New York Times – Here’s What Happened in the War in the Middle East on Sunday
Diplomats from around the Mideast convened in Pakistan on Sunday for talks aimed at ending the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran that showed no signs of abating as it entered its second month.
The U.S., Israel and Iran were not part of the talks, and it was unclear whether any progress was made.
The speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, called the American 15-point plan to end the war, passed to Iran via Pakistan, an attempt to achieve through diplomacy what the United States had failed to achieve through force. Iranian forces were “waiting for American soldiers to enter on the ground so they can set them on fire,” he added.
Here’s what else happened on Sunday:
Iran: The U.S.-Israeli bombardment of Tehran continued on Sunday, a day after the Iranian capital suffered what the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said was one of the heaviest days of strikes since the war began on Feb. 28.
Among the sites hit was the Tehran headquarters of Al Araby TV, a network owned by a Qatari company, according to Iranian news agencies. The network said that the building housing the headquarters also contained several other businesses and that the strike had injured 10 people. U.S.-Israeli strikes also hit a southern Iranian port, killing at least five people, Iranian state media said.
The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed that Khondab Heavy Water Complex in Iran’s Markazi Province had been severely damaged and was no longer operational, after Iranian reports that it had been attacked on Friday. The complex did not contain any declared nuclear material, and there was no radiation risk, the agency said.
Lebanon: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said he had ordered his forces to increase the territory they control in southern Lebanon, saying that Israel was “determined to fundamentally change the situation” on the Israeli-Lebanese border. President Joseph Aoun of Lebanon has denounced the Israeli operation in southern Lebanon, particularly the destruction of bridges there, as dangerous escalations and a violation of Lebanese sovereignty.
Hundreds of people gathered in the rain in Beirut to mourn three Lebanese journalists killed in Israeli airstrikes over the weekend. An airstrike on an ambulance in Bint Jbeil, in southern Lebanon, also killed a paramedic, said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization. He said that 51 other Lebanese health workers had been killed since the start of Israel’s war with Hezbollah.
Persian Gulf: Saudi Arabia intercepted and destroyed 10 drones, its defense ministry said. The kingdom’s foreign minister met with his counterparts from Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan in Islamabad as part of Pakistan’s efforts to mediate the war.
Israel: Iran fired a series of ballistic missiles toward Israel. No casualties were reported, though the Israeli military said fragments from missile interceptions fell on an industrial park in southern Israel, causing a fire.
Israeli police prevented two senior Roman Catholic leaders from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, prompting outrage from church officials and world leaders. Israeli police late on Sunday said they were instituting a “limited” plan for prayer at the church, and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had instructed the authorities to give the Latin Patriarch “full and immediate access” to the church and to allow him “to hold services as he wishes.”
An Israeli soldier from the United States was killed in southern Lebanon in an incident that injured three other soldiers, the Israeli military said. It did not provide further details.