economic and Cyber Crimes at the ministry’s General Directorate of Criminal Investigations. The announcement follows a spate of arrests elsewhere in the region. In Bahrain, four people were arrested for “filming and broadcasting clips about the effects of Iranian attacks and spreading false news”, the interior ministry said on Friday. And in Kuwait, authorities on Saturday said three people had been arrested over a video showing them mo...

Muhammad Mudassir Tipu has urged Pakistani nationals in Iran who wish to return home to register with the embassy immediately.

Oil prices surged around 25 per cent on Monday to their highest since mid-2022, with Brent on track ‌for a record one-day gain, while gold fell 2pc as an escalating Iran war squeezed world energy supplies, boosted the dollar and dampened hopes of interest-rate cuts. Agriculture markets, led by edible oils, rose as they took their cue from oil prices due to the extensive use ​of vegetable oils in making biofuels. Aluminium firmed on supply worries even as other metals faced headwinds from ​a stronger dollar. “The violent reaction stems from the markets seeing no obvious offramp in the escalating ⁠Middle East conflict, now a high-stakes standoff where neither side appears willing to blink first,” Tony Sycamore, IG market ​analyst, said in a note. “The risk of more lasting economic damage continues to build by the day.” Iran on Monday named Mojtaba Khamenei ​to succeed his father, Ali Khamenei as Supreme Leader. Soaring oil lift vegoils, grains Brent was on track for its biggest one-day gain ever in both percent...

Iranian clerics involved in choosing a successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after his assassination a week ago in US-Israeli strikes say they are close to naming the Islamic Republic’s new supreme leader. Iran’s revolutionary theocracy has never been in greater jeopardy, and with the clerical body tasked with naming a new leader ready for an announcement as soon as Sunday, it is hard to predict what might happen next. Israel and the United States have vowed no let-up in their war, promising to kill whoever replaces Khamenei and even those involved in selecting the new leader — a group that may include the clerics who formally make the choice and the Revolutionary Guardsmen and political insiders who influence them. The following explains how power is meant to operate in the Islamic Republic, how a new supreme leader can be chosen, some of the main candidates, and how the US and Israeli attacks have changed the equation. What is Iran’s ‘Supreme Leader’? Iran’s theocratic system dates to the 1979 revolution that...

GWADAR: A fisherman from Gwadar was killed after the debris of an Israeli projectile intercepted by Iranian air defence systems hit his boat in Iranian waters, officials said on Sunday. Gwadar Deputy Commissioner (DC) Naqibullah Kakar confirmed the incident to Dawn that took place on Saturday, saying that the deceased was identified as Muhammad Tayyab, a resident of Gannz, a small coastal town in Balochistan’s Gwadar district. District Police Officer Attaur Rehman also confirmed the incident and told Dawn that Tayyab “went into Iranian waters for Iranian oil”. DC Kakar believes an attempt was made to attack fishing boats in a coastal area of Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan province, but the projectile was intercepted and destroyed by the Iranian air defence system. “A portion of the debris from that drone or missile hit Tayyab’s fishing boat, resulting in his death,” he added. The officials said Tayyab’s body was taken to his native town, Gannz, via the sea, and he was later buried. Iran, a neighbour of Pakistan, h...

Kuwait has implemented a precautionary reduction in crude oil production and refining throughput after the ongoing attacks by Iran against the country and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) said on Saturday. The cuts are another disruption for the global energy industry because of the US-Israeli war on Iran, as oil and gas storage at facilities in the Middle East Gulf rapidly fill. Oil fields in Iraq have already cut production and Qatar declared force majeure on its huge volumes of gas exports, while the United Arab Emirates is most likely to cut next. “In light of the ongoing aggression by the Islamic Republic of Iran against the State of Kuwait, including Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, KPC has implemented a precautionary reduction in crude oil production and refining throughput as part of its risk management and business continuity strategy,” it said, adding that it would be “reviewed as the situation develops”. The...

The United States and Israel’s war with Iran could leave consumers and businesses worldwide facing weeks or months of higher fuel prices even if the week-old conflict ends quickly, as suppliers grapple with damaged facilities, disrupted logistics, and elevated risks to shipping. The outlook poses a wider global economic threat, as well as a political vulnerability for US President Donald Trump leading into the midterm elections, with voters sensitive to energy bills and unfavourable to foreign entanglements. “The market is shifting from pricing pure geopolitical risk to grappling with tangible operational disruption, as refinery shutdowns and export constraints begin to impair crude processing and regional supply flows,” JP Morgan analysts said in a research note on Friday. The conflict has already led to the suspension of around a fifth of global crude and natural gas supply, as ships avoid the vital Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman amid Tehran’s retaliatory attacks. Global oil prices have surged 24 pe...

Military consultations between Islamabad and Riyadh following Iranian drone and missile strikes on Saudi territory highlight the delicate strategic balance Pakistan must maintain as the Iran conflict expands beyond its original theatre and begins to affect the security of Gulf states. The statement issued by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) after the meeting between the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman, on its face, looks fairly routine and predictable, but when read closely, a careful calibration of language by Pakistan becomes obvious. The Pakistani statement acknowledged the gravity of the situation arising from Iranian drone and missile attacks on the Kingdom and noted that CDF Munir discussed with the Saudi defence minister the measures required to halt them within the framework of the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA) between the two countries. This in itself was a signal of solidarity wi...

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that his country would never surrender to Israel and the United States, as Middle East war entered its second week. Iran’s enemies “must take their wish for the unconditional surrender of the Iranian people to their graves”, Pezeshkian said, in a speech broadcast on state TV. Israel and the United States launched strikes against Iran on February 28, killing the Islamic republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and triggering a regional conflict. Iran has since responded with missile and drone strikes on Israel and US interests in regional countries, mainly in the Gulf. Pezeshkian is among three members of an interim leadership council that has been in charge of Iran since Khamenei’s killing. During the speech, Pezeshkian apologised to neighbouring countries for Iran’s attacks across the region, saying that they would not be targeted unless attacks originated from them. “I must apologise on my own behalf and on behalf of Iran to the neighbouring countr...

ISLAMABAD - Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar spoke this evening with the Foreign Minister of Iran, Seyyed Abbas and expressed concern over the evolving regional situation.

The return of Pakistani nationals from Iran continued for the sixth consecutive day, with hundreds entering the country through border crossings in Balochistan.

Soon after the first Iranian missile and drone attacks on Dubai last week, two Indian entrepreneurs based there tried to move more than $100,000 each from their local bank accounts to Singapore to hedge risk. Technological glitches in the aftermath of the Iranian attacks initially scuppered those plans, the entrepreneurs, who did not wish to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters. One of them said he managed to subsequently transfer the sum to his Singapore bank account via another Emirates-based bank. Scores of other wealthy Asians are making enquiries or taking similar steps to move their Dubai-parked assets to the regional financial hubs of Singapore and Hong Kong, industry advisers and lawyers said, as the US-Israel war on Iran clouds the Gulf’s safe-haven aura and rattles investors. While the rich typically diversify their investments across regions and asset classes, they choose where to be based depending on tax, regulatory, privacy and operational considerations. Towards that...

Qatar expects all Gulf energy producers to shut down exports within weeks if the Iran conflict continues and drives oil to $150 a barrel, the country’s Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi told the Financial Times in an interview published on Friday. Qatar halted its production of liquefied natural gas on Monday, as Iran continued to strike Gulf countries in retaliation for Israeli and US attacks. The country’s LNG production is equivalent to about 20 per cent of global supply and plays a major role in balancing both Asian and European markets’ demand for the fuel. “Everybody who has not called for force majeure we expect will do so in the next few days if this continues. All exporters in the Gulf region will have to call a force majeure,” Kaabi told the FT. “If this war continues for a few weeks, GDP growth around the world will be impacted,” he said. “Everybody’s energy price is going to go higher. There will be shortages of some products and there will be a chain reaction of factories that cannot supply,” Kaabi s...

A narrow vote in the House on Thursday rejecting limits on presidential war powers highlighted a growing clash between President Donald Trump’s approach to the conflict with Iran and Congress’s constitutional authority over military action. The House voted 219–212 against a resolution that would have required the president to seek congressional authorisation before expanding US military operations against Iran. A similar effort in the Senate failed earlier, leaving the administration free to continue its current campaign. The resolution, introduced by lawmakers from both parties, sought to reassert Congress’s authority under the Constitution to approve acts of war. Its defeat underscored the sharp partisan divide on Capitol Hill over the administration’s strategy. “Today, I voted for the War Powers Resolution to put an immediate stop to President Trump’s unlawful war with Iran,” said Representative Judy Chu, a California Democrat. She argued that the administration had presented “no imminent threat” that woul...

WASHINGTON: A Pakistani man accused of planning to kill President Donald Trump told jurors on Wednesday that he did not willingly work with Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to devise the plot, media said. The Justice Department accused Asif Merchant of trying to recruit people in the United States in the plan targeting Trump and other US politicians in retaliation for Washington’s killing of the Corps’ top commander, Qassem Soleimani. The Corps has a central role in Iran, with its combination of military and economic power and an intelligence network. “I was not wanting to do this so willingly,” the New York Times quoted Merchant as telling a court during his trial for terrorism and murder-for-hire charges, adding that he participated to protect his family in Tehran. Prosecutors reject Merchant’s claim of duress, cite lack of evidence to support ‘coercion’ defence Prosecutors rejected Merchant’s claim, citing a “lack of evidentiary support for a true duress or coercion,” according to a letter s...

Qutta - Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti says all relevant departments of have been placed on high alert in view of situation in Iran.

Oil prices surged more than three per cent on Thursday, extending a rally as the escalating US-Israeli war with Iran raised fears of prolonged disruptions to vital Middle East oil and gas supplies. Brent crude advanced $2.65, or 3.26pc, to $83.99 per barrel by 05:20 (GMT), a fifth session of gains. US West Texas Intermediate crude rose $2.76, or 3.70pc, to $77.42. Crude oil markets remained on edge as they face ongoing risks to supply following the attacks in the Middle East, and concerns are centred on the flow of supply through the Strait of Hormuz, ANZ analysts said in a note on Thursday. Iran launched a wave of missiles at Israel early on Thursday, as the conflict entered its sixth day and just hours after moves to halt the US air assault were blocked in Washington. On Wednesday, a US submarine sank an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka, killing at least 80 people, and Nato air defences destroyed an Iranian ballistic missile heading towards Turkiye. Iranian forces have struck oil tankers in or near the Strait ...