Top diplomats from key regional powers gathered in Pakistan on Sunday to discuss how to end the fighting in the Middle East, but there were few signs of progress as Israel and the U.S. kept up strikes on Iran, and Tehran responded by firing missiles and drones across the region.
Pakistan said foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt were participating in the talks in Islamabad. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian held “extensive discussions” on regional hostilities.
More than 3,000 people have been killed throughout the monthlong war that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, triggering Iran's attacks on Israel and neighboring Gulf Arab states.
RELATED STORY | War spreads across Middle East as Iran, Houthis target Israel and US forces
The U.S. and Israel were not participating in the Islamabad talks. Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, dismissed the talks as a cover while the U.S. dispatches additional troops to the Middle East. He warned against any ground invasion and said Iran was ready to set American troops “on fire” and punish U.S. regional allies, according to Iranian state media.
Israel announced waves of incoming strikes from Iran on Sunday and explosions could be heard throughout Tehran.
Mideast leaders try to break impasse at weekend talks
Egypt’s Badr Abdelatty, Turkey’s Hakan Fidan and Saudi Arabia’s Prince Faisal Bin Farhan were in Islamabad as part of talks scheduled days after the U.S. offered Iran a 15-point “action list" as a framework for a possible peace deal. Abdelatty said the meetings were aimed at opening a “direct dialogue” between the U.S. and Iran, which have largely communicated through mediators during the war.
Yet during the talks, Iran has eased some restrictions on commercial ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. It agreed late Saturday to allow 20 more Pakistani-flagged vessels to transit the critical passageway, Pakistani officials said, adding to the select few it has let through as Iran works to choke but not cut off the strait entirely.
The weekend provided little sign of the talks narrowing the disconnect between the U.S. and Iran. U.S. officials have insisted the war may be nearing an inflection point but Iranian leaders continue to publicly reject negotiations.
To the contrary, the United States has dispatched thousands of additional Marines and paratroopers to the region. And the Iran-backed Houthis, who govern parts of Yemen, announced their long-awaited entry into the war, launching missiles toward what they called “sensitive Israeli military sites” for the first time on Saturday.
Despite the deployments, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that Washington “can achieve all of our objectives without ground troops” as domestic opposition grows to expanding the war to a potential ground invasion, including among Republicans.
Yet Iranian officials have rejected the U.S. framework and in public dismissed the idea of negotiating under pressure. Still, Press TV, the English-language arm of Iran’s state broadcaster, reported last week that Tehran drafted its own five-point proposal, citing an anonymous official. The plan reportedly called for a halt to killing Iranian officials, guarantees against future attacks, reparations and Iran’s “exercise of sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.”
Tehran threatens retaliatory strikes on Israeli and US universities
Iran on Sunday warned of additional escalation after Israeli airstrikes hit several universities, including ones that Israel claimed were used for nuclear research and development.
The paramilitary Revolutionary Guard warned in a statement that Iran would consider Israeli universities and branches of American universities in the region “legitimate targets” unless offered safety assurances for Iranian universities, state media reported.
American colleges including Georgetown, New York University and Northwestern have campuses in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
“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.
It also demanded the U.S. stop Israel from striking Iranian universities and research centers. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said on Saturday that dozens of universities and research centers have been hit, among them the Iran University of Science and Technology and Isfahan University of Technology.
Houthi involvement sparks concerns
Houthi Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said on the rebels' Al-Masirah satellite television station on Saturday that they launched missiles toward “sensitive Israeli military sites” in the south.
The group — which controls parts of Yemen — launched repeated attacks aimed at Israel and Red Sea shipping during the height of the Israel-Hamas war. Israeli strikes on Yemen last year killed the rebel-run government's prime minister and top military general.
If the Houthis again increased attacks on commercial shipping, it would further push up oil prices and destabilize “all of maritime security,” said Ahmed Nagi, a senior Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group. “The impact would not be limited to the energy market.”
Bab el-Mandeb, at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is crucial for vessels heading to the Suez Canal through the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia has been routing millions of barrels of crude oil a day through it because the Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed.
RELATED STORY | Iranian strike wounds at least 10 US troops and damages planes at Saudi air base, official says
Houthi rebels attacked more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels, between November 2023 and January 2025. They have held Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since 2014. Saudi Arabia launched a war against the Houthis on behalf of Yemen’s exiled government in 2015. They now have an uneasy ceasefire.
Death toll climbs
Iranian authorities say more than 1,900 people have been killed in the Islamic Republic, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel.
In Lebanon, where Israel has started an invasion in the south while targeting the Hezbollah militant group, officials said more than 1,100 people have been killed in the country since the start of the war.
In Iraq, where Iranian-supported militia groups have entered the conflict, 80 members of the security forces have died.
In Gulf states, 20 people have been killed. Four have been killed in the occupied West Bank.
