Pakistan is pressing to hold Iran peace talks in Islamabad this week, but the violence in the Middle East and harsh rhetoric between Washington and Tehran showed no letup, leaving bleak any hopes for a quick end to the war.
"Pakistan will be honored to host and facilitate meaningful talks between the two sides in coming days, for a comprehensive and lasting settlement of the ongoing conflict," Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said following March 29 meeting of the region’s top diplomats.
Washington and Tehran did not immediately comment on the proposed peace talks as the casualties and damages in the Middle East continued unabated. In a new development over the weekend, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen entered the fray, launching missiles toward Israel, including a third salvo early on March 30.
Iran's effective closing of the Strait of Hormuz -- through which some 20 percent of the world's oil and natural gas supplies pass -- remains one of the trickiest questions in any possible negotiations.
US President Donald Trump has demanded that Tehran allow ships to transit the waterway safely, while Iran says it will only allow ships from "nonhostile" nations to pass.
The developments come as thousands more US Marines arrived in the region, as Washington continued laying the groundwork for a possible land invasion of Iran, though US officials said no decisions have been made whether to invade.
With the US-Israeli war with Iran in its fifth week, Iran’s powerful parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf -- seen as a possible contender to lead the country after US-Israeli air strikes killed its leadership -- accused the United States of "secretly" planning a ground attack despite talking about peace.
"We are certain we can punish America and make it regret ever considering an attack on Iran," he said.
Iran late on March 29 launched a missile strike that injured at least 11 people in the desert city of Beersheba, Israeli authorities said. In one strike, a large fire broke out at a chemical plant on the outskirts of the city.
IRGC Threatens Universities
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said 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."
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.
The Israeli military, in its “24-hour recap,” said it had launched more than 140 air strikes on central and western Iran, including Tehran, over the 24 hours through the evening of March 29. It said ballistic missile launch sites and storage facilities, among other targets, were hit.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on March 29 said Iran's heavy-water reactor at Khondab, near the city of Arak, which Tehran reported had been attacked on March 27, has suffered severe damage and is no longer operational.
The Israeli military had said it struck the facility, officially known as the Khondab Heavy Water Research Reactor -- at least the second time the site had been hit following an Israeli air strike during the 12-day war in June 2025.
The reactor is part of a sprawling nuclear complex in central Iran that includes heavy-water production facilities, which allow Iran to use natural uranium as fuel without the need for high-level enrichment.
Tehran Power Outages
Isreal's military also said it carried out new strikes against sites linked to Iran's regime figures, but it did not provide specifics.
Iran's Energy Ministry said US and Israel strikes late on March 29 targeted power supply facilities in the capital, Tehran, leading to outages in several districts.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has instructed the army to advance further into southern Lebanon to expand what he called the "existing security strip."
Netanyahu said the goal was to prevent the threat posed by Iran-backed Hezbollah -- deemed a terrorist organization by the United States -- and the firing of rockets from the area.
"We are determined to fundamentally change the situation" in southern Lebanon, he said.
