Iranian Nobel Prize Winner Mohammadi Sentenced To 7 Years In Prison
Narges Mohammadi -- the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been detained since December -- has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, along with a travel ban and internal exile, according to one of her lawyers.
Writing on X, defense attorney Mostafa Nili announced on February 8 that Mohammadi had been sentenced to six years in prison on conspiracy and collusion against national security and to one and a half years in prison for propaganda activities.
He added that she was also additionally handed a two-year travel ban and two years of internal exile in the northeastern city of Khusf.
Nili said Mohammadi called from detention in Mashhad to say she had been taken to court, where the verdict was delivered. She also told him she had recently been hospitalized due to poor health before being returned to custody, and the call was cut off as she began describing the situation.
The 53-year-old, who was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for more than two decades of fighting for women's rights in Iran, was detained along with several other activists in December by Iranian security forces during a memorial ceremony in Mashhad for Khosrow Alikordi, a lawyer and human rights activist whose death sparked controversy and allegations of foul play.
It was announced earlier this month that she had begun a hunger strike “to protest her unlawful detention and the dire conditions in which she is being held, realities faced by numerous political prisoners currently held in Iran.”
A Second Strike on Isfahan University
Iranian state media outlets (WANA and IRINN) are reporting that the Isfahan University of Technology was hit on March 29 for the second time in a week.
According to Akbar Salehi, the deputy for security in Isfahan, the attack primarily targeted one of the university’s research institutes. While the buildings are said to have suffered significant structural damage, there have only been reports of minor injuries affecting four staff members.
This follows a previous strike on the same campus on March 26. Iranian officials are calling it a "brutal aerial assault" and a violation of international law regarding academic institutions.
An Israeli statement released shortly after confirmed a "wave of extensive strikes in Isfahan targeting mobile command centers and weapons production facilities." An IDF spokesperson, in a response to The Times of Israel, suggested that any strikes near academic sites were targeting Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) research labs embedded within the facilities, specifically those linked to drone navigation and "advanced explosive devices."
The Pentagon and US CENTCOM have not explicitly confirmed the Isfahan University strike but have stated that "precision operations" are ongoing against "strategic assets" used to facilitate Iranian proxy attacks in the region.
Iran’s New Supreme Leader Thanks Iraq For Support
In a written message read out on Iran’s state media on March 29, Mojtaba Khamenei thanked Iraqi religious authorities and the Iraqi people for their “clear stance against the aggression against Iran and their support for our country.”
Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani had earlier condemned the US and Israeli war with Iran. He also issued an appeal for humanitarian aid for Iran. An Iraqi aid convoy is reported to be on the way to Iran.
Mojtaba Khamenei was selected on March 9 to replace his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the US-Israeli bombardment. The younger Khamenei, 56, has not appeared in public since his election as Iran’s third supreme leader. US defense chief Pete Hegseth has suggested that he was believed to have been wounded in the strikes.
Zelenskyy In Jordan As Ukraine Pitches Drone, Missile Expertise On Gulf Tour
Ukraine’s president arrived in Jordan, the latest stop in a whirlwind tour of the Gulf region and the Middle East where he’s touted Ukrainian prowess in building -- and defending against -- drones and missiles.
In a Telegram post, Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not detail any specifics of his scheduled talks in Amman.
"Today in Jordan. Security is the top priority, and it is important that all partners make the necessary efforts toward it. Ukraine is doing its part. Important meetings ahead," Zelensky said.
A day earlier, Zelenskyy traveled to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, where he signed new, unspecified defense contracts. He was in Saudi Arabia a few days earlier.
Iran has launched hundreds of drones, as well as missiles, at US military facilities and other targets around the Gulf region.
Ukrainian officials have spotted what they hope will be lucrative new contracts with oil-rich Gulf States not only for drone technology, but also for the expertise and experience the country has built up over more than four years of all-out war with Russia.
Long-range Ukrainian drones have hit key Russian oil export terminals on the Baltic Sea over the past week, flying more than 900 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
Iran Freedom Congress Convenes In London
The Iran Freedom Congress conference began its second day in London on March 29, with the participation of hundreds of civil-society activists, political figures, and academics.
Majid Zamani, one of the organizers of the congress, said that despite differences in their political and social orientations, the participants agree on ending authoritarian rule and moving toward a system based on human rights and pluralism.
Conference organizers also stressed that the congress does not claim to seek leadership of the country after a regime change. Its goal, they said, is to provide a space for "convergence" and to define practical paths for a democratic transition in Iran.
Revolutionary Guard Threatens US, Israeli Universities
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has announced that it considers Israeli and American universities in the Middle East "legitimate targets" in response to what it called an "attack on the Iran University of Science and Technology."
In a statement, the IRGC said that if "these attacks" continue, then Iran will target two educational establishments "in retaliation for the destroyed Iranian universities."
Iranian media reported that a US-Israeli strike hit a building at Tehran's Iran University of Science and Technology on the morning of March 28 without causing any casualties. Footage circulating online showed smoke coming from a damaged building, although the reported strike has not been confirmed by the US or Israel nor verified by RFE/RL.
It is unclear which second institution the IRGC statement refers to.
The Revolutionary Guards also warned that employees, professors, and students of American and Israeli universities in the region should stay away from the areas around campuses and announced that if the US government does not condemn the "attack on universities" by noon Tehran time on March 30, this threat will be implemented.
Zelenskyy Accuses Russia Of Sharing Satellite Imagery With Tehran
Ukraine’s president accused Russia of sharing detailed satellite imagery with Tehran over the past week, helping Iran to target US and British military facilities and oil and gas fields in the Gulf region and elsewhere.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s comments, made March 28, add to earlier reports that Russia had been providing Tehran with intelligence, imagery, and other information that Iran used to hit attack military and targets.
In a post to X, Zelenskyy made a veiled reference to recent US decision to partially waive sanctions on Russian oil amid energy prices that have soared amid the Iran war.
“Who is helping whom when sanctions are lifted from” Russia, he said, “an aggressor that earns daily revenue and provides intelligence for strikes against American, Middle Eastern, UK, and US–UK bases and so on?”
“We know that if they make images once, they are preparing,” he said in separate comments to NBC News. “If they make images a second time, it’s like a simulation. The third time it means that in one or two days, they will attack.”
US officials have said Russia was providing intelligence to Iran as Tehran retaliates against US and Israeli attacks. In addition to air bases and oil infrastructure, Iranian missiles and drones also targeted a CIA station in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.
Russia stands to benefit from the spike in global energy prices caused by the US war. However, Ukraine for the past week has waged a drone campaign to knock out some of Russia’s most important oil export facilities in the Baltic Sea, and keep Moscow of profiting from high prices.
Qalibaf: US Talks About Negotiating But Plans Ground Attack
Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf has accused the United States of "secretly" planning a ground attack in its military campaign despite talking about peace.
In a statement marking the "30th day of the Iranian National Defense" on March 29, Qalibaf said a 15 point peace plan proposal put forward by Washington is an attempt to get "what it can't achieve in the war."
On March 25, Iran said it received the proposal through intermediaries but rejected it saying it amounted to "surrender." Tehran then responded with five conditions of its own to end the war.
US President Donald Trump has ordered thousands more troops to the region, including Marines and paratroopers, for a possible ground invasion.
The new forces add to 50,000 troops that are already in the region, scattered around US bases.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this week that the deployments were meant "to give the president maximum optionality and maximum opportunity to adjust the contingencies, should they emerge."
UAE Air Defenses 'Actively Engaging' With Missiles And Drones
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said that its air defense systems were actively responding to missile and drone attacks, as Iran threatened new strikes against the countries in the Gulf.
"UAE Air Defences system are actively engaging with missiles and UAV threats," the ministry wrote on X on March 29. The statement added that the "sounds heard across the country are the result of ongoing engaging operations."
Hours earlier, Israel said it struck a naval research site in Iran on March 28, with several blasts reported in the capital, Tehran.
Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian threatened retaliation against regional countries, many of which host US military bases: "If you want development and security, don't let our enemies run the war from your lands."
Houthis Strike Israel Again, While Iran To Allow 'Nonhostile' Nations' Ships Through Strait
Yemen's Iran-allied Houthi rebels deepened their involvement in the Middle East war, launching a second salvo of missiles within 24 hours against Israel, while Tehran said it will give permission for ships from "nonhostile" nations to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, Israel intensified its attacks against Iran, targeting an Iranian naval research facility and striking the capital, Tehran, late on March 28 as the conflict continues its spread across regional borders.
And in Washington, the US military is preparing plans for weeks of ground operations in Iran, The Washington Post reported, citing unnamed US officials, with the White House suggesting that any such preparations would be routine contingency planning by military leaders.
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Pentagon Works On Plans For Possible Ground Operations In Iran: Washington Post
The US military is preparing plans for weeks of ground operations in Iran, The Washington Post reported late on March 28, citing unnamed US officials, with the White House suggesting that any such preparations would be routine contingency planning by military leaders.
The report also said it was not certain US President Donald Trump would approve the Pentagon's plans for the use of ground forces.
Any potential ground operation would not be a full-scale invasion but was more likely to involve a mixture of special forces operations and regular infantry troops, the Post cited officials as saying.
The report comes as Trump has ordered several thousands of Marines, some 2,000 members of the elite 82nd Airborne Division, and other troops to join the 50,000 already in the region.
A number of Navy amphibious assault ships and other warships are also in the region or on the way.
The unnamed US officials told the Post that the planning has been in development for weeks.
Trump has mixed threats of greater attacks with the possibilities of a peace deal in comments about the US-Israeli war with Iran, now entering its second month.
The Post reported that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in response to its inquiries: "It's the job of the Pentagon to make preparations in order to give the commander-in-chief maximum optionality. It does not mean the president has made a decision."
Officials told the Post that discussions within the administration have touched on the possibility of seizing Kharg Island, a key oil terminal of Iran and a major cog in the country's economic machine.
Other options discussed included raids on coastal areas near the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively blocked by Iran, creating a bottleneck of oil and gas shipments and roiling world financial markets.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during a trip to Paris for the Group of Seven meeting (G7) said the United States will be able to achieve its war goals without the need for ground troops.
Trump himself has played down the possibility of ground troops, saying at one point that he was not planning to send troops "anywhere," although he appeared to leave open the possibility should it be required.
Putting ground troops into action would carry major risks -- both politically for the president and physically for those forces involved.