Pakistan will host discussions next week with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey regarding the Middle East war, a senior foreign ministry official told AFP.
“We will host a quadrilateral meeting on Monday,” the official said on condition of anonymity, adding that the exact representation was not yet confirmed, reports RTE.
Delegations are expected to reach Pakistan by tomorrow evening, the official added.
Pakistan has taken on a prominent role as a facilitator between Iran and the United States as the conflict continues, acting as a channel for communication between both sides, reports RTE.
Islamabad maintains long-established ties with Tehran and strong connections in the Gulf, while Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Field Marshal Amin Munir have developed a personal rapport with US President Donald Trump.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told private broadcaster A Haber that the meeting had originally been planned to take place in Turkey, reports RTE.
“However, since our Pakistani counterparts are required to remain in their country, we moved the meeting to Pakistan,” he said late yesterday.
“It is possible that we will meet there this weekend,” he added, reports RTE.
Mr Fidan had earlier indicated that the talks would include the foreign ministers of the four Muslim-majority nations.
Earlier yesterday, Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said he anticipated a direct meeting between the US and Iran in Pakistan “very soon”, without disclosing his source, reports RTE.
While Tehran has declined to acknowledge formal talks with Washington, Iran has conveyed a response to US President Donald Trump’s 15-point proposal to end the war through Islamabad, according to an unnamed source cited by Iran’s Tasnim news agency.
Mr Trump has shown urgency in seeking to bring the unpopular war to an end, and on Thursday extended a deadline by 10 days for Iran to reopen the blocked Strait of Hormuz or face strikes targeting its civilian energy infrastructure, reports RTE.
His special envoy Steve Witkoff said the US had clear red lines, including prohibiting Iran from enriching uranium and requiring it to surrender what he described as 10,000 kilograms of enriched stockpiled material.
The US expects its military campaign against Iran to conclude within weeks rather than months and believes it can achieve its objectives without deploying ground forces, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said yesterday, reports RTE.
Mr Rubio also discussed with G7 foreign ministers the possibility that Iran, even after the conflict, might attempt to impose shipping tolls in the Strait of Hormuz.
He noted that European and Asian countries benefiting from trade through the route should help ensure free navigation, while downplaying US reliance on the waterway, reports RTE.
1,900 dead in Iran
The war has expanded across the Middle East, resulting in thousands of deaths and causing unprecedented disruption to energy supplies, driving up oil, gas, and fertiliser prices and fuelling inflation concerns globally.
In Iran, more than 1,900 people have died and at least 20,000 have been injured, said Maria Martinez of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, reports RTE.
Washington has deployed two groups of thousands of Marines to the region, with the first expected to arrive by the end of March aboard a large amphibious assault ship.
The Pentagon is also preparing to send thousands of elite airborne troops, reports RTE.
These deployments have heightened fears that the conflict—launched by the US and Israel on 28 February with airstrikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader and other senior figures—could escalate into a prolonged ground war.
Iran’s retaliation, targeting US and Israeli positions as well as civilian sites in Gulf Arab countries and shipping routes, has disrupted global trade in energy and other goods, raising concerns about price increases and a potential recession, reports RTE.
Twelve US military personnel were injured—including two seriously—by an Iranian missile and drone strike at Prince Sultan airbase in Saudi Arabia, a US official told Reuters.
The Wall Street Journal reported that multiple refuelling aircraft were damaged in the attack, reports RTE.
The latest casualties add to more than 300 US service members wounded since the conflict began. Earlier yesterday, the US military said 273 had already returned to duty.
Thirteen US troops have been killed in the conflict, reports RTE.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said they were prepared to intervene militarily under certain conditions, including if new allies join the United States and Israel in their war against Iran or if the Red Sea is used to launch attacks on Iran.
The Israeli military said it had detected a missile launch from Yemen, marking the first such incident since the conflict began, reports RTE.
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The launch came hours after the Houthis said they were ready to act if what they described as an escalation against Iran and the “axis of resistance” continued, though they did not specify how they would intervene.
The Houthis’ entry into the conflict raises the likelihood of a wider regional confrontation, particularly given their capacity to strike distant targets and disrupt shipping lanes around the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea, which they had previously done in support of Hamas in Gaza following the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, reports RTE.
Iran’s Shia allies in Lebanon and Iraq have already joined the regional conflict triggered by US and Israeli strikes on Tehran four weeks ago.
Attacks on Israel by Hezbollah, Iran’s Lebanese ally, have also led to a major Israeli offensive that has displaced around a fifth of Lebanon’s population, reports RTE.
The Israeli military said yesterday evening that Iran had fired missiles toward Israel.
A 60-year-old man was killed in the Tel Aviv area, according to the ambulance service, reports RTE.
Israel strikes towns, villages across southern Lebanon
Israel launched airstrikes at dawn on several towns in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese state media, as both Israel and Hezbollah said they continued targeting each other’s forces.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported “a series of strikes” at dawn on Majdal Selm and “successive strikes” on Kafra, Hanniyeh, Touline, and Adloun, reports RTE.
It added that Israeli strikes also hit the city of Nabatiyeh, targeting “residential and commercial buildings and a fuel station”.
At the same time, the agency reported strikes on border towns, particularly Taybeh, along with “an attempt by enemy forces to advance toward the Litani area”, reports RTE.
The Israeli military said this morning that “at this time, the IDF continues to strike Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure across Lebanon”.
It also said it had struck dozens of Hezbollah targets overnight and killed two senior members of the group’s communications unit in a Beirut strike yesterday, reports RTE.
“Overnight, the IDF conducted strikes on dozens of targets from the air and sea across multiple areas in southern Lebanon, in support of ground troops and as part of the ongoing effort to degrade the capabilities of Hezbollah in the area.”
For its part, Hezbollah said in multiple statements that it had targeted gatherings of Israeli forces in Debel, a predominantly Christian border town where some residents remain despite the war, reports RTE.
The group said it struck a Merkava tank “with an attack drone” in Debel.
“And it said that “after monitoring an Israeli enemy force positioned in a house in Debel, its fighters targeted it with an attack drone”, reports RTE.
Hezbollah also said it targeted the Israeli military’s Northern Command headquarters, north of Safed, with a barrage of rockets.
New strikes on Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia
Iranian media reported strikes on a decommissioned heavy-water nuclear research reactor and a facility producing yellowcake uranium late yesterday, adding that there were no radiation leaks or danger from either attack, reports RTE.
Iran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that there was no rise in off-site radiation levels at the yellowcake facility, the IAEA said on X, adding it would investigate the report.
There were also reports of a strike on the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which Iranian media said caused no casualties or major damage, reports RTE.
At least five people were killed and seven injured in a US-Israeli strike on a residential building in Zanjan in northwestern Iran, Iranian media reported this morning.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on X that Israel, with US coordination, had also targeted two steel plants and a power station, reports RTE.
“Attack contradicts POTUS extended deadline for diplomacy. Iran will exact HEAVY price for Israeli crimes,” Mr Araqchi said, using an acronym for the US president.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran had not yet decided whether to respond to the US proposal sent this week following the attacks on industrial and nuclear sites yesterday, reports RTE.
The official said Iran had expected to deliver its response yesterday or today, but described continued strikes during US efforts to pursue talks as “intolerable.”
The US proposal, sent via Pakistan two days ago, reportedly includes demands such as dismantling Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes and relinquishing control over key global energy trade routes, reports RTE.
The US, which aims to neutralise Iran’s long-range strike capabilities, can only confirm that roughly one-third of Iran’s missile arsenal has been destroyed, according to five sources familiar with US intelligence who spoke to Reuters.
As damage continues to mount with no clear end, Gulf Arab states are telling the US that any agreement must not only stop the war but also permanently limit Iran’s missile and drone capabilities and ensure energy supplies are not weaponised again, reports RTE.
Stock markets declined yesterday while Brent crude rose above $112, increasing by more than 50% since the conflict began.
In the US, where Mr Trump faces political pressure from rising fuel costs, diesel prices in California reached a record average of $7.17 per gallon, according to the American Automobile Association, reports RTE.
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