Iran vs US-Israel War News Highlights: Pakistan efforts to stop Iran war are reaching ‘critical’ stage, Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan says

This live blog on Iran war has ended. Click here for the new live blog and the latest updates.

Join our live coverage here for all the latest developments.

Arrangements are being made for a phone call between Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

“I recall what I said yesterday was that we were making arrangements to do a telephone call with the Iranian president,” Takaichi told parliament.

“We have to communicate both with the US and Iran, so we are seeking telephone calls with the presidents of both countries,” she said.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has described Trump's recent threats against Iranian civilian infrastructure as "unhelpful".

"Unhelpful because more military action is not necessary," Luxon told Radio New Zealand on Tuesday.

"I think the bottom line is that the focus needs to be on not seeing this conflict expand any further," he said.

"We got threats from the president over the weekend. Any of those actions including bombing bridges and reservoirs and civilian infrastructure would be unacceptable as well," Luxon added.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters' message to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a meeting in Washington, scheduled this week, would be to de-escalate the conflict, he said.

Two blasts have been heard near the Erbil airport – which hosts advisers from the US-led anti-jihadist coalition – in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region, an Agence France-Presse journalist said on Monday.

Some hours earlier, air defence systems downed four missiles headed towards the US consulate in Erbil, a security source told the news agency.

Local authorities also reported a separate deadly drone incident in a civilian area in the early hours of Tuesday.

The autonomous region’s counter-terrorism service said a “bomb-laden drone coming from Iran” crashed into a home in the Dara Shakran subdistrict of Erbil province after midnight, killing a couple.

Since the Middle East war erupted, shadowy Iraq-based groups have been claiming near daily attacks on US interests in the country and beyond. These groups have in turn come under attacks blamed on the US and Israel. -The Guardian

Japanese government bonds were largely steady on Tuesday, as investors wrestled with optimism over a potential Middle East ceasefire and unease over US President Donald Trump's threat to escalate strikes on Iran if it fails to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Markets remained on edge as fragile diplomatic efforts to end the conflict showed signs ⁠of ​strain, while geopolitical risks tied to the critical oil shipping route continued to cloud sentiment. Reuters

⁠Explosions were heard ‌in the Syrian capital, Damascus, ⁠and ⁠surrounding countryside ⁠on ‌Tuesday that were ​caused ‌by the ‌Israeli ​interception ​of ​Iranian missiles, Syrian ​state TV ⁠reported.

The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that the war will lead to higher inflation and slower global growth, even if it stops immediately.

The global lender is set to reduce its forecast for global economic growth and bump up its outlook for inflation, Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told Reuters.

Without the war, Georgieva said the IMF had expected a small upgrade in its projection for global growth.

“Instead, all roads now lead to higher prices and slower growth,” she told the news agency. “Even if the war is to stop today, there would be a lingering negative impact to the rest of the world.”

The war’s economic implications are set to dominate next week’s IMF Spring Meetings.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says in its latest update that the humanitarian situation in Iran is worsening as hostilities spread throughout the country.

Between 17 March and 3 April, civilian casualties rose sharply with reported strikes on airports, hospitals, residential areas, markets, schools, industrial sites, and cultural heritage locations, the group says.

OCHA says that from the start of the war through 30 March in Iran:

And, from the start of the war through 1 April, more than 115,000 civilian units have been damaged, it adds.

Iran has executed a man convicted over an attempt to storm a military facility and access an armoury during unrest in January, state media said on Monday, after the supreme court upheld his sentence.

The man was named as Ali Fahim, Reuters is reporting.

Iran has already executed three others linked to the incident, including Amirhossein Hatami earlier last week and Mohammadamin Biglari and Shahin Vahedparast on Sunday, the report said.

Another man linked to the same case is believed to face execution in the coming days, according to Amnesty International.

The rights group said in a statement last week it was unconscionable that even as Iranians reeled from the war, Iran continued to “weaponise the death penalty to eradicate dissenting voices and further terrify people”.

The YNet news outlet says a 34-year-old woman has been “seriously injured” by interceptor missiles in Petah Tikvah following the latest Iranian attacks on central Israel.

It said there are “at least 15 crash sites” across central Israel and that a building in Tel Aviv was damaged.

The Channel 2 broadcaster published images of smoke rising over Gush Dan and Bnei Brak as well as a video of minor damage to a building in Tel Aviv.

The Israeli military says its forces have “completed a wave of strikes” on Iranian government infrastructure in Tehran a short while ago.

This comes after Iranian media reported multiple deadly attacks in and around the Iranian capital, including on residential areas.

At least four people were killed in eastern Tehran and 13 others in the Baharestan County of the province of Tehran, according to the reports.

The Israeli military says Iran has launched several missiles towards Israel and is urging people in affected areas to take shelter.

The attack has set off alarms across northern Israel, including in the city of Haifa, according to media reports.

Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar says he received a call from Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and that the two men discussed “the present situation”.

He did not elaborate further.

Japan and South Korea’s stock markets have opened higher despite Trump’s renewed threats to bomb civilian infrastructure in Iran.

As of 0:45 GMT, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 was up 0.45 percent, while South Korea’s KOSPI was about 1.8 percent higher.

By contrast, China’s main indexes fell.

The SSE Composite Index in Shanghai and Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong were down 1 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Sunday killed at least 15 people, the health ministry said, while the Israeli military chief visited troops in southern Lebanon and pledged to intensify strikes against Hezbollah.

One of Israel’s strikes in Beirut on Sunday killed at least five people and wounded 52 in the Jnah neighbourhood, the Lebanese ministry said.

A strike targeting an apartment building in Ain Saadeh town east of Beirut killed three people and injured three others, while a strike in the southern town of Kfar Hatta – far from the border with Israel, killed seven people including a four-year-old girl, the ministry said The Guardian reported.

Benjamin Netanyahu suggested Israel assisted the US in rescuing a downed airman in Iran. He posted on X that he spoke with Donald Trump and "personally congratulated him on his bold decision and a perfectly executed American mission to rescue the downed pilot from enemy territory".

“The President expressed his appreciation for Israel’s help,” Netanyahu said, adding: "I am deeply proud that our cooperation on an off the battlefield is unprecedented, and that Israel could contribute to saving a brave American warrior.

The crew member of a downed F-15E fighter jet was rescued from an Iranian mountain by US commandos overnight at the weekend, ending a two-day search after the warplane crashed in south-west Iran.

Here’s the statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy about the Strait of Hormuz that we referenced earlier.

“The Strait of Hormuz will never return to its former state, especially for the US and Israel,” it said in a social media post.

It added that it is in the final stages of operational preparations for what Iranian officials have described as a “new order” for the Gulf.

The foreign ministry spokesperson talked about Iran’s approach to the situation and what it is going to do if its infrastructure gets destroyed by the US. He also tried to explain how the whole war is based on lies, including that Iran is pursuing the production of nuclear weapons and that it is presenting an imminent threat to the US.

Instead, he said, the real threat is the threat the US is presenting right now to Iran and hase been presenting for a long time, including this threat to destroy the Iranian people’s infrastructure which is, to him,
an equivalent to a threat of genocide against the Iranian people.

The Saudi Defence Ministry says the projectile was intercepted and destroyed in recent hours.

It did not provide further details.

Iran’s Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, where the rescue operation for the missing US airman from the downed F-15E jet took place.

According to Fars, at least nine people were killed and eight wounded in the attacks.

Citing a medical official, Fars said five people were killed and eight wounded in an attack on the Koh Siah area of Kohgiluyeh County, while four others were killed in the Vazg and Kakan areas of Boyer-Ahmad County. (Aljazeera)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it has shot down a US aircraft that was looking for the missing officer in the southern region of Isfahan, according to Fars.

The news agency posted a photo on its Telegram channel, showing thick smoke rising from a field and said: “Trump’s desperate attempt to cover up a huge defeat.”

The report came as Trump announced that the missing crew member had been rescued. (Aljazeera)

US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz has weighed in on the rescue.

“America breathes a sigh of relief,” Waltz, a former officer in the US Army Special Forces, said in a post on X.

“More amazing work by my special operations brothers.”

The former Vice President of Oman’s Shura Council, Ishaq bin Salim al-Siabi, has accused the US of “betrayal” in negotiations “aimed at resolving disputes and achieving last peace for all”.

In a statement posted on X, Al Siabi also accused the US government of “overt, hateful, and unjust aggression” aimed at “innocent people whose only crime is their love for a dignified, honorable, and peaceful life!”

He added, “Now there are many compelling reasons to sanction all American products!!!”

Oman has previously served as a mediator between the US and Iran during talks leading to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Since then, the Gulf Sultanate also served on multiple occasions as mediator but with less success so far.