Middle East crisis live: US-Iran talks could take place this weekend, says UN nuclear watchdog chief | US-Israel war on Iran
US-Iran talks could take place in Pakistan as early as this weekend, says UN nuclear watchdog chief
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said there might be talks between Iran and the US soon in Pakistan.
“I think there could be talks this weekend in Islamabad,” Rafael Grossi told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, without elaborating.
Key events
Lorenzo Tondo
Israel’s parliament has advanced a contentious bill to impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of terrorism to its final vote, after the Knesset’s national security committee approved the measure on Tuesday.
The legislation, initiated by the far-right Otzma Yehudit party led by the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has drawn sharp criticism from opponents who warn it would mark a significant escalation in Israel’s penal policy. Members of Otzma Yehudit have worn noose-shaped pins in support of the bill.
Under the proposals, those sentenced to death would be held in a separate facility with no visits except from authorised personnel, with legal consultations conducted only by video link. Executions would be carried out within 90 days of sentencing.
The measure allows courts to impose the death penalty without a request from prosecutors, and without requiring unanimity, instead permitting a simple majority decision. Military courts in the occupied West Bank would also be empowered to hand down death sentences, with the defence minister able to submit an opinion.
For Palestinians under occupation, the bill would close off avenues for appeal or clemency, while prisoners tried inside Israel could see their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.
The committee made some amendments to the bill, which passed its first vote, Israel’s public broadcaster KAN reported, adding that executions would be carried out through hanging.
Following on from those comments from Grossi (see post 13.04), the IAEA chief said the talks are expected to cover missiles, Iran-aligned militias and security guarantees for Tehran.
“This time, there will also be missiles, militias allied with the Islamic Republic, security guarantees for Iran on the table,” he told Corriere della Sera, adding:
double quotation mark There are alternative diplomatic plans that would allow both a solution that says that at the moment there will be no more enrichment because the political, military, and trust situation does not allow it; and, in principle, to reassess the issue in five or ten years’ time.
Summary of developments so far
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Iran has scoffed at reports that the US has put forward a ceasefire deal to bring an end to the conflict in the Middle East, insisting Americans were only negotiating with themselves. It follows reports that the Trump administration sent a 15-point ceasefire plan to Iran through Pakistan.
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Donald Trump has maintained that talks to end the war are ongoing, claiming yesterday that Iran wanted a deal “so badly”. Iran, however, had already dismissed the claim as “fake news” a day earlier.
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Despite the denials, Pakistani officials told several news agencies that Iran has received the proposal, which largely touched on sanctions relief, a rollback of Iran’s nuclear programme, restrictions on its ballistic missile programme and access for shipping through the strait of Hormuz.
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The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said there might be talks between Iran and the US in Pakistan in the coming days. “I think there could be talks this weekend in Islamabad,” Rafael Grossi told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, without elaborating.
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Iran said “non-hostile” ships may pass safely through the strait of Hormuz, according to reports, as the the vital shipping lane has been effectively closed to tankers since the US-Israeli military campaign began more than three weeks ago. Thailand confirmed one of its crude oil tankers has passed safely through the narrow waterway after successful negotiations with Iran and Oman.
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Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, said Tehran was “closely monitoring all US movements in the region” following reports that Washington will deploy additional troops to the Middle East. The Associated Press reported that more than 1,000 soldiers are being deployed to the region to join the 50,000 soldiers already there. The New York Times, citing sources, also reported that 2,000 troops could be sent.
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Elsewhere, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, has accused Benjamin Netanyahu of seeking to “inflict the same level of damage and destruction” on Lebanon as Israeli forces had wrought on Gaza. He warned that the Middle East war presented a “far worse” scenario than the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
US-Iran talks could take place in Pakistan as early as this weekend, says UN nuclear watchdog chief
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said there might be talks between Iran and the US soon in Pakistan.
“I think there could be talks this weekend in Islamabad,” Rafael Grossi told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, without elaborating.
A Thai a crude oil tanker has passed safely through the strait of Hormuz following negotiations with Iran and Oman, Thailand’s foreign affairs minister, Sihasak Phuangketkeow, said.
“I requested that if Thai ships need to pass through the strait, could they assist in ensuring safe passage?” Phuangketkeow told reporters, according to Reuters.
“They responded that they would take care of it and asked us to provide the names of the vessels that would be transiting.”
It follows a statement last night from the Thai energy company Bangchak Corporation confirming a tanker that had been anchored in the Persian Gulf since 11 March had transited the narrow waterway safely. The company said the vessel was on its way across the Indian Ocean and is scheduled to deliver crude oil to Thailand in early April.
Iran said “non-hostile” ships may pass safely through the strait of Hormuz, according to reports, as the the vital shipping lane has been effectively closed to tankers since the US-Israeli military campaign began more than three weeks ago.
Israel has continued to launch strikes on southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs against what it said were infrastructure belonging to the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
During a wave of airstrikes in Lebanon overnight, the Israeli military said it hit a Hezbollah command centre in Beirut and gas stations owned by the group.
Lebanese authorities say 1,072 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since 2 March, including 121 children.
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on 28 February.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, has accused Benjamin Netanyahu of seeking to “inflict the same level of damage and destruction” on Lebanon as Israeli forces had wrought on Gaza.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the two-year war in Gaza, with millions displaced and much of the strip destroyed, leading to accusations of genocide which Israel has denied.
Speaking to the Spanish parliament earlier today, Sanchez said Israel’s expanded military offence against Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon was going down a similar path.
“This is not the same scenario as the illegal war in Iraq. We are facing something far worse. Much worse. With a potential impact that is far broader and far deeper,” said Sanchez, who has long been one of the most vocal critics of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
He added that Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was “equally dictatorial and even more bloodthirsty” than his predecessor and father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes at the start of the current conflict.
The US-Israeli war on Iran “is an absolute disaster”, Sanchez said, adding: “And all for what? To undermine international law, destabilise the Middle East, reignite conflicts in Iraq and Lebanon, and bury Gaza under the rubble of oblivion and indifference.”
Analysis: Trump’s war in Iran exposes US’s shift from a global guardian to an arbiter of chaos
Eduardo Porter
To shield ordinary Indians from the war in Iran, the government in Delhi redirected supplies of liquefied gas to Indian families, for which it is the main cooking fuel, limiting supplies to the plastics industry. The Nepalese government rationed gas and the Philippines trimmed the government workweek to four days. Bangladesh closed universities and rationed fuel.
They have been hardest hit by Iran’s closure of the strait of Hormuz. About 80% of oil and oil products transiting through the strait in 2025 was destined for Asia, according to the International Energy Agency. But traffic through its waters has collapsed by 90%.
Europe is less reliant on fuel from the Middle East. But it is intensely dependent on imported oil and, critically, natural gas, whose price has surged since US and Israeli bombardments began in Iran.
So far, the advanced economy that has shown most resilience as war in the Middle East wreaks havoc in energy markets is that of the United States. The S&P 500 index has lost a relatively modest 5% since the beginning of Trump’s war. And that reveals a lot about where we are going.
The data speaks to the relative resilience of the US economy and, especially, its abundance of domestic natural gas, which satisfies about 36% of its energy needs and insulates it to a significant degree from the vagaries of international prices.
But it adds an uncomfortable chapter to the main narrative of the world economy. It is a story in which the United States – once a guardian of a rules-based global order – dons the role of its nemesis, recklessly spreading havoc among friends and foes while suffering relatively little harm of its own.
You can read Eduardo Porter’s analysis here:
Iran ‘closely monitoring’ any US troop deployments to Middle East, says Tehran official
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, posted on X that Tehran was “closely monitoring all US movements in the region” following reports that Washington will deploy additional troops to the Middle East.
A translation of his post read:
double quotation mark We are closely monitoring all US movements in the region, especially troop deployments.What the generals have broke, the soldiers can’t fix; instead, they will fall victim to Netanyahu’s delusions.
Do not test our resolve to defend our land.
It follows reports by the Associated Press and the New York Times that the US could send 1,000 or 2,000 troops to the Middle East to join the 50,000 soldiers already there. Some 4,500 marines are already en route to the region, according to the reports.
Abdulmohsen Majed Bin Khothaila, the Saudi representative to the UN, said Iran’s “unacceptable and unjustifiable” attacks against Gulf nations “cannot be passed over in silence”.
He said:
double quotation mark We have heard attempts by Iran to evade or responsibility. And yet you cannot deny what the world clearly sees. Iran cannot escape responsibility here.
He reiterated Saudi Arabia’s support for a draft resolution that calls for Iran to immediately stop strikes on civilian infrastructure and commercial shipping in the strait of Hormuz, but the New York Times reported that the de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, has been pushing Donald Trump to continue the war. Citing officials familiar with the matter, the newspaper reported that the Saudi crown prince and US president held several conversations over the last week about eliminating Iran’s hard-line government.
The Qatari representative, Hend Abdalrahman Al-Muftah, meanwhile told the UN Human Rights Council that her country “refused to be part of the escalation” but that Iran has continued to launch attacks anyway.
She said:
double quotation mark To attack a state that is not a party to the conflict, and which has not allowed use of its territory in the hostilities, is a violation of international law and undermines international peace and security. We have dissociated ourselves from the outset from this war, and we have refused to be part of the escalation. However, Iranians continue to target us and other neighbouring countries too, thereby undermining international peace and security.
Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council urgent debate earlier today, the Omani representative, Idris Abdul Rahman Al Khanjari, described the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran as an “illegal war”, saying it was the “spark that ignited” the escalating violence engulfing the Middle East.
He also condemned Iran’s retaliatory attacks against Gulf nations.
He said:
double quotation mark The Sultanate of Oman would like to reiterate its full solidarity with our sister nations from the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and the Kingdom of Jordan, and other Arab states affected by these violations. We would like to express our indignation and condemnation of the aggressive attacks these states have faced following the start of the current war in the region.We also reject the US Israeli war against the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is an illegal war and represents a gross violation of the principles and provisions of international law. It was the spark that ignited the escalation currently affecting the region, and the consequences are threatening states and their vital economic interests and their security and stability.
He concluded that Oman reaffirmed its commitment for dialogue and diplomacy. The country has acted as mediator between the US and Iran in the three rounds of nuclear talks that took place in the weeks before the conflict began last month.
UN rights council set to hold urgent debate on Friday over Iran school strike
The UN human rights council is ready to hold a second urgent debate this week linked to the Middle East war, focused on a deadly strike on an Iranian school.
The council president, Sidharto Reza Suryodipuro, told the United Nations’ top rights body that the council bureau had examined a request by Iran, China and Cuba for an urgent debate in connection with the airstrike on a school in the southern city of Minab on the first day of the war on 28 February, and “concluded that said urgent debate could be accommodated on Friday”.
The council would be asked to validate the decision later on Wednesday, he said.
