The Latest: Regional powers to meet in Pakistan to discuss how to end Mideast fighting
Regional powers plan to meet Sunday in Pakistan to discuss how to end the fighting in the Middle East as about 2,500 U.S. Marines arrived in the region and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels entered the monthlong war.
Pakistan said Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt will send top diplomats to Islamabad for talks. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian held “extensive discussions” on regional hostilities.
The war has threatened global supplies of oil and natural gas, sparked fertilizer shortages and disrupted air travel. Iran’s grip on the strategic Strait of Hormuz has shaken markets and prices.
The United States and Israel continue to strike Iran, whose retaliatory attacks have targeted Israel and neighboring Gulf Arab states. More than 3,000 people have been killed.
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% of the world’s trade typically passes.
Here is the latest:
Kuwait says air defense systems intercepted four drones attacking the oil-rich country Sunday morning.
Radar systems at the Kuwait International Airport were damaged in a strike Saturday.
The Israeli military says residents in “relevant areas” have received warnings and air defenses are working to intercept the incoming fire.
The Israeli military says it struck targets in Tehran and other parts of the country.
Egypt’s top diplomat met Pakistan’s foreign minister in Islamabad Sunday to discuss efforts to help bring the United States and Iran back to the negotiating table and ease tensions in the region, officials said.
Ishaq Dar and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty will hold bilateral talks on regional developments, according to a statement by Pakistan’s foreign ministry.
The Egyptian foreign ministry said that the meeting will discuss “the developments of the military escalation … and de-escalation efforts in the region."
During a stop in Qatar Saturday, Abdelatty said their efforts aim to establish a “direct dialogue” between the United States and Iran.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan arrived in Pakistan late Saturday. Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat is expected in Islamabad Sunday.
The Revolutionary Guard’s warning on Sunday said it would consider Israeli universities and branches of American universities in the region “legitimate targets,” state media reported.
“If the U.S. government wants its universities in the region spared, it should condemn the bombardment of (Iranian) universities by 12 o’clock Monday, March 30, in an official statement,” the Guard said in a statement, urging the evacuations of American and Israeli educational facilities and telling students and staff to stay at least one kilometer (0.6 miles) away.
The Guard also demanded the United States stop Israel from striking Iranian universities and research centers, which have been attacked in recent days. Israel’s military has acknowledged striking Iranian universities it says are connected to weapons development.
This is the first time Iran has threatened to strike Israeli and American universities.
The Israeli military identified the dead soldier as Sgt. Moshe Yitzchak Hacohen Katz, originally from New Haven, Connecticut.
Rabbi Yehoshua Hecht, a relative in Connecticut, spoke to Israel’s Army Radio station, describing his great nephew as a “very special young man” who was religious, a good student and “enjoyed every moment of life.”
Katz was killed in combat in southern Lebanon as Israel expands an invasion there.
Israel’s military said early Sunday that a soldier had been killed while three others were wounded in combat in southern Lebanon.
This brings the total to five Israeli soldiers killed in southern Lebanon since the conflict with Hezbollah reignited after the militant group fired rockets into Israel on March 2.
Two Israeli strikes early Sunday killed six Palestinians, including three police officers, in the Gaza Strip, hospital authorities said.
One strike hit a police checkpoint while another hit a group of people in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to Nasser hospital, which received the bodies.
The Israeli military didn’t immediately comment on the strikes.
The people killed were the latest fatalities among Palestinians in the coastal enclave since an October ceasefire deal attempted to halt a more than two-year war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Interceptions and drone activity were heard for hours overnight Saturday across Irbil, the capital of the semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, including drones shot down while attempting to target the U.S. consulate and nearby bases.
AP journalists in the area reported nonstop loud explosions and saw at least one drone headed toward American facilities, in one of the most intense days of attacks since the war began.
Iran-aligned militias in Iraq have stepped up repeated drone and missile attacks on U.S. bases, including in Irbil.
In a statement on Saturday, the U.S. condemned what it called “despicable terrorist attacks” by Iran’s militant groups, saying the strikes on Kurdish regional President Nechirvan Barzani’s residence in Irbil earlier that day were “a direct assault on Iraq’s sovereignty, stability and unity.” The attack caused material damage but no casualties, and the residence was empty at the time.
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