Latest Regional powers meet in Pakistan as Iran warns US against ground invasion

Dubai, Mar 30 (AP) Iranian forces “are waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners forever,” the country's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said.
    Qalibaf added: “Our firing continues. Our missiles are in place. Our determination and faith have increased.”
    The comments came as regional powers were meeting in Pakistan to discuss how to end the fighting in the Middle East as about 2,500 US Marines arrived in the region and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels entered the monthlong war.
    The war has threatened global supplies of oil and natural gas, sparked fertiliser shortages and disrupted air travel. Iran's grip on the strategic Strait of Hormuz has shaken markets and prices.
    The Houthis' entry could further hurt global shipping if they again target vessels in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the Red Sea, through which about 12 per cent of the world's trade typically passes.
    
    Here is the latest:
    
    Military says Iran launched more missiles at Israel
    --------------------------------------------------------
    Israel's military on Sunday night said Iran had launched another salvo of missiles at the country. Sirens went off in the Beersheba area, which has been targeted repeatedly in the last days.
    
    Israel says it hit Tehran with more than 120 munitions in a day; Iran says power restored in capital
     ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    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.
    
    IAEA reports severe damage to Iran's Khondab heavy water production plant
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The UN nuclear watchdog said Sunday that satellite imagery confirmed severe damage to the Khondab heavy water production plant near Arak
    The International Atomic Energy Agency added that the installation has no declared nuclear material. Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation reported on Friday that the facility was hit and Israel claimed responsibility for the strike.
    Since the war began a month ago, several strikes targeted nuclear sites across Iran.
    
    Foreign ministers depart after talks in Islamabad
    -------------------------------------------------------
    The foreign ministers of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt departed late Sunday night for their respective capitals after attending a meeting convened by Pakistan to review progress in bringing the United States and Iran to the negotiating table to end war in the region, the ministry of Foreign Affairs said. It gave no further details.
    Pakistan earlier said that top diplomats from Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia would visit Islamabad from March 29 to 30 for in-depth discussions on a range of issues, including efforts to de-escalate regional tensions.
    
    ADAMA pesticide company says warehouse damaged in Iranian missile attack
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    An agriculture company that produces pesticides in southern Israel said it suffered damage to a warehouse on Sunday.
    Israel's Fire and Rescue Services responded to a massive blaze that began around 3:30 pm from an Iranian missile or shrapnel fragments. The company, ADAMA, said the damage accorded at its Makhteshim plant in the town of Ramot Hovav, on the outskirts of Beersheba, and there was no damage to production facilities.
    ADAMA said its workers evacuated according to instructions from the emergency services. Israel's Fire and Rescue said the evacuation included the immediate plant as well as a nearby highway and the evacuation was lifted after about an hour.
    Dramatic footage after the strike showed pillars of smoke and billowing flames reaching high into the sky. There were no injuries, according to Israel's rescue services.
    
    Lebanese displaced by war slam Israeli prime minister's announcement of widening invasion
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said the Israeli military is expanding its security zone in the tiny Mediterranean country. Ground forces are clashing with the Hezbollah militant group in their ongoing invasion, intent to create what officials have called a “security zone”.
    Mohammad Doghman who fled the southern city of Nabatieh slammed Netanyahu, calling Israel “an expansionist state.”
    Over one million Lebanese have been displaced in the latest war between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group, sheltering in public schools or in tents pitched on the side of the road. Israel says its aim is to protect the country from Hezbollah rocket attacks.
    Displaced Lebanese fear that this invasion would be a pretext to a new occupation, but some are still hopeful they will return home.
    “They take it, and we take it back again, like every time,” said Mohammad Wansa, a displaced Lebanese from the village of Dibbeen living in a tent in central Beirut. “We will return to our homes; we will return to them.”
    
    Iran's supreme leader applauds Iraq's stance in the war
    --------------------------------------------------------------
     In a message attributed to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, he expressed his appreciation to senior religious authorities in Iraq for their supportive stance toward Iran during the war, according to two semi-official Iranian news agencies.
     Since he was named third supreme leader of Iran, Khamenei has made no public appearance, but has conveyed only rare messages.
     Iran-backed militias in Iraq have claimed responsibility for several attacks on US bases in the country in solidarity with Tehran.
    
    US embassy warns of potential attacks on universities in Iraq
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    The US Embassy in Baghdad, in a statement posted on X Sunday, warned that Iran and allied militias “may intend to target the American Universities in Baghdad, Sulaymaniyah, and Dohuk, along with other universities perceived to be associated with the United States,” after Iran threatened American universities across the Middle East.
    The statement added that Iran and affiliated militias have already carried out “widespread attacks on U.S. citizens, targets associated with the United States throughout Iraq” and the “Iraqi government has not prevented terrorist attacks against the United States and regional countries from Iraqi territory.”
    It reiterated a warning for US citizens to leave the country.
    Many universities around the region have already moved to teaching online since the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran triggered the ongoing war in the Middle East.
    
    Iran reports power outages after attacks
    -----------------------------------------------
    Iran's energy ministry says power was cut in Tehran and Alborz provinces after attacks on electricity facilities. The state media reports late Sunday did not say who attacked.
    
    Fire in Israeli factory is upgraded to hazardous incident
    -------------------------------------------------------------
    Israel's Fire and Rescue Services warned that a missile or missile fragment that hit a factory near the southern Israeli city of Beersheba had set a massive blaze and was upgraded to a hazardous materials incident.
    Authorities evacuated people in the immediate area, but there were no injuries.
    Israel's fire and rescue services said the fragment set a pesticide tank on fire, sending plumes of smoke high over the entire city of Beersheba, the largest city in Israel's Negev desert. Additional waves of launches of missiles from Iran hit over 20 sites in Beersheba but did not create major damage nor injuries, according to Israel's emergency rescue service Magen David Adom.
    
    American University of Beirut moves classes online after Iran threats to US-affiliated campuses
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The announcement from the university in the heart of the Lebanese capital comes as American universities and schools across the Mideast fear strikes that may target their facilities.
    President Fadlo Khuri in an announcement Sunday said it was a precautionary measure and that there was “no evidence of direct threats” to the prestigious university and its renowned hospital.
    “The American University of Beirut has stood for the peaceful emancipation and progress of the people we educate and serve for more than a century and a half,” said Khuri.
    The threat from Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard comes after comes after recent U.S. and Israeli strikes on two campuses in the Islamic Republic.
    
    Top US oil industry official presses for quick action to reopen strait
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The head of the US oil and natural industry's top lobbying group says “the only real solution” to rising energy and consumer prices as a result of the war with Iran is to get the Strait of Hormuz open.
    “If we can do that this week with targeted regime actions, I think we have to take that opportunity because it's only going to get worse over time,” said Mike Sommers, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute.
    Sommers told Fox News Channel's “The Sunday Briefing” that “that artery has to be reopened and fast” because “the longer this goes on, the higher prices are going to go.”
    Sommers is also troubled by the entry of the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
    “If the Houthis start attacking ships going through the Red Sea, that could really put us on the cusp of a major energy crisis throughout the world. That is a top concern this week, as well,” he says.
    
    Expert says world economy is a crisis point' as Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen open new front in war
     -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Houthis joined the war over the weekend with a missile attack on Israel. Their entry has raised concerns that they could resume attacks on vessels in the Red Sea further disrupting the global shipping industry and sending oil prices much higher.
    Nomi Bar-Yaacov, fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, said the Houthis' potential disruption of oil export in the Red Sea will create a “point where we have not been before.”
    At this time, both the Homuz and Bab al-Mandab straits will be closed, she said.
    “All eyes are on the mediation, but the oil crisis is, I think, at an unprecedented state,” she said.
    
    Kuwait's top diplomat blasts Iran's destabilization of the region
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    Kuwait's Foreign Minister Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al Sabah said Sunday that what the region is witnessing is “systematic pattern of undermining regional stability led by Iran”, as the monthlong war continues to destabilize the region.
    In a statement reported by the state-run Kuna news agency, Al Sabah said that Iran is destabilizing the region through “exploiting chaos and terrorism as tools of influence.”
    Kuwait's Armed Forces said Sunday that projectile attacks injured 10 members of its forces, and its Defence Ministry said that the warehouses of a private logistics company were hit, resulting in only material damage, as the country intercepted 26 other Iranian missiles and drones over the past 24 hours.
    Also on Sunday, Qatar and Bahrain said that they intercepted missiles and drones launched toward them. (AP) AKY

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)