Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned again that his country would retaliate if their infrastructure and economic centers were attacked after Tehran suffered a wave of strikes from Israel as the region marked a month into the fighting.<\/p>\n
Pezeshkian reiterated in a post on X on Saturday that Iran \u201cdoes not carry out preemptive attacks\u201d, but that Tehran \u201cwill retaliate strongly if our infrastructure or economic centers are targeted\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the countries of the region: If you want development and security, don\u2019t let our enemies run the war from your lands,\u201d Pezeshkian said.<\/p>\n
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has also threatened to target US and Israeli universities across the Middle East after the bombing of Iran\u2019s University of Science and Technology.<\/p>\n
In a statement published on Iran\u2019s Tasnim News agency on March 29, the IRGC advised all employees, professors, and students of US universities in the region, as well as residents in the surrounding areas, \u201cto stay at least one kilometer away from the mentioned universities to protect their lives\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the US administration wants its universities in the region not be among the two targeted for retaliation in this stage, must by 12 noon on Monday, March 30, Tehran time, issue an official statement condemning the bombing of universities,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if it wants its universities in the region to not be hit thereafter, it must prevent its savage allied forces from attacking universities and research centers; otherwise, the threat remains valid and will be carried out,\u201d the IRGC added.<\/p>\n
The escalated threats follow after some 3,500 US troops arrive in the Middle East. The US Central Command announced on Saturday on its X account that a task force of 3,500 marines and sailors arrived in the Middle East on Friday.<\/p>\n
Coupled with the news is a report in the Washington Post on the same day that the US Department of Defense was preparing options for ground operations in Iran, which would fall short of a full-scale invasion but could involve thousands of troops and take weeks or months.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told Islamic Republic News Agency, that the US \u201copenly sends messages of negotiation, while secretly planning a ground attack\u201d.<\/p>\n
He also noted that US President Donald Trump once sought to bring down Iran, but now his practical goal \u201cis merely to reopen a strait that was accessible prior to the war\u201d.<\/p>\n
Across the region on March 29, the United Arab Emirates activated its air defenses and reported interception of missiles and drones. Sirens were activated in Kuwait and Bahrain while Saudi Arabia intercepted 10 drones.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Egypt and Turkiye\u2019s foreign ministers arrived in Islamabad to hold talks in effort to deescalate tensions in the region. They are also expected to meet Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.<\/p>\n
In a post on X, Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said it was great news that the government of Iran \u201chas agreed to allow 20 more ships under the Pakistani flag to pass through the Strait of Hormuz; two ships will cross the Strait daily\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a welcome and constructive gesture by Iran and deserves appreciation. It is a harbinger of peace and will help usher stability in the region. This positive announcement marks a meaningful step toward peace and will strengthen our collective efforts in that direction,\u201d Dar said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDialogue, diplomacy, and such confidence-building measures are the only way forward,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Arhama Siddiqa, a research fellow at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad in Pakistan, told China Daily that the quadrilateral engagement in Islamabad \u201ccarries measured but not decisive significance in the current escalation cycle\u201d.<\/p>\n
On one hand, she said the presence of senior diplomats from regional middle powers, particularly the governments of Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan of Turkiye and Egypt\u2019s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi\u2019s administration, \u201csignals a coordinated attempt to create a diplomatic off-ramp at a moment when the situation risks further militarization, especially with the forward positioning of US troops\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, the limited impact of prior calls for restraint reflects a structural reality: regional actors possess influence, but not decisive leverage over the core drivers of escalation, according to Siddiqa.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsraeli actions, particularly the targeting of critical infrastructure, have continued to shape the tempo of the crisis, narrowing space for diplomacy and compelling reactive postures from others,\u201d Siddiqa said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo honestly, the Islamabad meeting should be viewed less as an immediate de-escalation mechanism and more as an effort to consolidate a regional consensus that could, over time, constrain further escalation and reintroduce diplomatic channels into an otherwise rapidly (for lack of a better word) hardening security environment,\u201d she added.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned again that his country would retaliate if their infrastructure and economic centers were attacked after Tehran suffered a wave of strikes from Israel as the region marked a month into the fighting. Pezeshkian reiterated in a post on X on Saturday that Iran \u201cdoes not carry out preemptive attacks\u201d, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136010\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}