#BREAKING: #Cuba is set to receive a humanitarian oil shipment from Russia as early as this week.

Iran threatens strikes on Israeli and U.S. universities

Iran warned of escalation after Israeli airstrikes hit several universities, including ones that Israel claimed were used for nuclear research and development. Concerns over Iran’s nuclear program are at the heart of tensions.

The paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said Iran would consider Israeli universities and branches of U.S. universities in the region “legitimate targets” unless offered safety assurances for Iranian universities, state media reported.

“If the U.S. government wants its universities in the region spared, it should condemn the bombardment” of Iranian universities by midday Monday, the Guard said.

U.S. colleges have campuses in Qatar and the UAE, including Georgetown, New York and Northwestern universities. The American University of Beirut moved classes online and called it a precautionary measure.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said Saturday that dozens of universities and research centres have been hit, among them the Iran University of Science and Technology and Isfahan University of Technology.

Both sides in the war have threatened to attack civilian facilities, which critics have warned could be a war crime.

#Iran warns U.S. ground troops would be ‘set on fire’ as regional diplomats meet on the war. “Pakistan is very happy that both Iran and the U.S. have expressed their confidence in Pakistan to facilitate the talks. Pakistan will be honored to host and facilitate meaningful talks between the two sides in the coming days,” Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said after top diplomats from Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia met in Islamabad.

Pakistan later said the diplomats had departed for their home countries. The talks were originally scheduled to continue Monday.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry did not answer questions and Iran’s mission to the United Nations declined to comment.

Islamabad has emerged as a mediator, having relatively good ties with Washington and Tehran, after what Pakistani officials call weeks of quiet diplomacy.

Earlier, Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, dismissed the talks in Pakistan as a cover after some 2,500 U.S. Marines trained in amphibious landings arrived in the Middle East. He said Iranian forces were “waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners forever,” according to state media.

Iran also threatened to attack homes of U.S. and Israeli “commanders and political officials” in the region. A spokesperson for the Iranian military’s joint command, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, cited the “targeting of residential homes of the Iranian people in various cities” and other “malicious actions,” state media reported.

“We don’t know at what moment our homes could be targeted,” said Razzak Saghir al-Mousawi, 71, describing relentless airstrikes as Iranians crossing into Iraq urged the United States to end the war. “I am definitely afraid.”

Meanwhile in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military will widen its invasion of Lebanon, expanding the “existing security strip” in that country’s south while targeting the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group. No details were released.

Over 1 million Lebanese have been displaced in the war. One of them, Mohammad Doghman, called Israel “an expansionist state.”
Fleeing Iranians urge U.S. to end war

The war has threatened global supplies of oil, natural gas and fertilizer and disrupted air travel. Iran’s grip on the strategic Strait of Hormuz has shaken markets and prices. Now the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels ' entry into the war could threaten shipping on another crucial waterway, the Bab el-Mandeb strait to the Red Sea.

Israel’s military said that its air force had intercepted two drones launched from Yemen very early on Monday morning.

Late on Sunday, Israel’s military said that over the past 24 hours its fighter jets had dropped more than 120 munitions in Tehran, targeting sites used for weapons research, development and production. Around the same time, Iran’s state television said power was back in areas of Tehran that had experienced outages after attacks on electricity facilities.

The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for launching their first attack in the current war -- a missile fired at Israel, which was also intercepted -- early on Saturday morning.

More than 3,000 people have been killed in the war that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran that triggered Iranian attacks against Israel and U.S. military assets and other sites in neighboring Gulf Arab states. The war continues on the digital front as well.
Egypt says meetings aim for `direct dialogue’

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said the meetings in Pakistan are aimed at opening a “direct dialogue” between the U.S. and Iran, which have largely communicated through mediators. The war began with U.S. and Israeli strikes during indirect talks. Pakistan said the foreign ministers met Sunday without U.S. or Israeli participation.

Iranian officials have rejected a U.S. 15-point “action list” as a framework for a possible peace deal and publicly dismissed the idea of negotiating under pressure. But Iran’s state broadcaster has reported that Tehran drafted its own five-point proposal reportedly calling for a halt to killing Iranian officials, guarantees against future attacks, reparations and Iran’s “exercise of sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.”

Iran has eased some restrictions on commercial ships in the strait, agreeing late Saturday to allow 20 more Pakistani-flagged vessels to pass through. It “sends a clear signal that Iran remains open for business with the world, provided the United States abandons coercion,” said Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s former ambassador to Iran.

An adviser to the United Arab Emirates, Anwar Gargash, called for any settlement to the war to include “clear guarantees” that Iranian attacks on neighbors will not be repeated. He said Iran’s government has become “the main threat” to Persian Gulf security, and called for compensation for attacks on civilian infrastructure.

Mediators gather in Pakistan for talks on ending the monthlong Iran war. #ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Top diplomats from key regional powers gathered in Pakistan on Sunday to discuss how to end the fighting in the Middle East, but there were few signs of progress as Israel and the U.S. kept up strikes on Iran, and Tehran responded by firing missiles and drones across the region.

Pakistan said foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt were participating in the talks in Islamabad. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian held “extensive discussions” on regional hostilities.

More than 3,000 people have been killed throughout the monthlong war that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, triggering Iran’s attacks on Israel and neighbouring Gulf Arab states.

The U.S. and Israel were not participating in the Islamabad talks. Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, dismissed the talks as a cover while the U.S. dispatches additional troops to the Middle East. He warned against any ground invasion and said Iran was ready to set American troops “on fire” and punish U.S. regional allies, according to Iranian state media.

Israel announced waves of incoming strikes from Iran on Sunday and explosions could be heard throughout Tehran.

Mideast leaders try to break impasse at weekend talks

Egypt’s Badr Abdelatty, Turkey’s Hakan Fidan and Saudi Arabia’s Prince Faisal Bin Farhan were in Islamabad as part of talks scheduled days after the U.S. offered Iran a 15-point “action list” as a framework for a possible peace deal. Abdelatty said the meetings were aimed at opening a “direct dialogue” between the U.S. and Iran, which have largely communicated through mediators during the war.

Yet during the talks, Iran has eased some restrictions on commercial ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. It agreed late Saturday to allow 20 more Pakistani-flagged vessels to transit the critical passageway, Pakistani officials said, adding to the select few it has let through as Iran works to choke but not cut off the strait entirely.

The weekend provided little sign of the talks narrowing the disconnect between the U.S. and Iran. U.S. officials have insisted the war may be nearing an inflection point but Iranian leaders continue to publicly reject negotiations.

U.S. ‘underestimated Iran’: Military analyst says, as Iran war reaches one-month mark.

As the conflict in the Middle East reaches the one-month mark, a retired Canadian military expert says the United States underestimated Iran in this war.

“The U.S. did not expect this,” Maj.-Gen. (Ret’d) David Fraser, who led NATO forces in Afghanistan in 2006, told CTV News Channel on Saturday.

“The fact that they’re talking about adding Marines (and) there’s 10,000 more ground troops getting ready to go over there — this is not part of the original plan. I think the U.S. underestimated Iran.”

Fraser says the U.S. did not anticipate the impact this war would have on the Strait of Hormuz — one of the most important oil check-points in the world that has closed as a result of the war, impacting global oil prices.

Over 3,000 people have been killed in the war in the Middle East.

On Saturday, around 2,500 U.S. Marines arrived in the Middle East in addition to two aircraft carriers, numerous warships and nearly 50,000 troops that are already in the region.

The same day, Yemen’s Houthis claimed a missile launch on Israel. Fraser says this is a significant development in the Middle East conflict.

“That’s more air defence that the U.S. and Israel have to defend against, including regional countries,” he said.

“It’s yet another complexity of this war that just seems to be getting messier and messier by the day.”

Although the attack targeted Israel, Fraser says the missiles could have gone to any neighbouring countries, which could add pressure to the U.S. military, who have already seen over 300 U.S. service members wounded since the start of the war.

“The (U.S.) is going to divert assets down into Yemen to go find the Houthis missiles and start striking them, and that takes away from what the (U.S.) is doing in Iran and elsewhere,” Fraser said.

“It’s another stretching of the American resources, and they’re pulling in still more patriot batteries from elsewhere to try to bolster up the air defence.”

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday at an investment forum in Miami that he was disappointed with NATO’s lack of support in the war, calling it a “tremendous mistake.”

Trump stated that the U.S. has spent billions of dollars protecting NATO countries, and that due to their lack of support for the U.S. in the war, the U.S. may not protect NATO countries moving forward.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said there are talks that some NATO members could be part of a joint effort to ensure movement through the Strait of Hormuz if there is a ceasefire, following earlier remarks that Canada will not participate in the war.

#Yemeni #Houthis say "our fingers are on the trigger to intervene" if war against Iran escalates.

Remaining in position for Patriot air defense crews in the Middle East is effectively suicide, Scott Ritter, a former US Marine Corps intelligence analyst and former United Nations arms inspector in Iraq, told TASS in an interview.

He explained that many people did not believe Iran "would be capable of doing what it's doing," but it is now becoming clear that there is no defense against Iran's attacks, and the Iranians themselves "are pressing home their attack in a very aggressive manner."

"It's suicide to stay in place. But the irony is, by putting it on automatic, you expend far more missiles than you would through manual operation. So we’re burning through the inventory even faster. This just proves that we didn’t really think this war out when we started it," Ritter emphasized.

He added that the intensity of the Iranian attack on US air defense is higher than the intensity of Russian strikes on Ukrainian air defense. "The Russians are very selective in their application of violence, the Iranians are more broad spectrum, they're hitting more targets," he added.

The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were struck. The White House justified the attack by citing alleged missile and nuclear threats from Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a retaliatory operation, targeting sites in Israel. US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were also hit. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some other key Iranian leaders were killed in the joint US-Israeli attack.

#Israel hits #Tehran with wave of strikes and warns attacks on Iran ‘will escalate and expand’.

With stock markets reeling and economic fallout from the war extending far beyond the Middle East, Trump is under growing pressure to end Iran’s chokehold on the strait, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is usually shipped.

The United States has offered Iran a 15-point proposal for a ceasefire that includes it relinquishing control of the strait, but at the same time has ordered thousands more troops to the region -- possibly in preparation for a military attempt to wrest the waterway from Iran.

Trump has said if Iran doesn’t reopen the strait to all traffic by April 6, he will order the destruction of Iran’s energy plants. He said Thursday that talks on ending the conflict were going “very well.” Iran maintains it is not engaged in any negotiations.

Israel targets Iran’s weapons production and Lebanese capital

Air raid sirens sounded in Israel and the military said it has been intercepting Iranian missiles on a daily basis. Defense Minister Israel Katz said Iran “will pay heavy, increasing prices for this war crime.”

“Despite the warnings, the firing continues,” Katz said. “And therefore attacks in Iran will escalate and expand to additional targets and areas that assist the regime in building and operating weapons against Israeli citizens.”

Israel’s military said its attacks Friday targeted sites “in the heart of Tehran” where ballistic missiles and other weapons are produced. It said it also hit missile launchers and storage sites in Western Iran.

Smoke rose over Beirut after a pre-dawn strike, and Lebanon’s Health Ministry later reported two people were killed.
Iran launches missiles and drones at its Gulf Arab neighbours

Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry said it shot down missiles and drones targeting the capital, Riyadh.

Kuwait said its Shuwaikh Port in Kuwait City and the Mubarak Al Kabeer Port to the north, which is under construction as part of China’s “Belt and Road” initiative, sustained “material damage” in attacks. It appeared to be one of the first times a Chinese-affiliated project in the Gulf Arab states has come under assault in the war. China has continued to purchase Iranian crude.

U.S. stocks fell on opening Friday, in a fifth straight losing week -- Wall Street’s longest such streak in nearly four years. The S&P 500 dropped 0.4 per cent in early trading Friday. The Dow lost 0.6 per cent, and the Nasdaq fell 0.6 per cent, breaking the week’s pattern of flip‑flopping gains and losses as hopes for an end to the war vacillated.

Asian shares also fell Friday over growing doubts about the chances of de-escalation. Oil prices rose again, the Brent crude, the international standard, at US$107 a barrel in morning trading, up more than 45 per cent since Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran on Feb. 28 to start the war.

#Brazil's Bolsonaro leaves hospital and heads home to serve the rest of his 27-year sentence.

The Supreme Court earlier in the week granted him the right of house imprisonment due to failing health. The measure could be revised within 90 days.

Bolsonaro left the hospital DF Star in Brasilia at around 10 a.m. local time and headed to the Jardim Botanico neighbourhood, where he lived prior to his conviction with his wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, and his 15-year-old daughter, Laura.

The 71-year-old was hospitalized on March 13 for pneumonia, one of several health issues he has faced since he was stabbed by a man in 2018 before being elected president. He was put in intensive care for days due to kidney and inflammatory problems.

Bolsonaro governed between 2019 and 2022 and narrowly lost his re-election bid to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The former right-wing leader was accused of plotting with top aides to stay in office by decree despite the election loss, and was convicted of charges including attempted coup and attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law. He has denied wrongdoing and called the case a political witch hunt.
Both sides of the political divide criticize the decision

The former president started serving his sentence in November in a 12-square-metre room at the federal police headquarters, which included a bed, a private bathroom, air conditioning, a TV set and a desk. In January, he was transferred to a 54-square-metre room with a 10-square-metre outside area that he could access at will at the Papuda penitentiary.

Bolsonaro remains popular in Brazil and one of his sons, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, is in a competitive position against Lula in polls ahead of October’s presidential election. The former president is ineligible and will not be allowed to take a public role in any campaign.

In his ruling, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes stressed that Bolsonaro’s transition to house arrest is conditional and that he could return to prison if he violates house imprisonment rules regardless of his medical condition.

Bolsonaro will wear an ankle monitor and is not allowed to communicate with anyone outside his home. He is not allowed to host visitors except for doctors, family members and his lawyers. Police will watch his house and protesters won’t be allowed to gather near it.

Law professor Marcelo Crespo of ESPM university in Sao Paulo said it is unusual for house imprisonment rulings like Bolsonaro’s to include a review after 90 days, but he said de Moraes was seeking “some middle ground by not granting house imprisonment for an undetermined period.” As recently as November, de Moraes deemed the former president to be a flight risk.

The 90-day review has drawn criticism from both sides of the political divide.

Bolsonaro’s family and allies, who consider de Moraes an adversary, have criticized the temporary nature of the house imprisonment. Detractors of the former president are also upset, saying he is receiving lenient treatment despite his long history of advocating for harsh penalties for convicts.
The judge faces a separate scandal

Bolsonaro’s shift to house arrest comes as de Moraes and his wife are entangled in a scandal involving the multibillion-dollar collapse of Banco Master, which was shut down in late 2025 by the Central Bank amid allegations of fraud involving businesspeople and politicians across the ideological spectrum.

De Moraes, who until recently was hailed as a hero by adversaries of the former president, has been under fire since January from both critics and allies of Bolsonaro over the justice’s ties to the bank, which have raised concerns over conflicts of interest. They include his wife’s former multimillion-dollar contract to provide legal services to the bank.

De Moraes has denied wrongdoing.

Political analyst Thomas Traumann, who has written books about Brazil’s political divisions, attributed de Moraes’ decision to grant Bolsonaro house imprisonment to political pressure over his links to the Banco Master scandal.

The United Nations must insist on the need to prosecute aggressor states that violate the UN Charter and undermine the foundations of international law, including humanitarian law, and human rights, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a telephone conversation with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

"The Iranian foreign minister stressed that the UN and its secretary-general have a statutory obligation to condemn the aggression categorically and unequivocally and to hold the aggressors accountable in accordance with Chapter 7 of the UN Charter," Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Araghchi also called on the international community to take into account the root cause of insecurity imposed on the region and the Strait of Hormuz, namely the US-Israeli military aggression, the ministry said.

"As the coastal state of the Strait of Hormuz, the Islamic Republic of Iran, in accordance with established principles and rules of international law, has prevented the transit of vessels belonging to or associated with the aggressor parties and those participating in their acts of aggression," the ministry said.