War in the Middle East (US-Iran-Israel Conflict)

[Matthew-NC]

Middle East crisis live: US and Iran race to find missing pilot; Iran rejects Trump’s ‘helpless’ call to open strait of Hormuz

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it was combing an area near where plane came down in south-western Iran

www.theguardian.com

Iran conflict to forefront of UK religious and political leaders’ Easter messages

Archbishop of Canterbury to issue urgent call for peace, as PM exhorts Britons to ‘choose community over division’

www.theguardian.com

And in other news, **** Israel for disturbing gravesites, the ghouls....

Lebanese forced to bury their dead twice as war robs them of final goodbyes

As Israel expands its invasion of southern Lebanon, people are having to bury their dead in temporary graves

www.theguardian.com

 

[Drac Morbis]

and those are the countries that are claiming that Islam is a religion of peace...

 

[Matthew-NC]

(The Guardian) 3:52pm Summary
--The US president, Donald Trump, used expletive-laden language to call on Iran to let ships through the strait of Hormuz as he threatened to further attack Iranian energy and transport infrastructure. Writing on Truth Social, Trump said: “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.”
--Iran’s parliament speaker responded with a warning that the US president’s “reckless moves” would mean “our whole region is going to burn”. Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, added in a social media post: “Make no mistake: You won’t gain anything through war crimes. The only real solution is respecting the rights of the Iranian people and ending this dangerous game.”
--The US president was sharply rebuked by US politicians, including Republican former ally Marjorie Taylor Greene, who called on the administration to “intervene in Trump’s madness”, adding the president “has gone insane, and all of you are complicit”. Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer wrote “the President of the United States is ranting like an unhinged madman on social media”. Schumer added: “He’s threatening possible war crimes and alienating allies. This is who he is, but this is not who we are. Our country deserves so much better.”
--The second crew member of a downed F-15E fighter jet was rescued by the US overnight, ending a two-day search after the warplane crashed in south-west Iran. Trump said the crew member was “seriously wounded” but “safe and sound” after a mission that was reportedly made possible with the help of CIA subterfuge.
--At least five people were reported to have been killed in US-Israeli attacks in south-west Iran during the rescue operations.
--On Sunday, Iran said it struck a petrochemicals complex in Bahrain. Video footage showed thick black smoke rising from the site.
--The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said a number of its facilities had been targeted by Iranian drone attacks, resulting in fires and “significant material losses”. Kuwait also reported that two power and water desalination plants sustained “significant material damage” after being attacked by Iranian drones.
--Israel has launched deadly airstrikes on Lebanon and Gaza as its assault on both countries continues. An Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon’s Kfar Hatta killed at least seven people, including a four-year-old girl, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.

 

[Matthew-NC]

(The Guardian) 11:05pm Summary
--Donald Trump said he was “not at all” concerned about committing possible war crimes as he again threatened to destroy Iran’s bridges and power plants if Tehran does not meet his Tuesday 8pm ET deadline to reopen the strait of Hormuz. “I’m not worried about it,” the US president said. “You know what’s a war crime? Having a nuclear weapon.”
--Speaking at the White House, Trump refused to say whether any civilian targets would be off-limits. Iran on Monday rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wanted a permanent end to the conflict.
--“We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, the head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo, told the Associated Press.
--At a news conference, Trump said all of Iran could be “taken out” in one night “and that night might be tomorrow night”, referring to Tuesday. Without an agreement with Tehran, he said, “every bridge in Iran will be decimated” by midnight ET (0400 GMT) on Wednesday and “every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again”.
--Israel and the US carried out a wave of attacks on Iran on Monday, killing more than 25 people. Iran responded with missile fire on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbours.
--The UN security council is expected to vote on Tuesday on a resolution to protect commercial shipping in the strait of Hormuz but in significantly watered-down form after veto-wielding China opposed authorising force, Reuters is reporting, citing diplomats.
--The Israeli military said early on Tuesday it had completed an “air strike wave” aimed at damaging Iranian regime infrastructure in Tehran and additional areas across Iran. It said soon after that missiles were launched at Israel from Iran and defensive systems were operating to incept them.
--Israel’s military also said it carried out strikes on three airports in Tehran, targeting several Iranian planes and helicopters.
--The World Health Organisation suspended medical evacuations from Gaza to Egypt via the Rafah crossing after a contract worker for WHO was killed in Gaza on Monday. Separately, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people outside a school housing displaced Palestinians in central Gaza, health officials said. Before the strikes some Palestinians had clashed with members of an Israeli-backed militia who they said attacked the school, Reuters cited medics and residents as saying.
--Oil prices extended their rises on Tuesday amid Trump’s heightened rhetoric against Iran. The head of the IMF, meanwhile, said the war would lead to “higher inflation and slower global growth”.
--The head of International Committee of the Red Cross said that “deliberate threats ... against essential civilian infrastructure and nuclear facilities must not become the new norm in warfare”. Mirjana Spoljaric said, without singling out any country or leader: “Any war fought without limits is incompatible with the law.”
--Israel said it struck Iran’s largest petrochemical complex on Monday. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the facility had been “destroyed” and his country was “systematically eliminating the Revolutionary Guards’ money machine”.
--The intelligence chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Maj Gen Majid Khademi, was killed in US-Israeli strikes at dawn on Monday, the Guards said.
--Saudi Arabia intercepted seven ballistic missiles launched towards its eastern region and debris fell in the vicinity of energy facilities, the defence ministry of said on Tuesday.
--Two blasts were reportedly 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.

 

[Matthew-NC]

(The Guardian) Trump announces two-week 'double sided' ceasefire with Iran and 'workable' peace plan
Donald Trump will “suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks” following conversations with Pakistani leaders.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that he had agreed to this “double sided CEASEFIRE” because the United States has “already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East.” He added, “We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate.”

Trump said Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif and field marshal Asim Munir had brokered the agreement, which he also noted is subject to Iran opening the strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has accepted a two-week ceasefire in its war with the United States and Israel.

Iranian state media says negotiations with the US will be held in Islamabad beginning Friday 10 April.

 

[Matthew-NC]

(The Guardian) 11:55pm Summary
--The United States and Iran have agreed to a two-week ceasefire barely an hour before Donald Trump’s Wednesday deadline to obliterate the country was set to expire, with Tehran saying it will temporarily reopen the vital strait of Hormuz.
--Both sides claimed to have won the more than month-long conflict that has roiled global financial markets and sent oil prices skyrocketing, with Trump telling the AFP news agency the deal was a “total and complete victory” for the US.
--Iran too cast the ceasefire as a win and said it had agreed to talks with Washington to begin Friday in Pakistan on a path to end the conflict. “The enemy has suffered an undeniable, historic and crushing defeat in its cowardly, illegal and criminal war against the Iranian nation,” said a statement from the Iranian Supreme National Security Council. “Iran achieved a great victory.”
--The White House said Israel had also agreed to the ceasefire, but prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it does not include Lebanon, where Israeli assaults in response to rocket fire by Iranian-backed Hezbollah have led to more than 1,500 deaths, according to Lebanese authorities.
--Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said it had conditionally accepted a two-week ceasefire if attacks agains Iran are halted.
--Iran’s foreign minister said passage through the strait of Hormuz will be allowed for the next 2 weeks under Iranian military management.
--Iranian state media said negotiations with the US would be held in Islamabad to finalise details of an agreement, with the aim of “confirming Iran’s battlefield achievements”. Talks will begin on Friday 10 April and may be extended, state media reported. State media also reported that talks with the US do not amount to the end of the war.
--Pakistani prime minister Shebaz Sharif announced that Iran, the US and their allies agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon. Sharif has been a key figure in attempting to reach a diplomatic solution between the two warring parties. In his statement, Sharif invited delegations to Islamabad on “Friday, 10th April 2026, to further negotiate for a conclusive agreement to settle all disputes”.
--Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli welcomed the ceasefire but said fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon was not part of it.
--Trump said Iran had proposed a “workable” 10-point peace plan. According to Iranian state media, the ten-point proposal includes a number of conditions that the US has in the past rejected. Among them are controlled transit through strait of Hormuz coordinated with Iranian armed forces and withdrawal of all US forces from regional bases. The plan would also require the lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions, payment of full compensation to Iran and release of all frozen Iranian assets.
--Iranian state media also said the 10-point plan for securing an end to the war would require Washington to accept its uranium enrichment program, a previous red line for the Trump administration.
--Even as the ceasefire was proposed, missile alerts continued in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Israel.