Iran | Pakistan

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is dead, the Gulf is on fire, and global markets are in chaos. One weekend, precisely the last of February and the first of March 2026, changed everything. We are now living in the midst of a war that is escalating with every airstrike, missile and bomb. It began on Feb 28, when the United States and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran in a massive operation to destroy the country’s military and nuclear capabilities. Tehran responded with missile and air strikes across the Middle East, including in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Israel. Iran has also vowed to hit the US and Israel with a force “never seen before”. Meanwhile, in a video address earlier today, President Donald Trump warned Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to lay down arms or “face certain death”. He added that America was standing with the people of Iran. But how did we get here? Here is a timeline: 2025: The Iran-Israel standoff Even though the roots of the matter go back a lo...

Trump administration officials acknowledged in closed-door briefings with congressional staff on Sunday that there was no intelligence suggesting Iran planned to attack United States forces first, two people familiar with the matter said. The US and Israel launched their most ambitious attacks on Iran in decades on Saturday, assassinating Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sinking Iranian warships and hitting more than 1,000 targets so far, officials say. But Sunday’s remarks to Congress appeared to undercut one of the key arguments for the war made by senior administration officials. They told reporters the day before that US President Donald Trump decided to launch the attacks in part because of indicators that Iranians might strike US forces in the Middle East “perhaps preemptively”. Trump, one of the officials said, was not going to “sit back and allow American forces in the region to absorb attacks”. Pentagon briefings lasted more than 90 minutes Pentagon officials briefed Democratic and Republican s...

US President Donald Trump has claimed that joint US-Israel strikes have killed at least 48 senior Iranian officials, including the country’s Supreme Leader, asserting that much of Iran’s leadership has been decimated and several officials are seeking to surrender.

Oil prices surged by as much as 13 per cent on Monday after shipping in the crucial Strait of Hormuz was disrupted by retaliatory Iranian attacks following initial bombing by Israel and the United States that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Brent crude futures rose to as much as $82.37 a barrel, the highest since January 2025, before retreating to be up $5.41, or 7.4pc, to $78.28 by 06:05. US West Texas Intermediate crude climbed to an intraday high of $75.33, up over 12pc and the highest since June, though it later pared gains and was up $4.74, or 7.1pc, at $71.76. Both benchmarks jumped as a sustained exchange of counterattacks damaged tankers and sharply disrupted shipments in the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway between Iran and Oman that connects the Gulf to the Arabian Sea. On a typical day, ships carrying oil equal to about one-fifth of global demand from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, Iran, and Kuwait sail through the Strait along with tankers hauling diesel, jet fuel, and gasoline and...

Authorities have closed several major roads in Karachi as a precautionary measure ahead of possible protests following the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei in reported US-Iran airstrikes.

Defense Minister Khawaja Asif on Sunday described the recent attacks on Iran as “extremely regrettable,” saying they have left every Pakistani deeply saddened.

• Israeli military says ‘unaware of the attack’ • US claims strike reports being looked into • Malala urges all states, parties to ‘safeguard schools’ PARIS: The death toll from the Israeli strikes that hit a girls’ school in southern Iran surged to 148, with nearly 100 others wounded, Al Jazeera reported. While Iranian officials claimed the attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in the Minab city killed more than 100 people, neither the United States nor Israel confirmed that any such attack has taken place. Israel’s military on Sunday said it was “not aware” of any US or Israeli strike on any school in Iran. When asked about the strikes on school, Israel’s military spokesman Lt-Col Nadav Shoshani said, “At this point not aware of an Israeli or an American strike there… We’re operating in an extremely accurate manner.” However, The New York Times later quoted a CENTCOM spokesperson as saying: “We are aware of reports concerning civilian harm resulting from ongoing military operations. We ta...

KARACHI/LAHORE/GILGIT/ISLAMABAD/DI KHAN: Ten people were killed in Karachi and two in Islamabad as protests erupted countrywide against the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli attacks. The situation warranted Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi to issue an appeal, urging people to remain peaceful. “Today is a sorrowful day for the entire Muslim ummah, Pakistan’s public and Iran’s public,” he said in a video statement. Stating that every Pakistani citizen was as aggrieved as Iranians, Naqvi said, “My only request is that we all stand with you, but please do not take the law into your hands. You may protest but peacefully.” Karachi clashes In Karachi, protesters clashed with law enforcement personnel near the US Consulate on Mai Kolachi Road. Law enforcement personnel resorted to teargas shelling and baton-charge to control the situation. Subsequently, Section 144 was also extended across Sindh. According to the Home Department, all kinds of wall chalking, protests, demonstra...

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has ordered its stock markets closed on Monday and Tuesday as the country reels from Iran’s retaliatory missile and drone strikes, in a sign of the growing economic disruption sweeping the Gulf. Iran carried out the strikes in Gulf countries that have US bases and assets after joint attacks on the Islamic republic by Israel and America. The UAE Capital Markets Authority said the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and Dubai Financial Market would remain shut on March 2 and March 3, citing its supervisory and regulatory role over the country’s capital markets. “The Authority will continue to monitor developments in the region and assess the situation on an ongoing basis, taking any further measures as necessary,” it said in a statement. The UAE’s two exchanges are home to some of the region’s most valuable listed companies. The closure keeps billions of dollars in listed assets in suspension as investors await clarity on the scale of damage from Saturday and Sunday’s strikes, which hit...

Brent crude jumped 10 per cent to about $80 a barrel over the counter on Sunday, oil traders said, while analysts predicted that prices could climb as high as $100 after US and Israeli strikes on Iran plunged the Middle East into a new war. The global oil benchmark has rallied this year and reached $73 a barrel on Friday for its highest since July, buoyed by growing concern over the potential attacks that arrived a day later. Futures trading is closed over the weekend. “While the military attacks are themselves supportive for oil prices, the key factor here is the closing of the Strait of Hormuz,” said Ajay Parmar, director of energy and refining at ICIS. Most tanker owners, oil majors and trading houses have suspended crude oil, fuel and liquefied natural gas shipments via the Strait of Hormuz, trade sources said, after Tehran warned ships against moving through the waterway. More than 20pc of global oil is moved through the Strait of Hormuz. Middle East leaders have warned Washington that a war on Iran coul...

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan struck a delicate balance at a tense UN Security Council meeting on Saturday, condemning unwarranted attacks on Iran, expressing solidarity with Gulf states, and urging an immediate return to negotiations and diplomacy. The Council’s emergency session examined the repercussions of the US and Israeli air strikes on Iran and laid bare the deep divisions within the 15-member body over the escalating crisis. Speaking at the meeting, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, outlined Islamabad’s growing concern as the situation in the Middle East becomes more complex with each new development. “Pakistan condemns the initiation of unwarranted attacks against the Islamic Republic of Iran, in violation of international law,” the ambassador said. At the same time, he stressed that Pakistan also “condemns the attacks against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and stands in solidarity with all these brotherly count...

On the international chessboard, no piece can move as freely as the United States. It moves vertically, horizontally and diagonally, across any number of squares. Regime change in Venezuela, blockades on Cuba, strikes on Iran, all within a few months. It can move north, east, south and west. And Iran? Iran is the opposing king trapped in a corner by not only the king and rook (Israel), but also its own pawns — the many factions inside Iran that the Israelis have been funding to rise up against it. A war against it from abroad and at home. In refusing to capitulate, the Iranians have decided they would rather die on their feet than be checkmated on their knees in front of their rivals. The opening gambit By the day prior to the strikes, the US had at least 50 per cent of its deployable air power around the Middle East poised to attack Iran, including more than 250 combat aircraft. As Professor Pape from the University of Chicago notes, the US had never deployed this much force against a potential enemy and not...

Airspace across 10 countries has been shut following the Iran–Israel war, disrupting thousands of flights and leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded worldwide.

The assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader and Marjai Taqleed for millions of Shia Muslims, in coordinated US-Israeli airstrikes marks a turning point not only for the Islamic Republic of Iran but for the wider West Asian region. His assassination removes a figure who for more than three decades stood at the apex of Iran’s political, military and religious order. Yet those expecting the immediate collapse of the Iranian system may be misreading both its structure and its history. Ayatollah Khamenei was not merely a head of state. As Supreme Leader, he exercised ultimate authority over foreign policy, the armed forces and the direction of the revolution. As Marjai Taqleed, a source of emulation in Shia jurisprudence, he embodied religious legitimacy that extended beyond Iran’s borders. His passing, therefore, creates a vacuum that is institutional as much as personal. Under Iran’s constitution, an interim council comprising President Masoud Pezeshkian, the judiciary chief, and a cleric ...

108 killed in Israeli strike on girls school in Iran

Islamabad - The outbreak of conflict between Israel and the United States against Iran, triggered by joint US-Israeli strikes across Iran, has drawn frantic calls for calm as deep consternation spreads across globe.

The United States and Israel launched a wave of strikes against targets in Iran on Saturday, triggering explosions in the capital Tehran and an escalation across the region. “We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally — again — obliterated. We’re going to annihilate their navy,” said US President Donald Trump in an address from his Florida home posted to his Truth Social platform. On the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation aimed to “remove the existential threat posed by the terrorist regime in Iran”, and urged Iranians to overthrow the Islamic Republic’s clerical leadership. In response to the Israel-US aggression, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran later in the day confirmed the launch of the “first wave” of missile and drone attacks against Israel in response to the strikes on its territory. Political figures and analysts in Pakistan have condemned the recent developments, particularly criticising ...

Countries in the Middle East and around the world were watching with bated breath after the United States and Israel carried out long-feared strikes on Iran on Saturday. Trump: ‘annihilate’ US President Donald Trump vowed that the strikes would cripple Iran’s military and urged Iranians to rise up against the Islamic republic. “We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally — again — obliterated. We’re going to annihilate their navy,” Trump said in the address from his Florida home posted to his Truth Social platform. Calling on Iranians to stand up to their government, Trump added: “The hour of your freedom is at hand.” But he also warned that “the lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties”. Netanyahu ‘cast off the yoke’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation aimed to “remove the existential threat posed by the terrorist regime in Iran”, and urged Iranians to overthrow the Islamic republic’s cleri...

In the wake of reported joint air strikes by Israel and the United States on Iran, the Pakistan government has directed aviation authorities to closely monitor the country’s airspace and adopt precautionary measures.

The UN nuclear watchdog issued a confidential report on Friday urging Iran to let it inspect all its nuclear sites and pointing at Isfahan as a place of interest because of a new enrichment plant and near-bomb-grade uranium that was stored there. The report was sent to members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ahead of a quarterly meeting next week of its 35-country board, amid nuclear talks between the United States and Iran, the latest round of which was held on Thursday with no breakthrough. Like previous IAEA reports, it could be used by Washington to support its argument that Tehran has not been transparent about its nuclear activities, at a time when US President Donald Trump has massed forces in the region and threatened new military action. The United States and Israel bombed Iranian nuclear sites last June, and Iran has since refused to show what happened to its stockpile of highly enriched uranium or allow IAEA inspectors access to sites where enrichment took place. “While the Agency ...