Celebration in Tehran, March 9, 2026, following the election of Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei
as the new Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran - Photo: Press TV

It is reported that Iran's speaker of parliament Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf will join Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in leading talks in Islamabad, Pakistani officials told Reuters on Thursday. Pakistan had previously urged the United States not to target either official and to allow negotiations to proceed. Referring to the unconscionable Israeli bombing of Lebanon, Ghalibaf on Thursday reiterated that "Lebanon and the entire Resistance Axis, as Iran's allies, form an inseparable part of the ceasefire". He added, "Ceasefire violations carry explicit costs and strong responses. Extinguish the fire immediately."

Mass rally in Baghdad opposing US/Israeli aggression against Iran, April 4, 2026

Iranian officials and military leadership issued co-ordinated warnings over Lebanon, praising resistance operations and signalling escalation if Israeli attacks continue despite the ceasefire framework. Iranian officials continue to stress that Lebanon is an integral part of ceasefire terms. Iranian officials have repeatedly stated that any ceasefire agreement must include Lebanon, framing ongoing Israeli strikes there as violations of the deal.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that maritime passage through the Strait of Hormuz would be possible during the ceasefire period only if the other side complies with its commitments, according to the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

For his part, Iran's president Masoud Pezeshkian said on X: "The repeated aggression by the Zionist entity against Lebanon is a flagrant violation of the initial ceasefire agreement and a dangerous indicator of deceit and lack of commitment to potential accords. The continuation of these aggressions will render negotiations meaningless; our hands will remain on the trigger, and Iran will never abandon its Lebanese brothers and sisters."

Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh also confirmed that Iran's participation in Islamabad talks remains conditional on halting Israeli aggression against Lebanon, noting that "any peace in the region must include Lebanon".

Israeli attacks across Lebanon have intensified dramatically. According to the Lebanese Civil Defence, at least 254 people were killed and 1,165 wounded in a single day, following approximately 150 airstrikes within two hours targeting Beirut, its southern suburbs, southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and Mount Lebanon. Iranian officials described these attacks as massacres and a clear violation of the ceasefire framework announced following US-Iran understandings.

Russia and China on Tuesday had vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution concerning the Strait of Hormuz, blocking a Bahrain-backed proposal. This was a blatantly unjust resolution presented by Bahrain and engineered by the US - which currently holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council - and its allies to attack Iran. Among other things, the resolution turns reality on its head, claiming that the victim, Iran, is the aggressor. It then illegitimately lays claim to "the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence in response to the deplorable armed attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran, as recognised by Article 51 of the United Nations Charter".

Protest against US Air Force using RAF Fairford to bomb Iran, March 7

Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, had strongly rejected the draft, describing it as fundamentally flawed and politically motivated. He said that the resolution "unjustifiably and misleadingly portrays Iran's lawful measures... as threats to international peace and security," according to reporting by The Washington Post.

Iravani emphasised that Iran's actions in the Strait of Hormuz fall under its "inherent right of self-defence in accordance with the UN Charter", rejecting claims that Tehran is responsible for destabilising maritime security. He also criticised the framing of the resolution, arguing that it ignored the broader context of the conflict, including recent military actions targeting Iran. In fact, Iran is selectively preventing passage of ships of the aggressors that are illegally bombing it, through a waterway for which it is responsible. For this it is "condemned" by the masters of deception and hypocrisy who have no legal or moral authority to tell anyone what they can or cannot do.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer, for his part, has on multiple occasions since late March and early April, spuriously insisted that Britain will not be drawn into the escalating US confrontation with Iran. His most widely cited formulation - "this is not our war" - is characteristic of Starmer's repeated effort to frame Britain as politically and militarily separate from the conflict. Yet this position sits alongside confirmed reports that the United States has been granted access to British-controlled military facilities, including RAF Fairford, Lakenheath and Diego Garcia, bases which form part of the operational infrastructure supporting US military activity.

Not only that, Starmer has maintained his cowardly silence in the face of the US/Israeli terrorist assassinations of Iran's political and military leaders, and the destruction of its civilian infrastructure and energy supplies. It underlines his utter moral bankruptcy. Starmer refuses to recognise that Iran has been acting in self-defence, a self-defence which has proved so effective.

The US imperialists in their desperation are openly practising extreme violence on a world scale yet they are sure to fail at placing the peoples of the world and their resources under their control. The peoples of the world, particularly the Muslim community, have a humanity, morality and integrity which makes this impossible. Iran and its people are showing the way. The world stands with the resistance and with the peoples of Iran, of Lebanon and of Palestine.

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