Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
27-03-2026
TEHRAN: Iran has named Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr as the new secretary of the Supreme National Security Council.
Iranian missiles have created impacts in several areas of Tel Aviv, causing major building damage and at least four casualties.
US President Donald Trump announced that discussions are ongoing with Iran to “determine whether a broader agreement can be reached”, saying that “this time, Iran means business; they want to settle. They want peace”.
Tehran denied that talks with the US are taking place, with Iran’s parliamentary speaker saying such claims are “fake news” and being “used to manipulate financial and oil markets”.
Despite Trump’s comments, US Central Command says US forces “continue to aggressively strike” targets in Iran, as Iranian missiles and drones continued to target Gulf countries including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait overnight.
Visit our live tracker for the latest casualty figures from across the region.
Trust ‘not important’ to begin Iran-US talks
As Pakistan today signalled readiness to host negotiations to end the war, Iran’s trust in the US or the lack of it, should not be a primary factor in potential talks, Ross Harrison, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute and author of Decoding Iran’s Foreign Policy, tells media.
Rather, the expert said, getting both sides to step off the escalation ladder should be the initial focus.
“Trust will be important at some point when you have to build confidence-building measures, assuming, down the road, that there are agreements and so forth but right now, I think each party has to know or trust that they have more to gain by negotiating than fighting,” he said.
Harrison said Tehran’s earlier participation in negotiations in the immediate prelude to the February 28 strikes by the US and Israel had been more for the benefit of Gulf States than for Washington.
“I think the negotiations were aimed, really, to some degree, at the Gulf Arab states to say: ‘Listen, we are trying to resolve this. You need to implore Donald Trump to not activate (his military).’ I don’t think even then they trusted him,” he said.
Trump claimed yesterday that his administration has had “very good and productive conversations” with Iranian authorities but senior officials in Tehran have flatly denied that.
Still, Tehran’s cessation of attacks on Qatar, for example, appears to be a signal that Iran is interested in de-escalation but the US and Israel have yet to provide similar signaling that any talks from this point are not a ruse, Harrison said.
Turkiye says no problem with gas flow from Iran
Turkiye’s Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar says there are no problems with natural gas flow from Iran and that the country’s storage facilities are 71 percent full, according to his comments to reporters after a cabinet meeting.
Turkish media quoted Bayraktar as saying, “There are no problems with the gas flow from Iran.” His comments came after an earlier media report that flows had stopped.
Hezbollah condemns expulsion of Iranian envoy from Lebanon
Hezbollah has condemned the Lebanese Foreign Ministry’s declaration of Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Reza Sheibani as persona non grata.
Hezbollah said in a statement that it “rejects” the decision, calling it “reckless and condemnable”. It said the order amounts to a “coup” and is a result of Lebanon’s government succumbing to pressure from foreign capitals.
The group said authorities in Lebanon ought to unite citizens in resisting Israel’s aggression in the country at this “highly dangerous time”. (Int’l News Desk)
