Tehran | Pakistan

TEHRAN: A massive fireball erupts after an oil depot was targeted by US-Israeli bombing. The destruction of refineries and storage facilities in Iran’s capital precipitated a toxic ‘oil rain’ over the city, with skies darkened by thick black smoke.—AFP • Capital plunges into darkness; residents warned of chemical burns, acrid fumes • Lebanon terrorised as Israeli strike targets Beirut hotel • Israel, Trump vow to pursue, kill any successor to Khamenei • Iran unleashes missiles on Gulf neighbours; Pezeshkian says they were ‘forced to respond’ • Arab League condemns ‘reckless’ Iranian attacks as diplomacy falters • Bahrain blames Tehran for attack on water plant TEHRAN: Residents of Iran’s capital awoke on Sunday to a darkened, apocalyptic sky as a black, oily rain fell, a day after Israeli airstrikes targeted refineries and fuel depots, plunging the sprawling metropolis into a toxic gloom. The nine-day-old war launched by a US-Israeli coalition against Iran has now engulfed much of the Middle East, with strike...

US President Donald Trump said he was considering a limited strike on Iran after ordering a major naval buildup in the Middle East aimed at heaping pressure on Tehran to cut a deal to curb its nuclear programme. The latest threat came after Iran’s foreign minister said a draft proposal for an agreement with Washington would be ready in a matter of days following negotiations between the two sides in Geneva earlier this week. Trump had suggested on Thursday that “bad things” would happen if Tehran did not strike a deal within 10 days, which he subsequently extended to 15. Asked by a reporter on Friday whether he was contemplating a limited military strike, Trump answered: “The most I can say — I am considering it.” After the talks in Geneva, Tehran said the two sides had agreed to submit drafts of a potential agreement, which Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told US media would be the “next step”. “I believe that in the next two, three days, that would be ready, and after final confirmation by my superi...

• FO backs Muscat dialogue, says Islamabad ‘ready to take part in any form of diplomacy’ on Iran • Confirms PM Shehbaz, FM Dar will attend ‘Board of Peace’ meeting in Washington next week • Pakistan ‘will stand by Muslim bloc to raise collective voice for Palestinians’ ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday urged the United States and Iran to move towards direct negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear programme. “Whilst we stand ready to participate in any format of dialogue and diplomacy on Iran, we encourage the relevant parties to have as direct a negotiation framework as possible,” Foreign Office spokesman Tahir Andrabi said at the weekly media briefing. The indirect Iran-US talks took place in Muscat on Feb 6 amid heightened regional tensions, including an expanded US military presence and warnings from President Donald Trump of severe consequences if no deal is reached. The session was mediated by Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who shuttled between the two sides. Both sides described the discussions as a “...

ISLAMABAD: Iran’s envoy to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam, revealed on Thursday that US President Donald Trump informed Tehran that he will not attack the country and asked that Iran also exercise restraint. Moghadam made the remarks during a visit to the National Rahmatul-lil-Alameen Authority, where he met the authority’s chairman, Khurshid Ahmad Nadeem. Protests have taken place across Iran in a movement sparked by anger over the rising cost of living, leading to authorities imposing internet restrictions. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene in support of protesters. On Wednesday, Trump said that he had been informed the killings of protesters in Iran had been halted, and added that he would “watch and see” about threatened military action. The Iranian envoy also disclosed that he received information at around 1am, which indicated that Trump did not want war and had asked Iran not to attack the US interests in the region. Speaking of the protests, the envoy maintained that the ...

Iran was laying plans on Saturday to cut off water supplies periodically to Tehran’s 10-million-strong population as it battles its worst drought in many decades. Rainfall in the capital has this year been at its lowest level in a century, local officials say, and half of Iran’s provinces have not seen a drop fall in months. Now, to save water, the government is planning water cuts in Tehran — and several local news outlets have already reported pipes running dry overnight in some areas. “This will help avoid waste even though it may cause inconvenience,” Iran’s Energy Minister Abbas Ali Abadi said on state television. In a speech broadcast on Friday, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian had warned that Tehran might have to be evacuated if no rain falls before the end of the year. But he gave no details about how such a vast operation would be conducted. Tehran nestles on the southern slopes of the Alborz mountains and has hot, dry summers usually relieved by autumn rains and winter snowfall. Iranians drink wat...

The inaugural flight of Mahan Air (W5-1184) successfully departed from Islamabad International Airport (IIAP) for Tehran on Thursday, marking the commencement of the Iranian carrier’s regular air service between the two capitals.

Tehran’s main source of drinking water is at risk of running dry within two weeks, state media warned on Sunday, owing to a historic drought. The Amir Kabir dam, one of five which provide drinking water for the capital, “holds just 14 million cubic metres of water, which is 8 per cent of its capacity,” the director of the capital’s water company, Behzad Parsa, was quoted as saying by the IRNA news agency. At that level, it can only continue to supply Tehran with water “for two weeks”, he said. The megacity of more than 10 million people is nestled against the southern slopes of the often snow-capped Alborz mountains, which soar as high as 5,600 metres and whose rivers feed multiple reservoirs. But the country is in the midst of its worst drought in decades. The level of rainfall in Tehran province was “nearly without precedent for a century,” a local official declared last month. A year ago, the Amir Kabir dam held back 86 million cubic metres of water, Parsa said, but there had been a “100pc drop in precipit...

Iran insists diplomacy is the only way to resolve a decades-long nuclear dispute with the West, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Iranian state TV on Monday, adding it was time for the West to choose “cooperation or confrontation” amid looming sanctions. Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3, launched a 30-day process on August 28 to reimpose United Nations sanctions, accusing Tehran of failing to abide by a 2015 deal with world powers aimed at preventing it from developing a nuclear weapon. Araqchi said he will meet with his European counterparts and the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, in New York this week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to discuss Iran’s nuclear programme. Two European diplomats told Reuters the meeting will be on Tuesday. “They have tested Iran repeatedly and know we do not respond to the language of pressure and threat,” Araqchi said. “I hope we can find a diplomatic solution in the coming days, otherwise, Tehran will take appropriate measures.” The E...

Iran’s foreign minister has held talks with Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, the Saudi foreign ministry said, two weeks after a ceasefire between regional rivals Iran and Israel began. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said his country hoped the truce would contribute to regional stability, and emphasised Riyadh’s position “in supporting dialogue through diplomatic means as a path to resolving disputes,” the ministry said in a post on X early on Wednesday. According to the Saudi ministry, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi “expressed his gratitude” to Riyadh for its condemnation of Israel’s attacks on Iran last month. Israel launched its unprecedented bombing campaign on Iran on June 13, targeting military and nuclear facilities as well as residential areas. The strikes killed more than 1,000 people in Iran, including senior military commanders and nuclear scientists, according to Tehran. Israel, in turn, was hit by waves of drone and missile fire from Iran, which Israeli authorities said left at lea...

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in an interview released on Monday that his country has “no problem” restarting nuclear talks with the United States, provided that trust can be reestablished between Washington and Tehran, and also accused Israel of attempting to assassinate him. The remarks, made during an interview with US journalist and former Trump confidante Tucker Carlson, came less than a month after Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign on June 13 against Iran and the US struck the Islamic republic’s nuclear facilities. The attacks took place days before Tehran and Washington were set to meet for a new round of nuclear talks, stalling negotiations that were aimed at reaching a deal over Iran’s atomic programme. “We see no problem in re-entering the negotiations,” the Iranian president said. “There is a condition … for restarting the talks. How are we going to trust the US again? “We re-entered the negotiations, then how can we know for sure that in the middle of the talks, the Isra...

Israel’s attack on the Evin prison in Iran’s capital, Tehran on June 23 killed 71 people, Iranian judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said on Sunday. At the end of an air war with Iran, Israel struck Tehran’s jail for political prisoners, in a demonstration that it was expanding its targets beyond military, civilian and nuclear sites to aim at symbols of Iran’s ruling system. According to Iranian health ministry figures, 610 people were killed on the Iranian side in the 12-day war, 13 of them children and 49 women, before a ceasefire went into effect last week. “In the attack on Evin prison, 71 people were martyred, including administrative staff, youth doing their military service, detainees, family members of detainees who were visiting them and neighbours who lived in the prison’s vicinity,” Jahangir said in remarks carried on the judiciary’s news outlet Mizan. Jahangir had previously said that part of Evin prison’s administrative building had been damaged in the attack, and people were killed and injur...

BEIRU: A member of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli air strike on Tehran alongside a member of an Iran-aligned Iraqi group, a senior Lebanese security source told Reuters and the Iraqi group said on Saturday. The source identified the Hezbollah member as Abu Ali Khalil, who had served as a bodyguard for Hezbollah’s […]

Posts from multiple users on social media platform X on Friday shared a video amid the outbreak of Israeli attacks on Iran, claiming that it allegedly showed a missile attack on Tehran. However, the footage dates back to October 2024 and shows Iranian airstrikes on Israel’s Nevatim airbase. Israel launched widescale strikes against Iran, saying it targeted nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders and that this was start of a prolonged operation to prevent Tehran from building an atomic weapon. Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards corps said its top commander, Hossein Salami, was killed and state media reported that the unit’s headquarters in Tehran had been hit. Additionally, at least six nuclear scientists were also killed along with civilians, as per reports. Today, an Israeli X user posted a video of missile attack on an unidentified location, with the following caption: “Crazy documentation from Iran, dozens of periods at the same time.” The post was viewed nearly 30,000 times....

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Saturday said he had received “elements” of a US proposal for a potential nuclear deal following five rounds of talks mediated by Oman, making the remarks the same day a report by the International Atomic Energy agency (IAEA) exposed Tehran’s nuclear activity. Tensions between Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog have repeatedly flared since a 2015 deal curbing Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief fell apart. Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi “paid a short visit to Tehran today to present elements of a US proposal which will be appropriately responded to in line with the principles, national interests and rights of the people of Iran,” Araghchi said on X. Iran stepped up its production of highly enriched uranium in recent months, said a confidential report by the watchdog, seen by AFP earlier on Saturday. It said in its quarterly report that it is of “serious concern” that Iran has an estimated amount of 408.6 kilogrammes enriched to up to 60 p...

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has arrived in Tehran on a two-day visit to Iran.